7 News Belize

Untold Story Of An Unsung Hero
posted (March 27, 2020)

And to ease your mind during the COVID quarantine, or whatever may come, the Image Factory has launched an electronic book with a fascinating, but little known account of indigenous resistance to colonial rule.  

The stylishly designed volume is called “Maximo, the Last Alcalde of San Jose Yalbacâ€￾, and it’s available online for free.

It’s a mixture of the post caste-war oral tradition brought to life by cutting edge graphic design.  It tells the story of how the Nuevo San Jose Palmar Village, in the Orange Walk District.

Via skype, the Image Factory’s Director told us this morning about the origins of this book, and why the cultural heritage it represents is important:

Yasser Musa - Director, Image Factory Art Foundation
"This morning, the Image Factory Art Foundation launched an e-book titled ‘Maximo, the Last Alcalde of San Jose Yalbache. And it is a book that’s written by Carmen Carrillo and Delmer Tzib, illustrated by Carlos Lito Quiroz, and edited by Melissa Espat. It is a project that has been going on for almost a year. We’ve been doing research in collaboration with Carmen, who is the main actor, so to speak. We had a plan to launch it last Sunday, the 21st, in the Village of Nuevo San Jose  Palmar. But obviously, with the current crisis, we couldn’t. So, we decided that because of all of this online classroom stuff going on, that it would be a great opportunity to launch it online so that students, especially, could have access to it and read it."

"Maximo Perez was an alcalde of the village of San Jose Yalbac, which was a small village in the north-western part of the Orange Walk District. In the 1930s, the Belize Estate and Company, a massive British landowner, was pushing into that area of the country to cut down logs. And there was the confrontation because there was this Maya village, San Jose Yalbac that had been there for a long time. Those were the descendants of the Caste War, and Maximo was the leader, of the village. He had a confrontation, and eventually, the British displaced the people. They had to be forcibly exiled in their own country, so to speak, and they ended up in Orange Walk Town as refugees for months. Until finally, Maximo negotiated with the British, and the village we now know today as Nuevo San Jose Palmar is the place that they eventually settled on. The story of Maximo has been almost neglected, even ignored."

"We’re very grateful that Carmen, who is the granddaughter of Maximo, held this story in her heart, in her mind, held the spirit of Maximo inside of her, so that, we now, a new generation of teachers like Delmer Tzib, who is one of the lead researchers and writer on the project, and Carlos Quiroz, who is an amazing artist and graphic designer, were able to collaborate with her and the image factory in order to bring this project together."

If you are interested in reading this book, you can get access to a free e-book version of it on the website, www.belizehistorysjc.com.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize