Today, July 3, 2010 we had a wedding at our house in Quiche. It was a Mayan or verbal ceremony and only took a few minutes and then everyone waited for the next two hours while the meal was being prepared. The ceremony only requires one witness to speak for the groom and one for the bride. Victor spoke for Juan Gomez and the brother of Cristina Jolomocox Cajchun spoke for her. Since the ceremony is not a legally recognized ceremony Victor Tevalan asked the couple to have another ceremony in a church/ It is doubtful they will as most of the Mayan marriages are this way.
One of the pictures posted show part of the ceremony as Victor is praying for the couple and they are on their knees. The brothers part was just a discussion. The discussion is between two parties representing the two families who are joined together through this marriage. Juan has no family and that is why Victor represented him.
A usual Mayan courtship takes three visits by the prospective groom to the brides family. The first one, the prospective groom brings one pickup of food for the grooms family, the second he brings two pickups of prepared food and the third he brings four to five pickups of prepared food to the brides family along with some money (dowry). As both parties are very poor, this was not done this time.
