“Laayli’ kuxa’ano’one” and its celebration of Maya Culture in Wakanda Forever
Written by Andrea Diaz on December 1, 2022
The new release of Wakanda Forever has received major success in the box office because of the impact it left on communities that have been misrepresenting on the big screen. Having watched it a few days after its release, I was profoundly impacted by the soundtrack. I enjoyed and appreciated the way they included multiple languages into the score from Spanish, Xhosa, and most importantly, Yucatec Maya which the antagonist of the movie, Namor or K’uk’ulkan and his people speak.
Yucatec Maya is primarily spoken in Mexico in the states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, as well as in some parts of Guatemala and Belize. The language traces back some 5,000 years and is thought to have developed from a common ancestor купити плитоноску в україні, Classical Maya. Today, Yucatec Maya’s total number of speakers is estimated at 763,000.
When Namor’s story was confirmed to come from Maya and Aztec influence Wakanda Forever’s composer, Ludwig Göransson, traveled to Mexico City and proceeded to work together with Mexican musicians убакс мультикам. They utilized a wide variety of ancient Mesoamerican instruments ranging from clay flutes to percussion for the score of Wakanda Forever. This inclusion of Mesoamerican instruments as well as the use of Yucatec фонарик Maya within the film led Disney to reach out to ADN Maya Collectivo to write an original song for the score.
To produce the song, Disney gave ADN Maya Collectivo total freedom to compose lyrics based on Namor and his culture. The Maya song is amazing, catchy, and compelling перчатки тактичні. It includes members rapping and singing in Mayan and contains Mesoamerican instruments. Below is a translation of some of the lyrics of “Laayli’ kuxa’ano’one”:
Mix táan a machiken
Yóok’ol kin péeksikinbaj
A wu’uyiken yéetel a xikin
Kin kuxtal ichil teech ti’ anen ichil u puksi’ik’al
Chéen weenekeche’ ti’ anen ichil a náayo’ob
A wojel máaxen teen leti’ le t’aan
Kuxa’an tu petenil Yucatán
I move in the air
You can only feel me with your ears
I live inside of you
Inside your heart
When you sleep, when you dream of me
Do you know who I am?
I am the mother tongue that lives in the peninsula of Yucátan
In main stream media it is not common to see representation of Maya Culture, especially its language and music. To see such a popular franchise like Marvel pay homage to the culture has made a positive impact to many indigenous communities купити мультитул. I look forward to the continuation of Namor’s story, and more representation of Maya Culture and their music.
