Other sources say Maximon represents chthonic (of the underworld) male sexual power. He's the god of revenge and vices, the god of gamblers and drunkards, and a chronic smoker (this is starting to sound like a Steve Miller song). He accepts cigars or cigarettes and appreciates fine rum. But if you don't treat him right he will mess with you. One story says that evil witches tried to destroy him but they couldn't. When they got home they had horrible vomit & diarrhea. This should have been a warning.
We get an opportunity to visit Maximon's current home on a day trip to Santiago Atitlan. We walk down an alley piled precariously high with soda bottle crates. I am so busy looking at those that I trip into the small open air "waiting room" for his shrine. I quickly compose myself, noticing that there are several people sitting on benches.
My friend S beckons me to stand inside the shrine. I'm looking around for the saint and then I look down. The great saint is about three feet tall and it looks like he's wearing 20 neckties. I wonder if all this revenge stuff is bit of Napoleon complex-short man's disease. If he didn't have to stay in the village he would drive a big expensive car and pick fights in bars.
I look up - the ceiling is hung with red streamers and what look like giant fake sausages. Subtle symbols of chthonic male power? I remember reading that on holy days, only certain men get to dress him because of the "great secret under his robes." A giggle starts in my tummy. I hold it in, trying to be respectful, until S points out that one of the two Maximon assistants is ashing his cigarette. The giggle bubbles out. A saucer-eyed man next to us says direly "thiss siss not a game" and stalks out. He doesn't seem local; he is wearing a t-shirt and khaki shorts and, since he is barefoot, must be the one who left the Prada sneakers in the waiting room.
Now I don't know all the rules, but I'm pretty sure that an offering to a god/saint isn't supposed to be empty. So when Saucer Eyes stumbles back in and opens up a fifth of Quetzalteca (cheap firewater; wait, is that redundant?) and chugs it, we are appalled that he puts that in the (handily perfect sized) slot in front of Maximon. Our guess is that he is trying to get some help with a vice. We guess that vice is drinking. Despite the alcohol, he has a good memory. Later outside on the street he flips our group the bird as he passes by in a tuk tuk. (Good to know that is a symbol that transcends boundaries.) And perhaps the Maximon effects kick in slowly - we see him drinking a beer in a bar later on.
Over dinner later we laugh about the stories that Lucas told us. The Spanish didn't like how much power Maximon had so they put him in jail. Yes, they put a wooden statue in jail. The jailer's wife dreamed that Maximon was going to hurt her husband, so she woke him up, but he'd had a stroke. Maximon got out of jail. One of Lucas's friends had a Maximon statue but couldn't handle how high maintenance he was - more cigarettes, more booze. She gave him away but then couldn't sleep.
That night, we all had weird dreams. The next day, two of the women in our group got really ill. Their symptoms? Vomiting and diarrhea. All 15 of us end up getting serious runs. We are not sure whether it was Saucer Eyes who cursed us or just Maximon, god of revenge, and thiss really siss not a game.
Learn more, at your peril:
http://www.santiagoatitlan.com/Religion/Maximon/maximon.html
http://www.luckymojo.com/maximon.html
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