{"id":5294,"date":"2025-10-01T16:52:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/?page_id=5294"},"modified":"2025-10-15T14:39:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:39:05","slug":"spijilal-otan-knowledges-or-epistemologies-of-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/spijilal-otan-knowledges-or-epistemologies-of-the-heart\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Juan L\u00f3pez Intz\u00edn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Zapatista Heart. Photo: Diana Taylor. Courtesy Diana Taylor<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan: Knowledges or Epistemologies of the Heart<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Juan L\u00f3pez Intz\u00edn<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Translated from Spanish by Marl\u00e8ne Ram\u00edrez-Cancio and Margot Olavarria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brief Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I want to begin by contextualizing the \u201cin-surgence\u201d\u00b9 of the sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan<\/em>, a Tseltal Maya concept that could be translated as \u201cknowledges or epistemologies of the heart.\u201d It is extremely important for me to situate the emergence and \u201cin-surgence\u201d of the term in a complex context within the sociocultural, political, and epistemological struggle of our expansive present. Tseltal Mayan language and culture are found in Southern Mexico, in the highlands and jungles of the state of Chiapas. I come from this accomplished civilization, whose language\u2014part of the Mayan language family\u2014is spoken daily by more than 400,000 people in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The In-surgence of Sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The reflection and \u201cin-surgence\u201d of sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan, <\/em>or knowledges or epistemologies of the heart, within academic contexts, began when we started to think and rethink our place in the cosmos. In this process, we realized that we had forgotten a cosmos, that our heart was displaced and misplaced, and that we had to \u201cmake our heart return\u201d to this forgotten cosmos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A first stage of making the heart return <\/em>to the forgotten cosmos began in the early 1990s, when I decided to abandon a path that was leading me to what I called \u201cspiritual colonization.\u201d During that same decade, and more specifically in 1994, the Zapatista movement erupted under the slogan \u201cNever Again a Mexico Without Us,\u201d posing the political-epistemological challenge of constructing \u201ca world that can hold many worlds\u2026 that can hold all peoples and their languages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These historical events led me to \u201cin-think\u201d (in-pensar)<\/em> Tseltal Maya life, and to recognize the ways we weave our thoughts. This type of reflection then led me to a larger discovery, which we as a people have internalized over several centuries. I am referring to our condition as colonized subjects and peoples since the Conquest; our thoughts are at once negated and instrumentalized. I have called this imposed historical condition a \u201cprocess of domestication\u201d; \u201cde-domestication\u201d is a permanent antinomy in our communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The act of thinking and rethinking our place in the world and the cosmos has led us, since the 1990s, to situate our heart. We began to in-think<\/em> (in-pensar) that is, to think and reflect from within, using our own Tseltal Mayan terms. Naturally, the \u201cin-surgence\u201d of Tseltal terms was not an easy reflection. The reason for this was, and continues to be, the historical and epistemological process of colonization we have endured as a people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Mechanisms of Forgetting and Displacement of the Heart<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From Forgetting to the Acts of Making the Heart Return. <\/em> In 1992, I realized we had forgotten the cosmos after someone shook my being and my consciousness with a single phrase: \u201cpinche indio\u201d (goddamn Indian). I already knew the term \u201cIndian\u201d had negative and derogatory connotations. As we know, since the Conquest and the colonial period, the term \u201cIndian\u201d has been a political category used to insult and exterminate the \u201cothers.\u201d The \u201cothers\u201d were and are the people who lived on this land before colonization. Many of the people of the past are the people of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 12, 1992\u2014while a mestizo <\/em>person was calling me a \u201cgoddamn Indian\u201d\u2014thousands of Maya peasant women and men were marching in the city of San Crist\u00f3bal de Las Casas to protest the 500th anniversary of the Spanish invasion of our ancestral lands.\u00b2 When the crowd arrived at the statue of Spanish captain Diego de Mazariegos, conqueror and founder of San Crist\u00f3bal de Las Casas, a group tore down the statue of the colonizer. The statue stood in front of the monumental Catholic church of Santo Domingo, which had been run by Dominican friars since the colonial period. Both the statue of Diego Mazariegos and the church represent an affront to our history as a people. What exactly was stirring at the core of our heart? Something was emerging in both our individual and our collective heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our imposed historical condition. <\/em>From the moment our lands were conquered, our people\u2019s life-worlds split in two, and there were religious, political, judicial, linguistic, and epistemological ruptures in our worldview. Through the Enconmiendas<\/em>, a form of slavery that exploited indigenous labor, the colonizers evangelized and transmitted European rules and customs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They imposed their Judeo-Christian religion, banning the spiritual practices of the conquered peoples\u2014although some elements clandestinely survived. They established a system of government, along with a new social order, dictated by imperial law. Our systems of economic exchange were transformed. Spanish was imposed as the official language of Mexico, and it remained so until 2003, when the native languages that survived the long process of linguistic extermination acquired a \u201cconstitutional standing,\u201d which is only valid at the local and regional levels.\u00b3  <\/sup>In the epistemic arena, our sources of knowledge and history were burned and destroyed. The codices we know today survived only because they had been stolen by colonizers. They characterized our knowledge as superstition. They even questioned if native people were endowed with reason and souls. Across the Americas, native communities suffered the same fate, except for those who allied themselves with the invaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The colonizer\u2019s supremacy was imposed through destruction and subjection, as Fray Bartolom\u00e9 de Las Casas wrote in A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. <\/em>In this emblematic work, he shows how the colonizers carried out a systematic extermination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the socio-historical context mentioned above in broad strokes, as well as our individual and collective experience, have been our starting point. They have led us to the avatars of scrutiny of our collective being. It was devastating to realize that the indigenous spirit \u201cwas defeated and subjugated\u201d only by the power of the colonizers\u2019 weapons, given that the \u201cmeeting of two worlds\u201d\u2014as the Mexican educational system taught us to celebrate on October 12, D\u00eda de la Raza<\/em>\u2014was a brutal clash between two or many worlds with totally different imaginaries and ways of knowing, in a total asymmetry between civilizations. We understood that much of what we are today as collective subjects had been a socio-historical imposition by hegemonic colonial power. Their leaders and soldiers domesticated our bodies and spirits through the force of whips and swords, while the clergy used persuasion to \u201cpeacefully\u201d colonize our hearts and minds. If we are a domesticated people, is \u201cde-domestication\u201d possible? What would that be like, and how do we do it? We needed to immerse ourselves in the \u201cdeep Mexico,\u201d as Guillermo Bonfil Batalla called the Mexico of our native people, with its own civilization, its \u201cother\u201d imaginaries, and its own systems of thought. These have\u2014we have\u2014always been here, although the \u201cOther,\u201d in this case the Mexican State, has considered us a problem to be defeated on all fronts: cultural, linguistic, political, economic, judicial, and epistemic-educational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Discouragement to the In-surgence of Ch\u2019ulel<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoddamn Indian\u201d shook me to my core. It was a verbal insult that made me arrive at, or awaken to, my own consciousness. This expression is used by Spanish speakers throughout the Americas, so I can assert that we indigenous people have, as a whole, been labeled \u201cgoddamn Indians.\u201d Despite the fact that abuse and contempt crush our spirit, those situations often bring us to consciousness and \u201cmake our heart return\u201d to the forgotten cosmos. In Tseltal Mayan we call this return: xjul xch\u2019ulel<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The colonial invasion imposed a new reality and new imaginaries for indigenous peoples of Mexico\u2014and for pre-Hispanic peoples throughout the Americas\u2014and our life-worlds suffered a rupture in everyday existence and in their very being. By attending the various rituals of different Maya communities in Chiapas, I reaffirmed my grandparents\u2019 teaching-learning, and I can now attest to the fact that the Mapuches, the Aymaras, as well as indigenous peoples from North America, all share a similar concept: the existence of ch\u2019ulel <\/em>in every living being. They would therefore have to be given ich\u2019el ta muk\u2019 <\/em>(respect) for a lekil kuxlejal<\/em> (a plentiful, dignified and just life). In the following section, I outline some definitions of ch\u2019ulel <\/em>to better understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definitions of Chu\u2019lel<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First definition<\/em>: ch\u2019ulel <\/em>has to do with the primary essence of existence; we could also call it vital power or energy. Both human and non-human beings have ch\u2019ulel<\/em>, which means that all existing beings have ch\u2019ulel<\/em>. This notion of life exceeds Western or scientific classifications, which is based on the existence of animate and inanimate beings. In