Resumen

BATRES ALFARO, Carlos Alberto; MARTINEZ LEMUS, Ramiro Edmundo  y  PEREZ GARCIA, Lucrecia Dalila. Hor Cha'an: la serpiente mítica ch'orti' en el arte rupestre de Chiquimula, Guatemala. LiminaR [online]. 2009, vol.7, n.1, pp.43-60. ISSN 2007-8900.

Ch'orti' cultural group (from the linguistic Mayan Cho'l family) has been isolated from the other Guatemalan Maya communities; it indicates that the oral tradition has received little external influence. Landscape (mountains, rock shelters and caves), exerts influence over ch'orti' cosmovision, because it relates to movements of mythical serpents (chicchan) that inhabit the underground and water sources. There is a major serpent, called Hor chan, which provides rain and fertility to humanity. Ethnohistorical sources from Postclassic, symbolic and linguistic analysis, ethnography and use of metaphor, help to sustain the prehispanic belief in a serpent-deity, which maintains the continuity of life and land fertility.

Palabras llave : ch'orti'; snake; rock art; chan; chicchan; Hor chan; fertility; water; godfather.