And tonight, we note the passing of culture warrior, and liberation thinker Clinton Canul Luna.

If you read the Amandala with any regularity you will be familiar with his column which deals principally with the history of the Yucatec Maya and other issues around liberation of the oppressed.

We last saw his column in the paper on Friday, July 28 and the Corozal resident died on emancipation day, August first at the Corozal Hospital after a period of illness.

Educator Yasser Musa remembered his contribution and a free thinker:

Yasser Musa, Teacher
"Belize has lost a great thinker, a great writer, a great intellectual overall. The fact that the Amandala gave him space I want to big up and show respect to that gave him space to write his column for many years probably decades. And I am giving this interview first as a reader of many of those articles and as a teacher, I used to use many of these articles in my class because a lot of the articles were based on the indigenous resistance the Maya resistance, especially on issues, as you mentioned, like the Social War, popularly known as the Caste War of the Yucatan."

"But he went beyond that. A lot of his writings deals with contemporary issues of oppression. So recently, only a few years back, the government of Cuba honored him in a ceremony in Belmopan. Because he was firm in his support of the Cuban Revolution. No one was prepared like Clinton to risks being exposed and being ridiculed in some quarters for having the courage to write what he wrote."

"And I think he was a very courageous man, not just knowledgeable, not just what his brother in law said, a walking library. We accept all of that. That was, to me, important is is his ability to risk his ideas and present it in the public space."

His family tells us the 79 year old was a father to at least 22 children across Acapulco, Merida, Cancun, and Corozal Town.