the Tseltal Maya understanding of life, human beings, as well as plants, animals, minerals, water, oxygen, and other existing elements all have ch\u2019ulel<\/em>. It is ch\u2019ulel<\/em> that makes us interact in the vast field of nature and existence. From the micro to the macro, we interact and mutually affect each other. Ch\u2019ulel <\/em>is what places us in the cosmos among other beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second definition<\/em>: We also refer to the process of language acquisition by infants, when they begin naming the things that surround them, as xjul xch\u2019ulel<\/em>. There is a slight variation in ch\u2019ulel<\/em>: The \u201cx\u201d before ch\u2019ulel <\/em>indicates that it refers to a third person. Ch\u2019ulel <\/em>is still recognized in people who do not acquire or develop spoken language skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third definition<\/em>: We also use the term to refer to a type of consciousness or a notion of reality. When a person\u2019s conscience is in an altered state due to substances, for example, we say ch\u2019ayem xch\u2019ulel<\/em>, meaning they have lost their ch\u2019ulel<\/em>, they\u2019re not in possession of the five traditionally known senses. We could also say ch\u2019ayem yo\u2019tan<\/em>, meaning that their heart is lost. But it could also be a distraction by which a person isn\u2019t fully themselves. When the person returns to normal, we say julix Xch\u2019ulel <\/em>or kuxix Yo\u2019tan<\/em>, meaning that their ch\u2019ulel <\/em>has returned, or their heart has been revived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth definition<\/em>: This definition of ch\u2019ulel<\/em> has a social or collective character, that is, a socio-communal ch\u2019ulel<\/em>. It includes family, community, and other spaces of social interaction. Family and community spaces have existing life practices. So this type of ch\u2019ulel <\/em>is a historical construct, a part of our collective memory, the accumulation of knowledge that is transmitted and recreated from generation to generation. As historical memory, it includes a consciousness of the pain caused by past and present injustices. When collective subjects want to transform the socio-historical conditions that have brought them to their current condition, an insurgent ch\u2019ulel <\/em>emerges\u2014as we saw in 1994 with the Zapatista uprising. All these experiences live and are cultivated in the O\u2019tan<\/em>-heart and thus become sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan<\/em>. They become ways of thinking, acting, and being in the world. Sometimes they are our own, sometimes they are adopted and imposed, but they all are changeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan<\/em>: Knowledges or Epistemologies of the Heart<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the ancestral teachings of Tseltal Maya elders is that everything in existence must be given ich\u2019el ta muk\u2019 <\/em>because everything has ch\u2019ulel. <\/em>If they are not treated with ich\u2019el ta muk\u2019, \u201cya x-ok\u2019 yo\u2019tan sok ya x-ok\u2019 xch\u2019ulel<\/em>,\u201d as we say in Tseltal. That is, their heart and ch\u2019ulel <\/em>weep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we can see in the paragraph above, beyond ch\u2019ulel<\/em>, another element is incorporated: O\u2019tan<\/em>. This appears when we say we have to give ich\u2019el ta muk\u2019 <\/em>to everything in existence, as previously mentioned in the third definition of ch\u2019ulel. <\/em>As already noted, the literal translation of O\u2019tan <\/em>is heart. We could think that when we mention the O\u2019tan<\/em>-heart, we are talking about an organ, or the physical, material body, and that ch\u2019ulel <\/em>is a spirit, an immaterial metaphysical entity. But when we talk about O\u2019tan<\/em>-heart we do not mean the organ. It is a metaphor, an image or space, a being or entity that feels and thinks. It could be the subject itself, as can be seen in this everyday dialogue between Tseltal people, which I cited in a 2011 article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bixi awo\u2019tan<\/em> (What does your heart say?), Lekbal ay awo\u2019tan<\/em> (Is your heart well?), Mame xa mel awo\u2019tan<\/em> (May your heart not be sad), Ma xch\u2019ayat ta ko\u2019tan<\/em> (I do not lose you in my heart or I do not forget you), Kuxix ko\u2019tan <\/em>(My heart rested or resuscitated), Tse\u2019el ko\u2019tan yu\u2019un ya kilbet asit<\/em> (My heart laughs because I see your eyes), K\u2019uxat ta ko\u2019tan <\/em>(You hurt in my heart or I love you), Yutsil ko\u2019tantik<\/em> (The kindness of our heart), Ya jnop ta ko\u2019tantik <\/em>(We think or meditate with and in our heart), A\u2019yantaya ta awo\u2019tan<\/em> (Discuss it in your heart), Nopa sok ajaol awo\u2019tan<\/em> (Think with your mind and heart) (L\u00f3pez Intz\u00edn 2011).