Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum attended the ritual.
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala -- A Mayan ceremony held Saturday at an archaeological site in Guatemala’s capital paid tribute to Nobel Prize-winning author Miguel Ángel Asturias, whose ashes returned to his Central American country this week after decades abroad.
The ritual at the Kaminal Juyú site brought together the writer’s family and special guests, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum. The altar was adorned for the ceremony with white, purple, red and yellow flowers, representing the four cardinal directions. There were also candles, incense and cinnamon.
Menchú approached the 32-kilogram (70-pound) green jade urn that holds Asturias’ ashes before the ritual, placing her hands upon it. She then offered a prayer, spoke to the urn and kissed it.
“Today, we are here, honored by the eternal presence of Don Miguel Ángel Asturias, not only in Guatemala, but throughout the world,” she said. She later encouraged the Guatemalan people to keep the writer’s memory alive by reading his works.
The remains of Asturias arrived in Guatemala on Thursday from France, where the writer had been buried following his death in exile in 1974. Asturias died of cancer in Madrid seven years after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature.