Translated from Spanish by Juan G. Sánchez Martínez

Daniel Caño is Maya Q’anjob’al, a daykeeper, professor, poet, and writer. born in 1967, he is originally from Paykonob’, Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. He studied Philosophy, Pedagogy, Cross-Cultural Bilingual Education, and Education at the Rafael Landívar University. He works as a professor at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Rafael Landívar University, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, and Quiché Campuses, and at the Faculty of Sciences and Humanities of the University of the Valley of Guatemala, Altiplano Campus. His work has been published in France, Spain, Canada, the United States, Argentina and Guatemala. He has offered lectures and poetry readings in Guatemala and abroad. 

The Q’anjob’al nation occupies the municipalities of Yichk’ox (San Juan Ixcoy), Tz’uluma’ (San Pedro Soloma), Jolom Konob’ (Santa Eulalia), and Yal Imox (Santa Cruz Barillas), Huehuetenango, Guatemala, as well as the southern part of Mexico and some cities in the United States due to exile during the dirty war undertaken by the Guatemalan state, and economic repression. In the Q’anjob’al cosmology, water is one of the vital elements for life; it is part of the Cosmic Cross or Mayan Cross, in which it is represented by the energy of day, Imox.