¿cultura en la tierra?

Somewhere around 1000 years ago, a people group known as the Maleku tribe existed with little or no conflict in lands that are now included in what we would define as the nation of Costa Rica. The land was free; there were no private owners. The Maleku could go where they wanted and do what they pleased, with nothing to stand in their way. At this point in time, the population was believed to be somewhere around 20,000. Gradually, as the Maleku people continued to branch our to surrounding areas, they eventually arrived in what is now part of Nicaragua. As those from the Nicaraguan area became aware of the Maleku people, settlers in the area of Nicaragua slowly began to take advantage of the Maleku people, and there were many cases of these people going to the Maleku land, killing men, taking their wives, in addition to whatever resources they could get their hands on, such as the rubber that was grown on much of the Maleku land. As outside peoples began to infiltrate Maleku land, they influenced many of the Maleku people to give up their land on unfair trades for horses, dogs, booze and the like. Land, which originally belonged to the Maleku people, ultimately ended up in the hands of private landowners, with little or no connection to the blood or culture of the Maleku people. While the original population of the Maleku tribe was at one point over 20,000, two hundred years ago the tribe only existed in the amount of 1,000 people. Today they exist in the number of somewhere around 600.

(Rio Celestial - phosphorus from the nearby volcano mixes with the water to make it a bright turquoise color.)

(the active volcano, Arenal)

Over time, the population of Maleku people has continued to decrease. In 1977, the Costa Rican government approved a law in favor of the indigenous people groups in the country, providing lawful grounds for much of their original land to be returned. In reality, very little of this land has been returned to the possession of the Maleku tribe. The problem with the law is that the land set apart for the Maleku people is currently in the possession of private landowners. So, even though land may have been designated for this indigenous people group, they cannot really be in possession of the land until it is purchased back from the private landowners. Unfortunately, the Costa Rican government has not seen this as much of a priority, and has therefore not devoted the amount of money necessary to buy back the entirety of the land. There are currently three Maleku villages near Guatuso, Costa Rica: Palenque Margarita, Palenque Tonjibe, and Palenque del Sol (Palenque is a word meaning “indigenous community.”) Currently, the approximately 600 Maleku people currently living in these villages exist on less than 5% of the land that is in law entitled to them.

As the government has not made much ground in the process of returning the land to the Maleku people, some of the leaders in the Maleku community have taken it upon themselves to develop programs by which they can raise money for the purchase of the land. Currently, a friend of the Maleku tribe from the United States is attempting to raise money through selling coffee from Costa Rica in the United States (they are currently contemplating plans to begin a coffee plantation run by the Maleku people themselves, but it is not yet certain.) 10% of the profits from this coffee business will go help the Maleku people purchase their land. This program is currently just in the beginning stages, and as the current profits are small, it is not certain if it will be fully effective for the procurement of such a large and expensive amount of land. It is not clear what will transpire with the Maleku people, their land, or the continuation of their culture. They seek to obtain their land, because, they say, “The culture is in the land.” Currently, as they are not possessing the entirety of their land, many of the Maleku tribesmen feel that they are not possessing the entirely of their culture.

(Bienvenido Cruz, and his wife, Celina)

Bienvenido (the Spanish word for welcome) Cruz, 60, the father of six, and a leader in the Maleku community living in Palenque Tonjibe, has been working most of his lifetime for the return of the land that his people are by law entitled to. From his standpoint, one of the biggest contributing factors to the degradation of the Maleku culture is Christianity, or at least what he sees of Christianity. This brings up some interesting issues.

(the extended cruz family)

Before the arrival of missionaries in the last few centuries, the traditional Maleku culture was involved in worship of Toku (the Maleku word for God.) Toku represented everything that exists. They would worship him in ceremonies involving cocoa, which was sacred simply for the reason that it was created by Toku. They would take cocoa butter, rub it on their arms and face, and begin speaking and singing to Toku in the Maleku language. These ceremonies would also usually involve chicha, a fairly hallucinogenic drink. Often the worship would be in thanks for provision of food after returning from hunting trips. The Maleku people worshipped Toku, (and a few people still do), but there was not a direct means by which they could personally interact and speak with him. The Toku they worshiped existed in the form of a single carved image, and only one man, the Cacique (similar to a priest) would communicate with the carved image, and communicate commandments and instructions to the people. Any right or wrong would be communicated through the Cacique to the people, but these commandments of right and wrong would usually change from generation to generation. Nowadays though, those who continue to worship Toku do not know the whereabouts of the carved image, and even if they knew where it was, there is no longer a Cacique to communicate with the image. Bienvenido, a worshipper of Toku, says that he still worships, but he cannot communicate with Toku. Bienvenido worships, but he doesn’t know the image. He feels that if he were to come to a faith in Jesus, he would be renouncing his culture, and says that the rest of the community would be wiped out as a result.

(los chanchos.)

Some of Bienvenido’s children have come to find a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Missionaries brought the gospel message many years ago, but people in the Maleku community have not come to faith out of being forced by missionaries; rather, they speak of how they have come to see Jesus as a personal God, who loves them, with whom they need no medium to communicate. Followers of Christ in the Maleku community still acknowledge their desires for their land to be returned, and they do express a concern for the preservation of their culture, but they are also aware that there were many areas of their culture that did not align with the ultimate truth of the gospel. These people have found God to be personable. They have found Him to be love. For these they have retained a value of their culture, but a value that is kept in moderation by the ultimate reality of truth. Sadly, followers of Toku, such as Bienvenido, feel that because followers of Christ have given up parts of their culture in accepting Christ, God must not care for the culture of the Maleku people.

(Reception is hard to come by in Palenque Tonjibe. This is the mobile hot-spot for the Cruz family.)

(A local pastor has a weekly spot on the local Maleku radio station. He interviewed my friends and me for the week's show.)

(Gabrielle. The day after consuming an entire squirrel.)

Often we speak of how our God is a God of every tribe, tongue, and nation. Before going to Palenque Tonjibe, I had never been forced to see how this applies when the gospel seems to come up against the traditions of a people-group. With the Maleku people, I see how God is one that cares for the nations, the culture, the traditions, the festivities, but in a more roundabout way than I had once thought. In this instance, it seems that because God has so much value for the Maleku culture, He desires not simply to leave the culture as it exists in and of itself. By caring for their culture, He is bringing reform to that which does not align with His heart, and allowing to remain that which does not hinder His plans, thus allowing their culture to one day walk in its complete perfection. Not wiping out the Maleku culture, forcing it to adorn suit and tie and stand in pews to worship in a way they do not understand, but enabling them to come to a place of walking out their culture to its truest extent, putting them in a place where they are able to begin effectively pursuing the return of their physical lands (in addition to the spiritual lands) He has provided for them.


God has deep concern for culture and tradition, but it is not His biggest goal for our lives. It seems apparent that He is more concerned about us becoming adopted into his family, no matter what type of roots we come from. The Maleku culture is one that needs perfecting. Our own culture is one that needs perfecting (wherever you may exist.) The perfecting is available to us, but will we allow it?