Indigenous Yucatán

Indigenous Yucatán
By John P. Schmal

The state of Yucatán is located in the northern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico. Surrounded by the states of Campeche (southwest) and Quintana Roo (southeast) and by the Gulf of Mexico (north), Yucatán consists of 43,380 square kilometers (16,749 square miles), or 2% of Mexico’s total land area. Yucatán is about half the size of Maine and shares a 342-kilometer coastline with the Gulf of Mexico.

Politically, Yucatán is divided into 106 municipios. Its capital is Mérida (with a population of about 734,153 in 2005), which is ranked twelfth among the most populous Mexican metropolitan regions. The greater Yucatan Peninsula consists of 197,600 square kilometers (76,300 square miles) and includes parts of Belize and Guatemala.

The Mayan World
It is believed that human beings have probably inhabited the area of present-day Yucatán for 7,000 years or more.  For the last few thousand years, the Mayan Indians have inhabited the entire Yucatán Peninsula, as well as the surrounding regions.  The Mayan culture flourished for many centuries with the people making a living through agriculture, hunting and fishing. The Mayan archaeological sites left behind testify to a people who were skilled at weaving and the creation of pottery and other artifacts.  Hundreds of pyramids, temples and other structures scattered throughout the Yucatán stand as testimony to the Mayan’s skill in construction of complex buildings.

The physical “boundaries” of the ancient Mayan empire spanned across a region that now includes parts of five nations. In the South, the Mayan world consisted of modern day Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and western Honduras. The northern reaches of Mayan territory included large portions of five Mexican states, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Campeche and Chiapas. In all, the territory occupied by the Maya was probably 500,000 square kilometers in area, and is sometimes referred to collectively as El Mundo Maya (The Mayan World). 

The Early Mayans
The Mayans studied the stars and, in their study of astronomy, were able to develop their own calendar. They were gifted architects who built temples and pyramids, but they were also farmers who provided sustenance for their communities. The “Classic Period” took place from 300 to 900 A.D. and covered most of the area presently recognized as El Mundo Maya. It was followed by the “Post-Classic Period” which lasted from about 1000 AD to 1500 AD. 

Sixteen Mayan States
The Maya ethnohistorian, Ralph L. Roys, wrote that at the time of the Spanish arrival in Yucatán, the Peninsula was “occupied by… sixteen native states… The inhabitants seem to have considered themselves a single people and each of these territorial divisions was called a cuchcabal (literally ‘jurisdiction’), which the Spaniards translated [as] province.”  According to Dr. Roys, apparently the entire area had been ruled from a government center at Mayapan until the middle of the fifteenth century, when a great revolution destroyed the capital city.  After the revolution, the land was split up into sixteen states, which was what the Spaniards found when they arrived in 1517. [Ralph L. Roys, “The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya” (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1957), pp. 3-4]

Roys remarked that “the population of the Yucatán peninsula was, for so large an area, remarkably uniform in language, customs, and fundamental political ideas. Almost everywhere horticulture and agriculture followed the same pattern.” With the exception of Acalan in present-day Tabasco, all sixteen provinces spoke the Mayan language (In Acalan, they spoke the Chontal language of Tabasco)

The Mayan Languages
The Mayan language group has been divided into several groups: the Huastec, Yucatec, Western Maya, and Eastern Maya linguistic groups.  The Huastec represent a northern extension of the Mayan people who settled in present-day Veracruz. The Western Maya language group consists of several significant language groups (Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Chol, Tojolabal, Chuj, Kanjobal, Jacaltec, Chontal and Motozintlec), most of which are spoken in Chiapas and Guatemala.  The Yucatec language was and is spoken throughout much of the Yucatán Peninsula, which presently includes three Mexican states (Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo) and the northern parts of both Belize and Guatemala.

First Contacts with the Spaniards
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first navigator to visit the coast of Yucatán Peninsula in 1508. A second expedition, led by Juan de Valdivia, was shipwrecked along the coast in 1511.  Most of the men who made it ashore were killed by natives. But two men, Geronimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, were captured by the Maya. While Guerrero became a member of the Mayans and married the daughter of a chieftain, Aguilar was rescued by Hernán Cortés as he passed along the coast in 1519 and became an interpreter for the Spaniards in their confrontations with the Mayans and other tribes.

Francisco de Cordoba’s expedition to the area in 1517 had several bloody engagements with the local inhabitants and was followed a year later by an expedition under the command of Juan de Grijalva who landed near Cozumel and took formal possession of the land for Spain. A year later, Hernán Cortés lead a new campaign that eventually made its way to the heart of the Aztec Empire and ended in the conquest of Tenochtitlán (in 1521). After the conquest of the Aztecs, Pedro de Alvarado, one of Cortés’ chief lieutenants, began his conquest of the Mayans in late 1523. Most of Alvarado’s campaign concentrated on the Quiché Maya and Cakchiquel that lived in what is now Guatemala.

