![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/alexmaya.jpg\")
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Hotel Maya continues its series of complimentary Mayan lectures in its conference room on Saturday, May 19 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm with Dr. Khristaan D. Villela, Research Professor at University of New Mexico and Professor of Art History at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Dr. Villela specializes in the art of Precolumbian Mesoamerica and the history of the field of Precolumbian studies.<\/p>\n
Dr. Villela will explore \u201cChocolate: The Ancient Maya Drink of the Gods\u201d by looking at the history of chocolate in ancient Maya culture and religion as it is depicted in the visual arts, discussed in Maya hieroglyphic texts, and found in archaeological contexts. Chocolate\u2019s scientific name, Theobroma cacao, meaning \u201cdrink of the gods,\u201d closely matches how the Maya and other peoples of ancient Mesoamerica thought of this sacred foodstuff.<\/p>\n
Today chocolate is one of the world\u2019s most valuable commodities, according to Dr. Villela, it is consumed as a beverage, as a candy, and it is an important ingredient in many recipes, from cakes and cookies to Mexican Mole sauces. More than two thousand years ago, long before the modern-day empires of Hershey and Cadbury, the ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America grew, traded, and consumed great quantities of \u201ckakaw,\u201d as they called chocolate, usually as a beverage mixed with honey and chile peppers. In the \u201cPopol Vuh,\u201d a collection of ancient Maya creation myths, the lightning god K\u2019awiil split a primordial mountain revealing maize and chocolate, two of the most important foods of the Maya and other native peoples of Mesoamerica.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Maya nobility prepared and drank chocolate using special spouted and cylindrical ceramic vessels, many of which have survived to the present day with chocolate residues still inside,\u201d concludes Dr. Villela.<\/p>\n
Following Dr. Villela\u2019s presentation, guests will have the opportunity to sample and purchase an unusual variety of Mexican chocolate from the Museum\u2019s store.<\/p>\n
Hotel Maya kicked-off its Mayan lecture series on March 31 with Dr. Gerardo Aldana, Associate Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Aldana offered a hands-on \u201cMayan Calendar\u201d workshop and \u201cObservatories and Green Stones: Exploring the Origins of the Maya Calendar\u201d presentation.<\/p>\n
Hotel Maya launched its free Mayan lecture series in March with Dr. Gerardo Aldana, Associate Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Aldana held a Maya Calendar Workshop and Observatories and “Green Stones: Exploring the Origins of the Maya Calendar” presentation. The Museum of Latin American Art is the co-sponsor of the Mayan lecture series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/alexmaya.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Hotel Maya continues its series of complimentary Mayan lectures in its conference room on Saturday, May 19 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm with Dr. Khristaan D. Villela, Research Professor at University of New Mexico and Professor of Art History at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":69698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4598"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4598"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}