THINGS TO DO IN Santiago de Atitlan
Go In Search of Maximon
Imagine Keith Richards, and you’re sort of getting close to the saint they call Maximon.
He smokes, he drinks, and he punishes those who fail to provide sufficient offerings. The legends around his origins are numerous – a morally questionable Spanish priest loved by his community, a hard-drinking vagabond Mayan shaman, a colonial judge that favoured indigenous rights, or a special tree that turned out to be a bit of a shagger (seriously) – but what’s clear is that he wasn’t made a saint simply for his unimpeachable virtues.
Dressed like a cowboy and usually with a lit cigarette hanging out the corner of his mouth, Maximon is crucially important in Guatemalan folklore and spirituality. He is thought to be one of many consequences of the religious syncretism (hello word of the day!) that characterised aspects of colonialism in Central America – whereby indigenous pre-Colombian gods and beliefs were incorporated or tacked onto the imposed Catholic religion.
Mischievous and loose with morals, Maximon (also known as San Simón) is thought to recognise humanity’s own flaws and weaknesses. This means he doesn’t just grant the desires of the good and the just, but also those who aren’t perfect or noble in their intentions.
You’ll find him in the shadows of dive bars and hidden in backrooms across Guatemala – always seating due to his broken legs – and surrounded by small bottles of Quetzalteca, dripping candles, and swirling plumes of cigarettes and incense.
Santiago is however one of the places where he is most revered.
The privilege of hosting his effigy rotates annually between households in the town, ensuring Maximón is never found in the same place two years in a row. This means locating his shrine isn’t always straightforward but, with tourists now more expected and generally welcome for a small fee, there are people who are only too willing to lead you toward him for a few quetzales.
As fate would have it though, this year he was hosted in the local teacher’s uncle’s house, so we simply headed there together after being shown around the school!
The shrine and setting – more like a backstreet bar than anything else – was suitably surreal. We were also fortunate enough to arrive whilst there was a proper ceremony with a local woman going on, which underlined that there really is something to this, but also meant that the only thing we could do was silently sit at the back of the room for 20…
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