XOCOMIL (Show-coh-meel), The Winds of Atitlán. The novel spans what many historians term the “Guatemalan Civil War.” That, unfortunately, does not account for the USA involvement, or begin to describe how it was experienced by the oppressed indigenous Maya. The story begins and ends at Lake Atitlán. It travels from traditional Maya villages through the war-torn mountains of Guatemala; from cornfields in Kansas through the jungles of Vietnam; from pot-filled hills in Northern California through the psychedelic haunts of San Francisco to the ruins, and magic mushrooms, of Southern Mexico. It is about simple lands full of complex intrigues.