Humberto Akʼabal

Akʼabʼal died in a Guatemala City hospital on 28 January 2019.

Akʼabal's book Guardián de la caída de agua (or "Guardian of the Waterfall" in English) was named book of the year by Association of Guatemalan Journalists and in 1993 received their Golden Quetzal award. In 1995 he received an honorary degree from the Department of Humanities of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. In 2004 he declined to receive the Guatemala National Prize in Literature because it is named for Miguel Ángel Asturias, whom Akʼabal accused of encouraging racism. He said Asturias' 1923 essay The Social Problem of the Indian, "Offends the indigenous peoples of Guatemala, of which I am part." The young Asturias proposed a program of eugenics —focused on the assimilation of Guatemala's Indians into its mestizo (in local usage “ladino”) population— as a remedy to the ills of the Guatemalan nation, a process he would promote by encouraging European immigration.

Akʼabʼal originally began writing his poetry in Spanish, "because he was 'illiterate' in his own mother tongue," but eventually started to write in Kʼicheʼ in the 1980s. Despite the fact that his own Spanish translations made his works available to a wider audience, Akʼabʼal was unable to find a publisher interested in printing his Kʼicheʼ work until 1993.

Humberto Akʼabal, also Akʼabʼal or Akabal (31 October 1952 – 28 January 2019), was a Kʼicheʼ Maya poet from Guatemala. Akʼabʼal wrote in his native language of Kʼicheʼ, and then translated his poetry into Spanish. With the translations of his works into numerous languages and international recognition, Akʼabʼal is considered to be "the most renowned Maya Kiʼcheʼ poet" in the world and one of the best known Guatemalan writers in Europe and Latin America.

Akʼabʼal was born in 1952 in Momostenango, Totonicapán. His formal education ceased at age twelve, when he left school to help financially support his family. He worked in his village as a shepherd and weaver, until leaving to find work in Guatemala City as a street vendor and porter. Despite his grandfather's cautions that “books can make you lose your mind,” Akʼabʼal decided to venture into the world of poetry. His mother actually served as a source of support and influence in this choice, as she "planted in [him] an interest in the word" as a way to "continue [his] elders' tradition."