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I just want to clarify in the above quote that O\u2019tan <\/em>appears in different possessive forms: awo\u2019tan <\/em>(your heart), ko\u2019tan <\/em>(my heart), and ko\u2019tantik <\/em>(our heart). So we can find other expressions with possessive forms for third person singular and plural. The O\u2019tan <\/em>element never varies. From a linguistic perspective, O\u2019tan <\/em>appears as a noun. It is not always so; in particular expressions it implies or indicates action (doing something), for example: ya ko\u2019tanin snopel jun, teantse ya yo\u2019tantay sna yawil,<\/em> or ya yo\u2019tanin slumalik te jme\u2019tik jtatike<\/em>. These idiomatic Tseltal expressions allude to having to do things with heart and surrendering ourselves with heart; in other words, we have to completely dedicate, concentrate, and surrender ourselves with heart when carrying out an act or action in time and space. We have to carry out the act of yo\u2019taninel spasel-smeltsanel <\/em>(\u201cenhearting\u201d the process of doing-constructing), as I cite in the same 2011 article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[\u2026] Everything is \u201cenhearted\u201d (Todo se corazona). The acts of thinking \u2013 yo\u2019taninel snopel<\/em> \u2013 and doing are enhearted \u2013 yo\u2019taninel spasel-smeltsanel<\/em>. And just as thinking and knowing are enhearted, it is also said that knowledge and understanding are felt by what we think-feel or feel-think with the heart\u2026 If we enheart feeling-thinking and feeling-knowing, it makes us different from \u201cOthers.\u201d We belong to another ts\u2019umbalil<\/em> (culture), and are perhaps so different in our construction, naming, and relationship with the cosmos-world\u2026 that we use both heart and mind, love and reason, leading us to knowledge-p\u2018ijilal<\/em>\u2026 In this way, the coupling of heart and mind\u2014love, passion, and reason\u2014more than a disputed dichotomy is a complementary notion that shapes Tseltal Maya rationality. We feel in order to think and we think in order to feel, so that any creative act passes through reason, and any rationality travels through our heart and feelings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With regard to the above, the O\u2019tan<\/em>-heart becomes a space and center in the in-corporation of people\u2019s everyday life experiences and the source of our culturally situated knowledges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fields of Cultural Knowledges<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan <\/em>does not simply name what we know from experiences accumulated throughout history. It also refers to a constellation of practices, concrete modes of community life\u2014ways of being in and with the cosmos. They imply rationality from ich\u2019el ta muk\u2019, <\/em>recognizing the greatness and dignity of all that exists. It is the art of knowing and recognizing oneself in \u201cotherness,\u201d and the art of survival by creating different systems and fields for caring for life. Listed below are the systems we believe to be comprised in sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Systems of care and healing that include: midwifery, herbalist medicine, healing through prayer, ritual chants, development of various instruments and their use for different purposes, healing chants. Diagnosis and treatment of different illnesses and their treatments.<\/li>
  2. Dreams.<\/li>
  3. The care and preservation of seeds and different food crops.<\/li>
  4. Ritual cycles for the care of water, sown land, forests, etc.<\/li>
  5. Systems for numbering and counting time.<\/li>
  6. Pre-conquest and contemporary designs representing the cosmos in textiles and pottery.<\/li>
  7. Recognition of the lunar cycle for such activities such as planting crops and cutting down trees.<\/li>
  8. The art of resistance and \u201cjoyous rebellion.\u201d<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    These are just some fields or systems included in sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan. <\/em>There are more, however, and one of them\u2014the notion of \u201cbeing well\u201d\u2014is ethical in nature, and relates to good external behavior, to ich<\/em>\u2019el ta muk\u2019 <\/em>(the recognition and respect for the greatness of existence), and to lekil kuxlejal <\/em>(a plentiful, just, and dignified life).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Below, I broadly outline the art of resistance and \u201cjoyous rebellion,\u201d or what I have called \u201cPolitical epistemology of the heart and the Zapatista Caracoles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As we know, in 1994 the Maya were part of the indigenous movement known as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, by its acronym in Spanish), which broke through the veil of forgetting, injustice, negation, and contempt that has lasted 500 years. They established centers of political operations first called Aguascalientes and later renamed, in August 2003, Zapatista Caracoles <\/em>(snails). When announcing the transformation of Aguascalientes into Caracoles, the EZLN issued this statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [\u2026] They say it is said that they used to say that the caracol represents the journey into the heart, which is what the ancestors called knowledge. And they say it is said that they used to say that the caracol also represents the journey out of the heart and into the world, which is what the ancestors called life. And not only that, they say it is said that they used to say that would summon the collective using the caracol, so that words were relayed from one person to another to arrive at an agreement. And they also say it is said that they used to say that the caracol helped the ear hear even the most distant words. That is what they say it is said that they used to say [\u2026] (Subcomandante Marcos 2003, 2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    As the quote points