The Montejo Campaigns (1527-1547)
In December 1526, a wealthy nobleman Francisco de Montejo was granted a royal contract (capitulación) to raise an army and conquer the Yucatán Peninsula.  In 1527, commanding three ships and several hundred Spanish soldiers, Montejo left Spain, destined for the Yucatán. Montejo’s force arrived at Cozumel in September 1527 and proceeded inland. Early in 1528, the Spaniards fought a large battle at Aké, 10 miles north of Tizimin (which is about 160 kilometers from Mérida). Both sides suffered an incredible number of casualties. Soon after, Montejo left the Yucatán with a greatly reduced force.

Montejo made plans for another expedition to Yucatán. This time, he would be accompanied by his son – who was called “El Mozo” (The Youthful) – and his nephew (“Sobrino”). The second attempt to conquer the indigenous peoples of the Yucatán took place from 1531 to 1535. For awhile, the younger Montejo had subdued portions of northern Yucatán. However, news of the great riches found by Pizarro and his soldiers in Peru (1528-1532) led to many desertions among the Spanish force in Yucatán. The elder Montejo became the Captain General of Honduras in 1535, but lost his claim to that territory in 1539.

In 1540, Francisco de Montejo “El Mozo” returned to the Yucatán to begin the third attempt to conquer the area, a task that would take six years. By this time, the Mayans had been reduced and weakened by smallpox and other diseases.  El Mozo started by setting up a headquarters in Campeche, with a force of almost 400 soldiers. Once he had established his position, he summoned many of the Mayan rulers to his base.  By the end of 1541, many of the chieftains had submitted to the Spanish crown. Conflict between several native groups – promoted by the Spaniards – brought about a further weakening of the Mayans.

Forming alliances with some of the local chieftains (such as the Pech and the Xiu) during 1541, the Montejos were able to subdue the native settlements in the provinces of Canpech and Ah Canul, bringing the present-day municipios of Tenabo, Hecelchakan and Calkini under control.  Later in the year, Montejo founded “La Villa and Puerto de San Francisco de Campeche” to further enhance the Spanish occupation of the area.  However, the Spanish encomiendas (royal grants) caused great suffering among the local people and – at times – galvanized resistance to the newcomers; as a result, complete conquest of the region eluded the Spanish administrators.

In late 1541, Montejo decisively defeated the Mayans in a bloody battle at Tihoo. A few months later, on January 6, 1542, Francisco de Montejo “El Mozo” established the city of Mérida, which was built on the site of a Mayan city that was known as Ichcaanzihó or “The City of Five Hills” (the hills were actually pyramids).  This area had been one of the primary centers of Mayan culture for many centuries. But this point, Scholes and Roys wrote that “from here the forces of occupation, strengthened by new recruits, moved into the northern, central, and eastern parts of the Maya country.”

The last holdouts were several Mayan chiefdoms in the eastern part of the peninsula. They were finally subdued after a failed four-month uprising that began in November 1546, and the conquest of the Yucatán was finally considered complete by 1547. Only the Itzá people – living in the region of Lake Petén in present-day northern Guatemala – remained independent. The Itzá kingdom did not submit to Spanish rule until March 13, 1697 when the island capital in Lake Petén was stormed by Spanish troops.

The Colonial Period
The history of the indigenous peoples of the Yucatán between 1546 and Mexican independence is an exceptionally complex story.  In 1545, the first Franciscan friars entered the Yucatán to initiate missionary work among the indigenous people. By 1593, over 150 Franciscan monks had been engaged in missionary work in the Peninsula.  In some areas, the conversion was successful; in other areas, the loyalty to Christianity was so weak that during rebellions, the indigenous religions would be embraced once again.

Because the Mayan lands were offered as land grants to Spanish noblemen and to the Catholic Church, some Mayans became, in effect, slave labor.  Although the Spanish Crown outlawed Indian slavery in the Yucatán in royal edicts of 1549 and 1551, many elements of the Mayan population were, in fact, forced to work under horrible conditions.

At many points during the Seventeenth Century the Mayans rebelled against Spanish rule, some times to protest their difficult work conditions.  Sixteenth Century rebellions took place in 1610-33, 1636-44, 1653, 1669, 1670 and 1675. Of all these, the revolt that took place from 1636 to 1644 was the most wide-ranging and serious, resulting in a temporary revival of the old indigenous religious rites. 

The Revolt of 1761
Sporadic revolts continued into the Eighteenth Century.  In early November 1761, Jacinto Canek became the leader of a new rebellion. Jacinto had adopted the name Canek to suggest that he had a relation to the previous kingdom of the Itzás. After organizing a force of 1,500 Mayans, Canek’s force was confronted by a well-armed Spanish force of 500 soldiers on November 26, 1761 in the plaza of Cisteil (near present-day Sotuta).

