In 1983, a group of citizens in San CristÓbal de las Casas, Chiapas, formed Sna Jtz'ibajom, the Tzotzil-Tzeltal Maya writers' cooperative. In the two decades since, this group has evolved from writing and publishing bilingual booklets to writing and performing plays that have earned them national and international renown.

Anthropologist Robert M. Laughlin has been a part of the group since its beginnings, and he offers a unique perspective on its development as a Mayan cultural force. The Monkey Business Theatre, or Teatro Lo'il Maxil, as this branch of Sna Jtz'ibajom calls itself, has presented plays in virtually every corner of the state of Chiapas, as well as in Mexico City, Guatemala, Honduras, Canada, and in many museums and universities in the United States. It has presented to the world, for the first time in drama, a view of the culture of the Mayas of Chiapas.

In this work, Laughlin presents a translation of twelve of the plays created by Sna Jtz'ibajom, along with an introduction for each. Half of the plays are based on myths and half on the social, political, and economic problems that have confronted-and continue to confront-the Mayas of Chiapas.

Robert M. Laughlin is Curator Emeritus of Meso-american ethnology in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Sna Jtz'ibajom is a Mayan writers' cooperative based in San CristÓbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.