Jilotepeque.4 These two towns, San Pedro Pinula and San Luis Jilotepeque, are the two centers of

Eastern Pokomam culture and are situated on valley floors separated by a small mountain range.

The valley of San Pedro Pinula rests on the elevation of 1000m, while San Luis Jilotepeque lies

at about 700m, making the climate more temperate and mild. The town of El Durazno rests on

the peak of the mountain that divides the two towns. With views of both valleys, El Durazno

likely served as an important Pre-Colombian military vantage point, and oral histories recount

great battles that were fought here, evidenced by the multitude of obsidian arrow points that litter

the grounds (Gouband Carrera 1945). Now just a pile of crumbling stones, El Durazno is

considered a relatively insignificant archeological site. To the Eastern Pokomam, however, this

site is the location of the Pokomam origin myth. Elders say that God looked down on the two

towns from the peak of El Durazno and determined that San Luis would be the place of the

cantaro (ceramic pot) and San Pedro would be the place of the palma (palm). The history of

commerce in the two towns has borne out the myth, as San Pedro Pinula was once well known

for its hand woven palm-braided sombreros, and the painted earthenware of the women of San

Luis is famous to the present day.

 In addition to the Eastern Pokomam, there is a second Pokomam Maya group in

Guatemala. Principally located north and south of Guatemala City, this group speaks a dialect of

Pokomam, appropriately called Pokomam Central or "Central Pokomam," since they are situated

in the Central Highlands, in contrast to the Eastern Pokomam, who are located in the Eastern

Highlands.s The residents of San Luis Jilotepeque, the neighboring Eastern Pokomam

community, are of greater value as a focus for study since they more closely resemble the


4 Tumin and Gillen conducted their research in the late 1940s and published much of their work in the early 1950s.

5 Rub6n Reina (1967) and Eileen Maynard (1963) did their work among the Central Pokomam in Chinautla and
Palin.