Poetry as Resistance: How a Mayan Activist is Using Spoken Word to Push Back Against Tren Maya
That’s the question being explored by Pedro Uc Be – an award-winning poet, writer, and Mayan activist from Yucatán – who is using poetry not just to protest, but to awaken memory, ignite cultural pride, and resist one of Mexico’s most significant infrastructure projects: the Tren Maya.
The Tren Maya (Mayan Train) is among the largest infrastructure undertakings in Mexico’s history. It aims to link key sites across the historic Mayan region in southeast Mexico – promising tourism, jobs, and cultural promotion. But many Mayan communities argue the project has ignored their voices, scarred ancestral lands they’ve stewarded for millennia, and polluted sacred cenotes – ironically endangering the very culture it claims to celebrate.
Uc Be is part of the movement demanding that local communities – not just federal officials – shape the future of their territory. “This project is not Mayan,” says Uc Be. “It was not designed for the Mayan people, we Mayans were not included in its planning, nor were our collective rights considered … The train is a destruction of our culture.”
Uc Be’s poetry is not a blunt instrument of protest. It isn’t about slogans or persuasion alone. Instead, he uses verse to reconnect people with their Mayan roots – to awaken a sense of memory, dignity, and belonging. Through this reconnection, he hopes to revive the reverence for Mayan lands and culture that has endured for generations – but now faces erasure.
“The ik’ilt’aan” – the Mayan word for poetry – “follows its own path,” he explains. “It doesn’t engage in activism in the conventional sense; rather, it is devoted to weaving life. It is not aligned with -isms; its daily practice holds a deeper legitimacy that does not respond to trends.”
Equipped with his poems, he has been reaching out to the wider Mayan population: “We carry out poetry readings on this topic in Mayan communities—especially those affected—in order to generate reflections that clarify both the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ impacts for the Mayan people. Based on the conclusions drawn from the weaving together of ideas and proposals, strategies are sought for the defense of territory and our cultural identity.”
Uc Be also understands the need to build alliances and understanding of Mayan culture amongst different communities and audiences. “I also share these poems in various forums or poetry recitals in the city, in other states, or in other countries, where people wish to hear the Mayan people’s version of this issue – an issue that, in the official narrative, has been marketed as a blessing for Mayan communities, despite the marginalization we continue to face.”
Through this work, Uc Be is a central figure in the growing movement of Mayan activism. He is a founding member of Múuch’ Xíinbal, the Assembly of Defenders of the Mayan Territory – a grassroots organisation bringing together poets, activists, and community leaders to protect Mayan land and culture. Their mission isn’t just to resist, but to revive.
Uc Be’s story is part of a larger pattern seen across Latin America, where poetry has become a powerful medium for marginalised communities to express history, pain, and pride. Through verse, they preserve languages, confront colonial legacies, and articulate visions for the future.
This intersection of poetry and resistance will be celebrated at the Poetry and Activism Festival, held June 2–8, 2025, in Tequisquiapan and Querétaro. The festival will host poets like Pedro Uc Be, providing a platform for their voices and stories, giving all those attending a chance to learn and understand their experiences. It will also provide a space for attendees to reflect on the issues which resonate with them most, consider the role they can play in driving change, and provide a chance to develop and express their own poetry and art on these topics.
If you’d like to learn more or attend the festival, visit poesiayactivismofestival/inicio
The Train
The train is a gust that split the jungle,
lashes caverns and stirs everything,
hastens my memory with Porfirian sounds,
its colors are artificial,
its voice—it’s too much! it’s too much!
Its eyes leap
like those of the expropriated Maya
on seeing their children without land,
without tortilla,
without water from the cool cenote.
The jungle is grey in its nakedness,
it lost its green color,
it lost its flowers,
it lost its bees,
it lost its virginity.
I shudder for her!
it is an uninhabiting,
it is a silence of gods,
it is an empty house,
it is development.
Tomorrow all will be weeping,
it is the silence of the xóoch’,
it is the silence of the Xko’áak’ab,
it is the silence of the Tunkkuluchuj,
it is the silence of the sold-out Indian.
Glossary of Mayan Terms
cenote – A natural sinkhole resulting from collapsed limestone that exposes groundwater, considered sacred in Maya culture.
xóoch’ – A Mayan term for “flower,” symbolizing natural beauty, fertility, and sometimes resistance or memory.
Xko’áak’ab – Literally “old woman’s hand” in Yucatec Maya; may refer to a traditional or mythological figure, or evoke the image of ancestral wisdom and touch.
Tunkkuluchuj – A sacred or symbolic bird in Maya cosmology, sometimes associated with omens or spiritual presence.
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