Unexpectedly, while we were giving Safari restaurant a second try in Puerto Barrios, we witnessed the “Baile del Vendo”. The Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes informs us that during the period of the conquest of Guatemala, the Spaniards would watch the wildlife that crossed the road and delighted by the wild diversity of quadrupedal locomotion, heading towards the Mayans asked the names of animals, they responded that they were called “deer”. The picture of the oral tradition, the basis of this “dance” continues in this way:
The Spanish came back to ask why not kill the deer to eat them, they answered that they had no weapons to do so, others pointed to the Spanish, who lived on a hill a hunter, this was allowed to hunt with a blowgun. Then the natives were in search of the old hunter and asked permission to Tzuultaq’a, God of the hill. The Spanish then got guns to hunt the deer and then they realized that these animals were rabid, so they prepared a dance.
All accompanied the old hunter, the deer were also accompanied by the tiger, monkey, lion, and others. When the old hunter’s hunting ends, he is charged by the monkeys, lion, tiger and the dog to no longer continue to hunt over the riverbank. The companions of the old hunter dancing with joy because this was not hurt when faced rabid deer. With gun in hand the hunter tells the Spanish: “I bring the deer already dead then cut up, to finish eating the old hunter dancing with joy.
Each “are” (by the vernacular genre) played on the marimba, for each couple looking for the hunter.”
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