The Annals of the Cakchiquels

Here is a voice from a world that no longer exists. Written in Kaqchikel by a member of the Cakchiquel ruling family who came of age before the Spanish arrived, The Annals preserves something vanishingly rare: an indigenous account of indigenous history, untainted by European interpretation. The text begins in myth: the ancestors emerging from Tulan, 'across the sea,' guided by omen and prophecy. From these legendary origins flows a chronicle of kings and conquests, the founding of villages, the intricate governance of a civilization that mastered the highlands of Guatemala. Here the Popol Vuh meets a royal genealogy. The gods walk alongside historical rulers. The narrative continues through the Spanish Conquest itself, making this not only a repository of pre-Columbian memory but a document of first contact. For readers seeking the genuine article, not a reflection of Mesoamerican culture but the thing itself, this is essential.