“El colibrí es tan pequeño y trae un mensaje tan grande.”

“The hummingbird is so small and carries a big message.”

—Evelyn Morán Cojoc

Under the shade of a tent on the National Mall, four vibrant and colorful paintings immediately captured visitors’ attention. Each represented a common crop of the land of the quetzal , Guatemala’s national bird, and the life stages found in Maya Cosmovision. Created by Indigenous Guatemalan artist Evelyn Morán Cojoc, these paintings served as conversation starters with visitors at the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and complemented the twenty-eight-by-eight-foot mural in progress throughout the week.

The first artwork depicts a fetus in a womb; the womb takes the shape of a cacao bean. Cacao, the base ingredient of chocolate, has been a key part of Maya foodways and spiritual life since the pre-Hispanic eras. The next artwork features a baby blessing chili peppers. Visiting mothers, grandmothers, and aunts talked about how they recognized the pose featured here and knew all too well how to multitask cooking while holding a baby on their hip.

The third painting features the adolescent girl, surrounded by beans, with her heart connected to a hummingbird. Hummingbirds are good omens in Maya culture. They bring good news; they bring messages from our grandparents. Just beyond the painting, visitors would see more adolescents—Central American students Kevin Cabrera, Selvin Vail Diaz, and Jairo Vásquez—hard at work helping young visitors paint a section of the mural.

Finally, we see an older woman surrounded by maize and the rest of the crops that have nurtured her throughout her life. As the presenter for Morán Cojoc’s tent at the Festival, I shared how my mom and great-grandmother used black beans (boiled, refried, mashed) and corn (tortillas, atol de elote, popcorn, corn chips) in every meal. These four pieces evoked stories of nurturing from participants and visitors alike.

“Los cuatro puntos cardinales son la guía de nuestros abuelos,
como los cuatro colores del maíz que nos alimenta.”

“The four cardinal points are our grandparents’ guide,
in the same way that the four colors of maize nurture us.”

The paintings and mural pay homage to Grandmother Earth’s gifts, exploring themes of regeneration and connection to place. Before traveling to the Festival, Morán Cojoc prepared a sketch for the mural based on this concept. Then, following a private workshop with the youth artists, who come from Arlington, Virginia, and Silver Spring, Maryland, she incorporated everyone’s ideas for the mural so each person would be able to share their knowledge. Responding to the Festival’s theme, Youth and the Future of Culture, Kevin, Selvin, and Jairo had a big message to share.

The right side of the mural features the marimba doble. In the morning, Kevin would help young visitors paint the mural’s marimba keys. In the afternoons, visitors could hear the sounds of Kevin playing marimba. He learned to play the marimba from his father and now has his own marimba ensemble.

The center of the mural depicts a young woman who carries her millennial heritage on her back: four maize in four colors. Selvin wanted to feature maize as an example of Grandmother Earth’s gifts of crops and the ancestors’ gift of knowledge. It is also a symbol that unites the earth through the four cardinal points. Each direction is associated with a color and a specific meaning: the north refers to the color white and spirituality, the south with yellow and agriculture, the east with red and the sun, and west with black and mystery.

“El centro de la obra es una mujer
que cuenta la historia del tejido como un libro.”

“The center of the mural is of a woman
who is telling stories through weaving, just like a book.”

The woman in the center of the mural also carries her heritage through her clothing. The clothing of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, where Morán Cojoc was born, is a symbol of cultural identity and tradition, with deep meaning in each of its elements. The woven huipil, or women’s shirt, is constructed from three pieces of handwoven cloth with colorful designs representing elements like pitchers, deer, and flowers. Her hair is tied with a tupuy, a red woven hair accessory that was also used as a measuring tool for women during pregnancy. Historically, it was nine meters long to represent the nine months of pregnancy.

Visitors were able to see Morán Cojoc’s huipils, Selvin’s hat and bag, and other woven accessories throughout the Festival. Morán Cojoc is also a weaver and learned how to weave from her mother. Kevin and Selvin also learned to weave from their respective mothers when they were young. One of my favorite presenter moments was interpreting for Morán Cojoc and members of the Karen Weaving Circle from Minnesota, who carry on a textile tradition from their homeland in Burma, when they came to visit our tent. In a roundabout of English, Spanish, Maya Poqomchi’, and Karen language, we were able to talk about the backstrap loom in both of their traditions, what materials they use, adding embroidery and embellishments, and complementing each other’s shirts and designs.

“En la obra tenemos el Saq’ Be’: el camino que dirige y los guía.
Este mismo camino me llevo a ellos.”

“In the artwork, we have Saq’ Be’: the path that directs and guides.
This same path took me to them.”

The left side of the mural features a path on top of running water with beautiful mountain landscapes on the horizon. Kevin, Selvin, and Jairo all used imagery of a path in their sketches. Jairo remembered getting jugs of water with his mom every morning in El Salvador. For him, Grandmother Earth’s gifts included water and sharing that experience with his mom. Morán Cojoc combined this idea into Saq’ Be’, the white path. Associated with one of the four Maya directions, white paths are features of many Maya sacred sites. One’s journey on the white path is protected because it has been blessed by grandparents and ancestors.

Interpreting Saq’ Be’ into English was an interesting experience because visitors asked, “Where does the path lead to?” After clarification from Morán Cojoc, I was able to explain how this path is not so much about the destination as the journey.

Visitors would then ask, “Where will the mural be displayed after the Festival?” At that point, I didn’t have an answer. However, I am happy to provide an update on the mural’s journey. It was recently installed at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, where Selvin is the president of Club Maya, dedicated to sharing Maya culture and the perspectives of young Maya people with the broader community.

Although the mural is a beautiful finished product, what was just as beautiful was the collaborative process we shared in between brush strokes. We compared vocabulary in Maya Mam dialects while cleaning paintbrushes and talked about our favorite flavor of Tortrix chips while eating our lunchtime “mystery meal,” as Kevin called it. Morán Cojoc and her husband, Nicola Fasoli, shared stories from their Maya wedding ceremony to provide more context for the paintings.

Morán Cojoc shared her knowledge of painting and Maya culture with Kevin, Selvin, and Jairo, and, in turn, they all created a mural that pays homage to their interpretations of Grandmother Earth’s gifts. My role as a presenter was to convey these meanings to the public, but I also connected myself in these ways. With or without a brush, each moment shared was a contribution to the mural.

Julia Aguilar Jerez is an arts educator and a presenter for the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.