out, the EZLN\u2019s decision to rename their political centers was a way of reclaiming heritage; their collective gaze turned to what is properly Maya and indigenous, symbolized by the snail and its relationship to history, the heart, and knowledge. Therefore, in confronting the world, Caracoles <\/em>have a political-epistemological turn; now they are houses or spaces for encounters and dialogue, bridges that connect worlds through recognition and respect:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [\u2026] So the \u201cCaracoles\u201d will be like doors to enter communities, and for communities to exit; like windows to see within ourselves and to look outside; like speakers to carry our words far and to hear those who are far. But most of all, to remember that we should be vigilant and alert to the fullness of the worlds that populate the world (12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    This announcement speaks of the purposes of the Zapatista Caracoles<\/em>, of their origins, but also of the Zapatistas\u2019 way of being\u2014that they are rebellious, disobedient, and that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [\u2026] When they are expected to speak, they are silent. When they are expected to be silent, they speak. When they are expected to lead, they stand back. When they are expected to stay back, they take off in a different direction. When they are expected to speak only of themselves, they start speaking of other things. When they are expected to conform to their geography, they walk through the world and its struggles (1).<\/p>

    So they\u2019re not making anyone happy. And it seems they don\u2019t care about much of anything. What they do care about is making their own heart happy, and so they follow the paths of their heart\u2026 (2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    The paths of the Zapatista O\u2019tan<\/em> have been very \u201cother.\u201d They are new knowledges or epistemologies of the heart, with an insurgent ch\u2019ulel<\/em>. In recent times, they have dialogued and \u201cepistemologized\u201d with people in the hard sciences, bringing them together to issue a challenge: celebrating the two consciousnesses. The Zapatistas have done so much since their emergence; they have gathered many different groups and sectors, both from Mexican society and from other parts of the planet, to construct other paradigms against what has been called the capitalist hydra. Sometimes they are teachers, and other times they are students obeying what their O\u2019tan <\/em>tells them. The O\u2019tan<\/em> has been the source of ways of knowing that have built new life-horizons\u2014a political struggle from the joyous rebellion and the art of resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    By Way of Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    To understand the presence and meaning of O\u2019tan <\/em>in our thinking and our worldview (our view of the cosmos), we must immerse ourselves in our history, understanding our origins as Maya people. In this extensive present, our reflections about sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan <\/em>have led us to the act of \u201cmaking our heart return\u201d to our remote past, to our forgotten cosmos. In order for us to understand our thinking, we must understand how our knowledge-recognition, as well as the series of past and present life experiences, have led us to name it sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan. <\/em>Besides paying attention to everyday speech and specific life practices, it has been necessary to read and reread different versions of the Popol Wuj<\/em>. Although the text only captures the worldview, thinking, philosophy, myths and history of the K\u2019iche\u2019 people of Guatemala, I can state that Maya culture is a canvas in which we can find different fragments of the stories in the Popol Vuh<\/em>. This book undoubtedly captures the foundational thinking of an entire civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It appears that our O\u2019tan<\/em>-heart was there from the beginning. We can notice this in the first chapter, after Gukumats\u2019 is surprised by the creation and expresses gratitude by saying: \u201cIt is good that you have come, Heart of Sky\u2014you, Huracan, and you as well, Youngest Thunderbolt and Sudden Thunderbolt\u201d (Popol Vuh<\/em>, 60). The text then continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For thus was the creation of the earth, created then by Heart of Sky and Heart of Earth, as they are called. They were the first to conceive it. The sky was set apart. The earth also was set apart within the waters (60-61).