Maya priest Valerio Canche Yah offered his blessings to the audience participating in a Maya festival that took place at City College of San Francisco’s Mission campus and the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Nov. 16-17.

The festival, an initiative by local students and community members, included cultural activities and workshops that shed light on Maya culture by creating awareness and stressing the importance of cultural pride. Canche Yah explained that traditional Maya rituals are based on the values and beliefs of the natural environment.“Today’s blessing is an example of what the Maya people daily practice would be to start the day,” he said, adding that “The purpose of the council of Maya elders and priest is to revitalize the spiritual values for current and future generations so they are not forgotten.”

The focus of the festival was not centralized around the end of the Maya cycle, but to bring awareness to the misrepresentations of the Maya people living in the Mission District.

Daniela Jonguited and Margarita Valle, both part of the planning committee, explained that Maya culture encompasses the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche and parts of Tabasco in Mexico, as well of parts of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Hospicio Yballe, who also helped organize the event, stressed the importance of organization building and strengthening bonds with one another to work towards creating events that provide outreach to new residents who may feel isolated.

“We hope to inspire organizations to take more initiative to be creative with educational and outreach events … we started out with minimal resources and were fortunate to orchestrate with local organizations to come together for the under-represented community here in the Mission,” Yballe said.

The festival included workshops such as “Know your rights as tenants in San Francisco”; “America’s Child Laws & Child Abuse Prevention”; “Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, Folklore and Maya dance lessons”; “Spirituality Maya—Past, Present & Future”; and “Maya Worldview & 2012” to name a few.

“A lot of what many first-generation [emigrants] face coming to North America is the cultural and language barriers,” said Herman Bormann, who was adopted by foster parents from Yucatan, Mexico, when he was an adolescent. “Many of the Mayas living here don’t speak Spanish and because of the various dialects in the Maya culture, Mayas in the Mission find it more difficult to adjust.”Bormann learned that there were several local organizations that provide language support for Maya people, such as Asociación Mayab in the Mission District.

One of the discussions was about the Maya calendar and how it has more than one interpretation.“There is no reference to any catastrophic event, nor the end of the world,” said Alfredo Barrera Rubio an Archeologist from University of Merida Yucatan during his presentation “The End of the Maya Era.”

“It can’t be about individual needs, but the need to rethink how the end of the Maya calendar is simply more of a personal commitment to make a mental change—a chance to revitalize the human spirit—a personal transformation,” said Ianatan Ramirez, member of the planning committee.

“It’s been great,” said attendee Elodia V. “It’s been a chance to explore, as a new chapter in our life approaches.”

“Independently, what happens after the Dec. 21—the world is not going to end, it’s just the end of one cycle to another,” Ramirez added.