Hi relatives 🙏🏽🔥🙏🏽! Hola hola! My name is Iset Todayah Sevilla-Bazan. This hiphop lyrical rhyme is my message to inspire others, and work through my personal sadness and ‘sacred rage’ for wrongs committed against indigenous people and also to inspire with hope for the future.
Song starts at 5:30.
“I wrote this rhyme to light fires of inspiration and make a positive impact to inspire others.”
The first verse I introduce myself in my Mayan name using Mayan language as a form of resistance✊🏾:
“K’awiil B’alam Iset Aq’Ab’al K’awiil”
Which means: “Powerful & Protected Jaguar Iset of the Dawn, Powerful & Protected”
**meaning of the Mayan words below at the end***
⚜️Full lyrics posting soon⚜️
This rhyme is called ‘Jaguar Roar’ and it shares what the Maya are experiencing with being murdered for their land and it progresses to a message that the “Sacred Fire” still Burns and that the Earth 🌎, Moon 🌙, and stars ✨ stand witness that humanity will never stop until we accomplish our goal.
It speaks of the attempt of systems to get indigenous to commit Hare-Kare (cultural suicide) but how that attempt is futile and will *never* happen. Through connecting in mind and heart we are One people One earth, One sky. One galaxy 🌌
I draw on the Mayan elders’ wisdom who said “Humanity has One Destiny, One Future to fulfill..and we are all filling it.”
Even though it’s about the Maya, any indigenous people could place their people’s name in that verse and the song will resonate with them.
I truly wrote this as a song for the world.
*🔥🏹Meaning of Mayan words🏹🔥*
K’awiil :Powerful:Protected-this was added as a title to Mayan rulers during coronation in Copan, Honduras. Also a protector spirit/guardian Associated with lightning and the Celestial Serpent.
B’alam: Jaguar
Aqabal : the Mayan Day sign I was born in that symbolizes dawn & Dusk:First ray of light that pierces into the darkness. Guardian spirit of this day is the Bat as well as the protector spirit called the “Jaguar of the Midnight Sun”
Kahalte: Remember
