A Mayan ceremony in Guatemala honors Nobel winner Miguel Ángel Asturias as his ashes return home

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AP) — 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 .

His work is considered a precursor to Magical Realism and a key factor in the boom of Latin American literature during the 1960s and 1970s.

He went into exile after a 1954 coup led by Gen. Carlos Castillo Armas, who revoked his passport and stripped him of his Guatemalan citizenship, labeling him a communist. Asturias' final visit to Guatemala took place in 1966. By then, the country was already gripped by violence and repression, fueled by a war between the army and guerrilla forces.

He took part in social protests and supported the recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples . But he also faced accusations of racism over the contents of his college thesis.

On Saturday, ancestral knowledge guide Tat Juan José Chirizcuat, who led the ritual, explained that the ceremony presented an opportunity to seek forgiveness and foster reconciliation in light of the different views that people have of the author.

The author’s son also made a call for unity.

“My father has arrived in Guatemala; may his arrival serve to unite Guatemala,” Miguel Ángel Asturias Amado said.

The ashes will lie in state at the National Palace of Culture, allowing the public to pay tribute to the writer through Saturday. On Sunday, they will be interred at a monument within the Miguel Ángel Asturias Cultural Center.