A small group of young Chuj Maya teens had gathered under the shade of a broad-leafed chilacayote tree on this swelteringly hot and humid day in the village of La Lucha. “!Chuc yak’an vico!” exclaimed Diego, the eldest. (“What bad luck we have.”) Had anyone been eavesdropping on their conversation they would probably have agreed that these young folk had bad luck all right; moreover, they faced an improbable future. An ancient race, an endangered language and culture Dating