S3 E5 Moises Morales
Moises Morales was a legend in Mexico. His contributions to our knowledge and the protection of the Maya ruins of Palenque are unparalleled. In this episode, I’ll tell you some stories about my dear friend Moi.
SHOW NOTES
Carol Karasik’s book about El Panchan – fictional, but based on real events:
Moises’ Palenque 2000 map:
https://www.mesoweb.com/palenque/features/palenque2000/2k.html
I would love to hear more Moises stories in the future. Thank you for this broadcast about this incredibly remarkable man!
In this podcast Ed mentioned the name of Linda Schele, and soon after listening I stumbled upon this interview with her done just a few months before her death. For anyone interested in Maya studies, I highly recommend watching this short film (42min). Here is the link to copy into your search engine:
https://www.mesoweb.com/features/Edgewalker/Edgewalker.alt.html
There are a couple of shots of Linda with Moises. Initially she couldn’t pronounce his name when she was going to meet him for the first time, so she was told, “Just ask for Moses.” She was a remarkable woman and if Ed has any stories about her, I would like to hear them.
Thoroughly engaging episode, Ed!
Great stories, well told, Ed. I’m enjoying these broadcasts immensely.
Enjoyed this episode very much, I’ll never look at a flute player again the same way! I enjoy interesting stories about the people in the area, what an incredible man he was.
This was a most entertaining and informative episode! I’ve been to Palenque many times, and went to the Morales family compound though I never stayed there. Certainly had a “hippiville in the jungle” feeling even into the early 2000s. When you mentioned that you were one of the archeologists-thinly disguised-that Carol Karasik mentions in the Drum Wars book, I bought a copy and found it captivating and unsettling. Those seemed some wild and wooly times. Moises was a larger than life character and his family intrigues really thick. I loved your Moises story about setting the governor on the mayor for selling parcels at Palenque!
Thanks Lennie! So glad to hear that you enjoyed it. I know how very dear Palenque is to you.
And let’s all thank Alicia and his eleven lovely children for their loyalty to his way of life and the stoicism with which they tolerated his eccentricities. And Carlos too, his kindly brother and his family, especially nephew Marco Antonio, who shared some of Moisés’ charm, and the La Canada empire at its greatest, which they built together and which enabled dear charismatic Moi to enchant. He was, indeed, lovely.
I was a guest at El Panchan in 1991, back then it was Moi’s house, not a hotel. Rishita and Moi were living in a sort of master bedroom that had two walls as walls and the other 2 walls were open to the jungle and the breeze. The bedroom was linked by a thin concrete skywalk about 30″ wide with no handrails about 20′ long, to an above-ground kitchen/living room that was a concrete floor also about 10 feet above the ground. One morning I was rolling up my sleeping bag and found a mama scorpion and 27 babies, inside my sleeping bag. I was about 23 years old, working on a project towards my architecture masters degree, trying to understand how the buildings were related to all the waterfalls. After 10 minutes conversation Moi invited me to move in and make sculptures. I made 4 concrete/stucco sculptures that are still there. Moi had a very interesting conception of the meaning of time. He showed me wrapped presents that remained unopened for several years in his bedroom. We would drink sort of white russians made with canned evaporated milk (there was no fridge, I think there was no permanent power.) He would get a bit tipsy and I swear he would get out and play tapes of conversations with other friends also just shooting the breeze while a bunch of people were talking in the moment. It was all about the time slip. He was super smart with incredible recall and could recite precisely what different authors had each written about Palenque, and the differences in their opinions. He told me the story of the moment he thought he would drown in a raging river and how he would laugh uproariously at death just as he was being pulled under. I wish I could remember the context better, why he was there and why he had to try to cross the river. Thanks for you stories, wish I could hear more.
You definitely spent time with Moi! If you were in that house in El Panchan, you met Moi the monkey too. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you’ve got lots of Moi stories of your own! Ed
I would love to do the bio of Moises, but I’m too old now. I urge someone to pursue this fascinating man.
I was last in Palenque in 2002 and spent a little time with Moi next to “the blackboard” discussing the roundtables. Chris also gave us the fundamentals of Maya building proportions and how they measured the structure length vs width without a tape measure.
Again, someone please pick up the torch and write a bio of Moises.
I’m not sure who could do it. Maybe Carol Karasik?