Maximon: God of Smoke and Women

A shrine to the god Maximon

“Depending on who you ask, Maximon is a god, a pagan saint, Jesus’s brother, Judas Iscariot or a devilish deity.”

Reading about Maximon, a Guatemalan god of alcohol and tobacco (if you’re trying to quick smoking, why not leave your cigarettes with him), was very interesting. We have seen other instances of indigenous and Catholic religious systems mixing through Latin America before, but there seems to be something special in the acceptance of the contradictions of this little-wooden-man deity. Each year, he is moved around to a new village to be protected, a tradition from when the colonizers used to persecute such pagan saints, swathed in modern clothes (stovepipe hat, cowboy shorts, overcoat, scarf, etc), and prayed to by local villagers and visited by curious tourists. It was also interesting to see the humor associated with this deity.

He is stored in a garden shed, not the most common of temples for a god. As explained by one guide, Maximon smokes and drinks … “because he doesn’t have a job.” Another curious dichotomy evident in the deity is that he is at once a womanizer and yet, in one of his many origin stories, he was created after Mayans slew a Spanish soldier who “had gone on a rape ramage.” The Mayans turned the soldier who had been so violent to them into a saintly figure to appease their conquerors, which is another intriguing melding of Catholic and pagan beliefs. The uniqueness of this god and the people who worship him, along with the descriptions from the articles of people who have traveled to the Guatemalan villages, makes me want to see the figure and its beautiful country for myself.


taked from: http://mlamusings.voices.wooster.edu/maximon-god-of-smoke-and-women/