A STATEMENT FROM JOYCE MAYNARD ABOUT YOUR TUITION MONEY:

In recognition of the many years the people of San Marcos la Laguna have welcomed me and members of my Write by the Lake workshops and worked to provide our meals, and so much more, a portion of every writer’s tuition to Write by the Lake will go to a fund created to help them rebuild their lives in the aftermath of a devastating disaster in their village, in the midst of the pandemic year that had already stretched them to their limits. Here is the story:

On the evening of October 6, 2020, the small Mayan indigenous village of San Marcos la Laguna—the place where I have made a home and hosted writing workshops for over twenty years—was devastated by a terrible disaster. With the community already struggling under the effects of the pandemic that had destroyed its main source of income, tourism, this event struck at the hardest moment.

That night, just as families were going to bed, a huge boulder the size of a two-story building that had stood high above the village for as long as anyone could remember suddenly broke loose from the earth and tumbled down the mountainside with the force of a giant cannonball and the sound—one woman said—of a thousand firecrackers going off at once. When the boulder finally came to rest, four people were dead, over a dozen homes destroyed, and countless others rendered uninhabitable. Because the rock loosened two other giant boulders that might come down at any moment, over a thousand inhabitants of the village had to be evacuated. Many remain unable to return to their homes.

The government offered no assistance. But as always in this small, close-knit community, people who live in San Marcos—the community of foreigners like myself, side-by- side with the indigenous community—came to the aid of their neighbors, first with picks and shovels, food, water and beds, and later, clothing, mattresses, stoves, building supplies and trauma assistance.

By the end of the year, rebuilding was under way, but the challenges ahead remain vast--to restore the lives of the hundreds who lost everything, or close.

I want to share with you a powerful and deeply moving series of photographs taken by photographer Josue Samol Navichoc the day after the boulder came down.