Humberto Ak'ab'al
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.
Also recorded as Humberto Akabal · Akʼabʼal
Humberto Ak'ab'al
- Name
- Humberto Akʼabal
- Born
- 31 October 1952
- Birthplace
- Momostenango, Totonicapán, Guatemala
- Died
- 28 January 2019
- Place of death
- Guatemala City, Guatemala
- Occupation
- Poet
- Nationality
- Guatemala
- Fields
- poetry
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Languages
- Spanish · K’iche’ · Mayan
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
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.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Humberto Ak'ab'al (1952–2019) was a poet and writer, a national of Guatemala. The poet was born in Momostenango and died in Guatemala City.
The work spans poetry. Languages used include K’iche’, Mayan and Spanish. Honours include Guggenheim Fellowship.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Humberto Ak'ab'al. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q3364231
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Humberto Akʼabal • Born — 31 October 1952 • Birthplace — Momostenango, Totonicapán, Guatemala • Died — 28 January 2019 • Place of death — Guatemala City, Guatemala • Other Names — Humberto Akʼabʼal, Humberto Akabal • Occupation — Poet
Early life
Early life
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."
Translations
Translations
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. Since gaining popularity, Akʼabʼal's poetry has been translated into many different languages, including French, English, Estonian, Scots, German, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Hungarian, Arabic, and Italian.
Selected works
Selected works
• (1993) Guardián de la caída de agua ("Guardian of the Waterfall" in English) • (1999) Poems I Brought Down from the Mountain • (2000) Con los ojos despues del mar (Vado ancho) • (2001) Ovillo De Seda • (2004) Chʼanalik • (2005) Entre patojos / Among patojos • (2010) Drum of Stone
Personal life
Personal life
After starting his career as a poet, Akʼabʼal moved back to his village. He lived in Momostenango, where he focused solely on his writing. He married Mayulí Bieri, with whom he had a son, Nakil Ak’abal Bieri. Akʼabʼal died in a Guatemala City hospital on 28 January 2019.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Momostenango.
Birth place
Guatemala City.
Death place
Reception
Many scholars have praised Akʼabʼal's work as an expression of his indigenous tradition. Literary critic Carlos Montemayor said that "Writers like Ak'ab'al… require us to penetrate into that other reality that we do not know, understand that this culture, that this indigenous soul lives and breathes in our own reality at the same time as our time, with the same life as our life, loving and understanding the same continent that we love but do not understand." In describing Ak'bal's work, Spanish poet Antonio Gamoneda wrote: "I remain seriously impressed by Ak'abal's poetry, by its essential simplicity, by the elemental sacredness within which pulsating words reveal deeds, things, and directly natural beings." Chilean historian Miguel Rojas Mix wrote that "Akʼabal sings like the birds, speaks K'iche' Maya, and thinks as we'd wish most men thought."
Awards
Akʼabʼal has been given many awards and honors from around the globe, including: • (1993) the Quetzal de Oro from the Guatemalan Association of Journalists. • (1995) a Diploma Emeretissimum from the Humanities faculty of University of San Carlos of Guatemala. • (1997) the Swiss Blaise Cendrars prize. • (1998) the Premio Continental Canto de América UNESCO prize. • (2004) the "Pier Paolo Pasolini" international poetry prize. • (2005) a Chevalier (Knight) membership of the Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) from the French Ministry of Culture. • (2006) the Guggenheim Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, N.Y. USA. • (2010) the dedication of the International Book Fair of Le Mans, France. • (2017) the “Reconcimiento a la trayectoria” diploma from the state of Campeche, Mexico. 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.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.The Routledge history of Latin American culture. 2017. 9781138902565.
- 2.Humberto Ak'abal y su legado a la literatura guatemalteca – Prensa Libre. 29 January 2019.
- 3.Elizabeth, Chacón, Gloria. Indigenous cosmolectics : kabʼawil and the making of Maya and Zapotec literatures. 2018-09-28. 9781469636825.
- 4.Akʼabal, Humberto. Ajkem tzij. Cholsamaj Fundacion. 2001. 9789992256404.
- 5.Saviola. Humberto Ak'Abal: El poeta Maya más conocido en Europa y América. Diario del Sureste. 2017-09-21.
- 6.Saviola. Humberto Ak'Abal: El poeta Maya más conocido en Europa y América. Diario del Sureste. 2017-09-21.
- 7.John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim Foundation 2006 Fellows. 2006.
- 8.Humberto Akʼabal: Biography. Humberto Akʼabal.
- 9.Canadian Broadcasting Centre. In Brief: Poet Rejects Literary Award. 2004-01-23.
- 10.Webre, Stephen. Sociología Guatemalteca: El Problema Social del Indio (review). The Americas. 66. 4. 579–580. 2010-03-26. 1533-6247.
- 11.Humberto Akʼabal - Poet. www.akabal.com.
- 12.Geitzler, Kayla. Here Was Paradise Aquí era el paraíso by Humberto Ak’abal, Illustrations by Amelia Lau Carling The Miramichi Reader. 2022-05-16.
- 13.Montenegro, Gustavo. Fallece el poeta kʼiché Humberto Akʼabal. Prensa Libre. 28 January 2019.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,988 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Humayun KabirAuthor
- Humbert FinkAuthor
- Humbert of Silva CandidaAuthor
- Humbert WolfeAuthor
- Humberto CostantiniAuthor
- Humberto de CamposAuthor
- Humberto de la CalleAuthor
- Humberto FierroAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Humberto Ak'ab'al?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.