Dictionary of the heart Cover

Written by Robert M. Laughlin (1934-2020), lexicographer extraordinaire of the Tzotzil (Mayan) language of Chiapas, Mexico; indefatigable student of the natural, social, and dream worlds of its speakers; and committed advocate for their literary, dramatic, and artistic pursuits, was for his entire academic career curator of Mesoamerican ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. Laughlin’s monumental Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán (1975) remains the largest and most ethnographically acute dictionary of an Indigenous American language. His major works, together with his collections of legends, dreams, reminiscences, and prayers, have also nourished the language itself, contributing to everything from the decipherment of Mayan hieroglyphs to the modern explosion of Tzotzil literature, art, music, and video.
Published by Taller Leñateros. Editorial collective operated by contemporary Mayan artists. Founded in 1975 by the poet Ámbar Past, the Taller has published the first books written, illustrated, printed and bound (with paper of its own manufacture) by the Mayan people in more than 400 years. Documenting, extolling, and diffusing autochthonous (and popular) cultural values, like literature in indigenous languages, the plastic arts, and the painted codex. The Taller Leñateros also dedicates its collective to rescuing ancient techniques about to disappear, like the extraction of colorings from wild herbs and the recovery of autochthonous languages. The Taller favors sustainable practices, recycling agricultural and industrial waste, to transform discarded materials into world-renowned books.