Professor Gerardo Aldana

“I think it’s really important that we finally get representations of indigenous communities that have a significant indigenous voice within them.”

University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Chicano Studies

Gerardo Aldana teaches courses on ancient Mesoamerica in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Primarily, he focuses on the study of the Classic Maya intellectual community by examining their artistic, hieroglyphic, and scientific products. Recently, Professor Aldana presented "El Trabajo del Alma de Janahb Pakal: La Cuenta de 819 dias y La Politica de Kan Balam" at the IV Mesa Redonda de Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico. He has published several articles including, "Solar Stelae and a Venus Window: Science and Royal Personality at Late Classic Copan" and "’K'in in the Hieroglyphic Record." He is currently working on a book that recovers the meaning of the enigmatic "819-day count" and places it in its context 
within the history of Classic Maya politics and science.