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    If we consider the Popol Vuh <\/em>a foundational text of our thought as Maya civilization, we realize that O\u2019tan<\/em>-heart is there from the beginning as an energy that creates and pro-creates in \u201ccommon-unity\u201d (comun-unidad)<\/em> between the sky and the Earth, dialoguing and \u201cenhearting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan<\/em>, knowledges or epistemologies of the heart, invites us to \u201cenheart\u201d ourselves and the world, to recognize and respect the vast existence that is increasingly threatened by arrogant and indolent rationality. What unites and identifies all beings that form part of this vast existence is our ch\u2019ulel<\/em> and O\u2019tan, <\/em>and our mutual giving of ich\u2019el ta muk\u2019<\/em>. It is a way to structure and organize the world, a way to know and understand the cosmos. More than likely, it is a way to objectivize subjective life since primordial times when the Heart of the Earth and the Heart of the Sky started dancing in order to procreate subjects with joyous rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Can humanity, the world, and all existing and living beings continue to live according to instrumentalized hegemonic knowledge, or bonded to the alienating capitalism that the Zapatistas have called the \u201ccapitalist hydra,\u201d which keeps us subdued? Evidently not. It is urgent that we recognize and value other ways of being in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One of the principles sustained by sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan<\/em>, knowledges or epistemologies of the heart, is the apprehension of the world and comprehension of the cosmos. That is, an apprehension and comprehension of Life in its totality that in Tseltal Mayan is called sna\u2019el k\u2019inal <\/em>(ya sna\u2019 k\u2019inal, ma sna\u2019 k\u2019inal). <\/em>I do not want to say that such an understanding is broader or more encompassing than all others, or that it has an equivalent in the Western world; it is simply another. It has been here but has been negated and manipulated by hegemonic knowledge. So what I have presented here is a type of archeological action that discovers what has always been there. We just have to let ourselves be surprised and re-enchanted by everything that hegemonic knowledge and the capitalist hydra have disenchanted, everything in this vast existence that has been reduced to mere objects and commodities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This essay was originally published in Spanish and English in <\/em>Resistant Strategies, edited by Diana Taylor and Marcos Steuernagel for the Hemispheres Institute.<\/em>https:\/\/resistantstrategies.hemi.press\/spijilal-otan-knowledges-or-epistemologies-of-the-heart\/<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We are grateful to Juan L\u00f3pez Intz\u00edn, Hemispheres Institute, and Diana Taylor for permission to republish the essay in this issue of <\/em>Revista Mesa.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ***<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Juan L\u00f3pez Intz\u00edn<\/em><\/strong> is a Mayan speaker of Tseltal, born in Tenejapa, Chiapas; Mexico. He holds a M.A. in Social Anthropology from the Iberoamericana University in Mexico City and is a guest professor at the Indigenous Peasant University online. His research and projects focus on Tseltal Mayan ethical and philosophical concepts. Publications and documentaries include: sentipensar el g\u00e9nero desde los pueblos originarios; Ch\u2019ulel pluriverso<\/em> (UNAM 2015) and j-Amtel<\/em> (shown in the First International Film Festival of San Crist\u00f3bal, 2015). He is currently a member of the Fray Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas Human Rights Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    L\u00f3pez Intz\u00edn, Juan.  Ich\u2019el ta muk\u2019: la trama en la construcci\u00f3n del Lekil kuxlejal. Hacia una visibilizaci\u00f3n de saberes \u201cotros\u201d desde la matricialidad del sentipensar-sentisaber tseltal. <\/em>Self-published., 2011<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Subcomandante Marcos. Chiapas: La Treceava Estela. Comunicados De La Muerte De Los \u201caguascalientes\u201d Y El Nacimiento De Los \u201ccaracoles\u201d Zapatistas<\/em>, EZLN<\/em>. M\u00e9xico, 2003 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Quich\u00e9 Maya People. <\/em>2007. Translated and Commentary by Allen J. Christenson. Mesoweb., 2007 https:\/\/www.mesoweb.com\/publications\/Christenson\/PopolVuh.pdf.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00b9 I use this term (in-surgencia<\/em>) to refer to my process of reflection within a sociocultural and linguistic arena, from within my Tseltal Mayan language. It is unrelated to political or military issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00b2 The march also took place in other parts of Mexico and in various countries in the Americas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00b3 See the General Law of Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples, published in Diario Oficial de la Federaci\u00f3n Mexicana on March 13, 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sp\u2019ijilal O\u2019tan: Knowledges or Epistemologies of the Heart Juan L\u00f3pez Intz\u00edn Translated from Spanish by Marl\u00e8ne Ram\u00edrez-Cancio and Margot Olavarria. Brief Context I want to begin by contextualizing the \u201cin-surgence\u201d\u00b9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5294\/?lang=en"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/?lang=en"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page\/?lang=en"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1\/?lang=en"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?lang=en&post=5294"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5294\/revisions\/?lang=en"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6339,"href":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5294\/revisions\/6339\/?lang=en"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/institutomesa.org\/revistamesa\/edicoes\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?lang=en&parent=5294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}