Martín Prechtel

Martín Prechtel is an American author and educator.

From New Mexico, he traveled to Guatemala in 1970. There he moved into a Tz'utujil community near Lake Atitlán. He learned their Mayan language and studied with a shaman. and grew up Santo Domingo Pueblo near Ojo Caliente, New Mexico. He learned the Keres language as well as English growing up. He claimed that his mother was a First Nations Canadian, and his father a Swiss paleontologist.

Prechtel learned the Tzutujil language, married a Tzutujil woman, and helped raise their two sons (a third son died young). When his teacher and mentor Chiviliu died, Prechtel wrote that he became the spiritual leader for the approximately 30,000 people of Santiago Atitlan.

Prechtel also wrote that he joined the Scat Mulaj (the village political body). During his time there, he wrote that he rose to the position of Nabey Mam (the first chief). He was responsible for leading the initiation and ritual passage of the village's young men into adulthood. As the violence of the Guatemalan civil war (1960–1996) increased, when government forces were attacking the Mayan villages in the highlands, Prechtel and his family fled for their lives. In 1984 they settled in the U.S.

Upon resettling in the US, Prechtel was introduced to poet Robert Bly, who was active in leading what he called a Men's Movement. He began contributing to Bly's workshops, and Bly was instrumental in getting Prechtel's writing published, writing the foreword to his first book, which was published in 1998. and resides in New Mexico, at the site of the school he founded near Ojo Caliente. The school is called Bolad's Kitchen. Prechtel speaks at different international educational conferences and leads workshops to assist in individuals reconnecting to the sacredness in nature and daily life. In addition, he helps them find a sense of purpose in the modern world. Colleagues include Robert Bly, Malidoma Somé, and Michael J Meade.

Writing Prechtel has written a trilogy of autobiographical accounts drawing from his life among the Tzʼutujil Maya of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. The first, and perhaps best-known, is Secrets of the Talking Jaguar (1998), describing his initiation as a Maya spiritual leader. Robert Bly wrote the foreword. Publishers Weekly said he described his apprenticeship to a shaman and 13 years of living as a Tzutujil, saying "his view seems at times romanticized" but he portrays an "idyllic Indian life" of "colorful rituals and rapport with nature." Long Life, Honey in the Heart (1999) and The Toe Bone and The Tooth (2002) — later republished as Stealing Benefacio's Roses: A Mayan Epic (2006) — interweaves accounts of village life in the 1970s amidst the violence of the Guatemalan Civil War with retellings of ancient Mayan myths. Other writings drawing on his time in Santiago Atitlán include The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun (2005), the retelling a Mayan myth, and The Unlikely Peace At Cuchumaquic (2012).

The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise (2015) deals with the modern experience of grief and how the absence of praiseworthy things in life robs modern people of the ability to genuinely grieve. Rescuing the Light (2021) collects quotations of Prechtel's teachings at his school in New Mexico, Bolad's Kitchen. The trilogy "Stories of My Horses" — comprising The Mare and the Mouse (2021), The Wild Rose (2022), and The Canyon Wren (2023) — pay tribute to the horses of Prechtel's youth and of his life since his return to New Mexico.

Prechtel has recorded audiobooks of several of his books, including The Unlikely Peace at Chuchamaquic (2020), The Smell of Rain on Dust (2020), Rescuing the Light (2021), The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun (2021), Stealing Benefacio's Roses (2021) Long Life, Honey in the Heart (2022), The Mare and the Mouse (2021) and The Wild Rose (2022).

His works also include paintings and many musical endeavors.