José Góngora Pat, Mayan Investigator

About

José Góngora Pat produced a video and live installation documenting mool tunich: ancestral path markers and rest points found along walking routes in the forests of Yucatán, used by campesinos tending their milpas.

These markers are created by placing stones along paths and are maintained over time through repeated gestures, including pausing to rest, drinking pozol, crossing oneself, adjusting displaced stones, and adding new stones encountered along the way. Through these actions, the mool tunich gradually takes shape.

José describes these sites as places of rest, orientation, and gathering, where individuals recover strength, reconnect with others, and continue their journey. In this sense, mool tunich functions both as a navigational reference and as a practice sustained through repeated use.

His work highlights memory as something embedded in landscape and movement—a practice enacted through walking, pausing, and collective participation across generations.

As part of his presentation at the David Ireland House and the Lunch & Learn, José built a small-scale mool tunich. This act raised questions about how practices rooted in specific ecologies can be carried, adapted, or reinterpreted in displacement.

José also reflects on how migration and changing environmental conditions have reduced agricultural activity, leading to fewer people walking these paths and a gradual loss of the practice in his home community.

His film is scheduled to be presented on April 7, 2026, at ATA in the Mission, as part of the 10-year remembrance of his brother, Luis Góngora Pat, who was killed by SFPD.

Archive

Internet Archive, in Ephemeral films

Licence or status

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, as the Internet Archive states it.

Credit

José Góngora Pat and Adriana Camarena

Language

Spanish

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed