Maya Calendar

SUNDAY - SEPTEMBER 30

2012 Maya Calendar Revealed

2012: The Beginning Documentary & Panel of Experts

Sunday, September 30

2:00 - 4:00pm

Price: $20 / $16 Tech Museum members

The Tech Museum - New Venture Hall     

201 South Market Street

San Jose, CA 95113

This spectacular event will bring together world renowned experts of Maya spirituality, astronomy, language, culture, science and philosophy to explore the significance of the end of the Maya Calendar. Screening of the documentary 2012: The Beginning followed by a panel of experts.

 2012:The Beginning - Documentary

December 21, 2012. This date, identified by the Maya more than 1,400 years ago, has in recent years become the source of great curiosity and debate. Some believe it will bring catastrophic events. Others, an era of enlightenment. Throughout, our journey is guided by noted archaeologists, scholars, and the living Maya, who take us into the field—to the very origins of the Maya Long Count calendar—and into their lives and sacred ceremonies. Together, these people from very different worlds shed light on a date that has long been shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Film Screening with be followed by a moderated session of a panel of experts.


2012: THE BEGINNING Trailer from WildHeart Vision on Vimeo.

Panel of Experts

 Don Roberto Poz Perez - Aj'qij Calendar-Keeper and Spiritual Guide

Roberto Poz Perez, an Aj'qij (calendar-keeper and spiritual guide), lives in Zunil, Quetzaltenango in highland Guatemala. The population is 100% indigenous whose native language is K'iche'.  For more than thirty years, Roberto has dedicated himself to guiding others through the use of the Maya sacred 260-day calendar and through ceremonial practice.  An Ajq'ij is "to be of the days", a person with the destiny to serve the community. In the 1980s, Don Roberto Poz Perez founded Komon Tohil, a network of ajq'ijab' (spiritual guides) in the Quetzaltenango area;  he is well respected not only in Guatemala, but also in Maya communities in Central and North America. He collaborated on Living Maya Time, a website resource for The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) which examines Maya calendars, astronomy, ritual practice, and worldview for educators, in both Spanish and English.

 Doña Maria O. Avila - Maya Elder

Doña María O. Ávila Vera is a Maya elder born in Xul and raised in Peto, Yucatán, México. As a mother of 11 she is a steward of the traditions of her ancestors using her life experience and native language, Yucatec, Maya.  Over the past six years, she has collaborated with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in México, UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory’s Center for Science Education, as well as the Cosmic Serpent and Native Universe projects funded by the National Science Foundation. She is a member of the elder advisory council of the Indigenous Education Institute, Friday Harbor, WA. Doña Maria Ávila Vera serves as a bridge between native and western ways of knowing in museums, the classroom, and community settings.  

Dr. Jean Molesky-Poz - Professor/Author Maya Spirituality

Jean Molesky-Poz is married to Martin Poz Perez, a K’iche’-Maya from Guatemala. She is author of Contemporary Maya Spirituality: The Ancient Ways Are Not Lost, published by the University of Texas Press (2006). She has been a Lecturer in Ethnic Studies and Native American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, specializing in Immigration and Refugee Issues, as well as Native American Studies.  She is currently a Lecturer in Religious Studies at Santa Clara University. Ms. Molesky-Poz holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.  She received a Fulbright-Hayes for her ethnographic research with contemporary Maya Ajq’ijab’ (shaman-priests) in the Guatemalan highlands.  She is consultant for a project on the Maya Calendar for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She lectures locally, nationally and internationally. She and Martin, live in Berkeley, California, and have two adult children.

 Dr. Isabel Hawkins - Exploratorium Astronomer & Maya Expert

Isabel Hawkins is an astronomer and educator with a Ph.D. in astronomy from UCLA, and she spent 20 years as a researcher and science educator at the University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory. While at Berkeley, she consulted on several astronomy projects at the Exploratorium and was the bilingual (Spanish/English) host of the museum’s live webcast from Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, on Maya astronomy in 2005. She joined the Exploratorium staff in 2009, and became the project director for the Never Lost: Polynesian Navigation website. Isabel has published more than 100 articles on a variety of astronomy and education topics, and in 2009 she received the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Klumpke-Roberts award for her work in astronomy education and public outreach. Her interests include salsa dancing, yoga, drawing Maya classic period glyphs, and the study of native languages. 

 Dr. Michael Grofe - Maya Hieroglyphic Writing and Archaeoastronomy

A specialist in Maya hieroglyphic writing, archaeoastronomy, comparative mythology, and cacao, Dr. Grofe has led multiple field courses in Belize, Mexico and India. He is particularly interested in the confluence of mythological narrative and participatory science in Mesoamerica, and the historical interaction between the traditions of the Maya and Central Mexico. In his doctoral research at the University of California at Davis, he explored a new astronomical interpretation of the Serpent Series within the Dresden Codex, and he is currently expanding this research to incorporate the theoretical astronomy found in the Palenque inscriptions. Dr. Grofe has taught numerous courses on the Popol Vuh and Native American literature, and he is currently teaching cultural anthropology, archaeology and physical anthropology.

 Shannon Kring Buset - 2012: The Beginning Writer / Director / Producer

In 2008, Shannon Kring Buset left behind her career as the award-winning author of four books, executive producer and co-star of an Emmy-winning PBS reality-cooking series, and owner of acclaimed restaurants and culinary schools.  She moved to a remote Maya Ch’or’ti’ village on the Honduras-Guatemala border, bringing with her just one suitcase and three goals for inner achievement: to heal her heart, to reconnect with her spirituality, and to discover her higher purpose. She did just that. Today, Kring Buset is grateful for having lived and worked alongside indigenous elders, spiritual luminaries, world leaders, and other awe-inspiring individuals in places as diverse as Indonesia, Finland, and India. She is dedicated to inspiring others to embrace a more soulful existence, and to preserving dying, living, and emerging wisdom from all four corners of the world. Kring Buset is a frequent keynote speaker at events around the world, and has been featured on CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, FOX, Lifetime, NPR, and in more than 150 publications worldwide, including The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney Magazine, and Redbook. She is currently completing her first novel, also about the ancient Maya.  This is her first documentary film.

SUNDAY - SEPTEMBER 30

2012 Maya Culinary Feast
Sunday, September 30, 2012
4:30pm Gathering 
5:00pm Living Maya Time Presentation & Dinner
Dinner Reservation: $60
CasaQ Subscribers: $45

Cabritos Mexican Bistro
72 South 1st Street

San Jose, CA 95113

This once-in-a lifetime event for the most adventurous foodies and curious souls will explore the end of the Maya Calendar and will give you an opportunity to mix and mingle with world-renown experts and Maya elders in a relaxed setting. You'll be the first to see the newly launched "Living Maya Time," by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Indian's (NMAI) Education Department, featuring contemporary Maya people speaking about the meaning of 2012. Then we will explore the rich abundance of fruits, meats and vegetables native to the Yucatán region of Mexico and Guatemala.  The multi-course dinner will feature indigenous foods of the Maya that date from before the Spanish Conquistadors arrived in the Americas. Your taste buds will delight as you delve into turkey with anchiote, corn-based specialties, tropical fruits and vegetables, and other intriguing delicacies.  We will explore ancient Maya recipes and present each course with tantalizing beverages and surprising flavors.