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The Men of Corn
Part II
The twins
The mural shows us a maiden named Ixquic, who can be appreciated resting next to a corn plant.
According to Popol Vuh, she approached an enchanted tree that produced gourds when she touched one of them, then the head of the god called Hun Hunahpu appeared and spat out the palm of her hand, enchanting maiden Ixquic who became pregnant at that moment.
Eventually, Ixquic gives birth to the twins Hunahpu and Ixbalanqué, who were born from this spell and, as they grew up, would develop many skills as great players of the Maya ball game who used to play all day long.
On the other hand, the gods of the Xibalba -or underworld- were angry because the twins did not let them rest, and then they challenged the twins to play in their subterrestrial domains.
Twins at the end of the game overcame them and returned triumphant from the underworld. As reward, the gods transformed them into the Sun and the Moon. This chapter illustrates a part of the mural.
"The Men of Corn" remind us of the oldest evidence of corn in Mexico that dates back 7,000 years and was found in the Tehuacán Valley of the State of Puebla.
This artwork authored by Jesús Álvarez Amaya (1925-2010), a Mexican painter, engraver, and muralist, whose work was inspired by the passages of the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya, and from the book: "Educators of the World" by Yucatecan writer Ignacio Magaloni Duarte, published in 1969, who stated in the theory that "Mayans had a social organization based on the observation of cosmos and movements of the nature".
Master Álvarez Amaya worked alongside one of the greatest Mexican painters and muralists, Diego Rivera, on the mural of the Teatro Insurgentes in Mexico City and on the figures of the UNAM University Olympic Stadium.
Among some of his most famous works, we can mention the "Postal Communication mural" in the Vicente Guerrero Library of the Alameda del Sur Park in the Coyoacán Municipality of Mexico City, which measures 80 square meters.