In the hand-to-hand fighting, the Spanish forces gained the upper hand. Ultimately, the village was burned and it is believed that as many as 500 Indians perished in the blaze. Canek himself escaped with a small guard, fleeing to Huntulchac. There he assembled a force of about 300 men who had also escaped from Cisteil. But Canek and about 125 followers were then apprehended at Sibac. Canek and eight other organizers of the rebellion were executed in December 1761 –a month after the uprising had begun.

Political Developments (1787-1824)
In 1787, the area of the present-day state of Yucatán was made part of the Intendencia of Valladolid, a part of the colony of Nueva España. But with Mexican independence, Yucatán became a part of the new nation as of September 28, 1821.  Yucatán proclaimed its own sovereignty in August 1822 but was re-incorporated into Mexico in February 1824, becoming a state within the Mexican Republic on October 3, 1824. 

Separatist Activities in Yucatán (1838-1847)
During the mid-1830s, the authorities in Yucatán became discontent with the central government in Mexico City.  Finally, in May 1838, an insurrection started in Tizimín, with the rebels advocating for Yucatecan independence. On May 31, 1841, Yucatán once again declared its independence from Mexico in opposition to President Antonio López de Santa Anna and his administration that had ignored earlier concessions he made to the State. Governor Santiago Méndez ordered all Mexican flags removed from Yucatecan buildings. 

Santa Anna refused to recognize Yucatán's independence, and he barred Yucatecan ships and commerce from Mexican ports and ordered Yucatán's ports blockaded. He sent an army to invade Yucatán in 1843. Although the Yucatecans defeated the Mexican force, the loss of economic ties to the Mexican Republic had a negative effect on Yucatecan commerce. Yucatán's governor Miguel Barbachano y Tarrazo decided to use the victory as an opportunity to return to negotiations with Santa Anna's government from a position of strength. It was then agreed that Yucatán would be returned to Mexico so long as various assurances of the right to self rule and adherence to the 1825 Constitution within the Peninsula were observed by Mexico City. The treaty reincorporating Yucatán into Mexico was signed in December 1843. Ultimately, Miguel Barbachano would serve as the Governor of Yucatán for five terms between 1841 and 1853.

Caste War of Yucatán (1847–1849)
In 1847, while the Mexican dictator Santa Anna was preoccupied with his war with the United States, Yucatan's Liberal leadership – consisting primarily of Ladinos (mestizos) and Yucatecos (citizens of Yucatán of European descent) – declared independence from Mexico. The Mayan Indians were brought into the revolt by promises of land reform and the abolition of debt labor, church dues and the aguardiente tax. But after providing the Indians with arms and military training, the Merida administration balked on their promises and the Mayan troops in Valladolid began to riot.

The revolt gained momentum and quickly spread across the entire state which – at that time – included the area that now includes three states: Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo. Eventually the homes, shops, plantations and government offices of wealthy ladinos were sacked. This revolt – which became known as the “La Guerra de las Castas” or “The War of the Castes”– was primarily directed against the Yucatecos who held most of the political and economic control in the region. The Yucatecos – primarily concentrated in the northwest part of the state – were nearly driven into the sea by the successful Mayan revolt.

Within three months of the beginning of the rebellion, indigenous forces under General Cecilio Chi – a veteran of the Mexican army – had conquered roughly four-fifths of the peninsula from Spanish/Mexican rule. Only the walled cities of Campeche and Mérida and portions of the southwest remained under European control.

As the Mayan army advanced on Mérida during the spring of 1848, the Yucatecos were preparing to evacuate the city. However, when things looked most bleak for the Yucatecos, the Maya suddenly broke off their attack and returned to their fields to plant their corn, in observance of Mayan tradition. The maize planting season had arrived.  It has been claimed that the appearance of flying ants after a heavy rain was the traditional signal to mark the beginning of the planting season.

The Mayans felt a strong responsibility to provide food for their families, but, during the summer months, the Yucatecos were able to regroup. At the same time, Yucatán was once again officially reunited with Mexico on August 17, 1848. Now that the state had once again become part of the Mexican Republic, fresh guns, money and troops from Mexico arrived and, by 1849, the Yucatecos had amassed sufficient supplies and reinforcements from abroad to reclaim the land back from the Maya. When General Chi was murdered, the rebellion collapsed.

The Beginning of the Talking Cross Uprising (1850-1858)
In 1850, a new threat to Yucatán’s stability materialized. The Mayans in the southeast (now Quintana Roo) were inspired to renew their struggle through the apparition of the “Talking Cross.” It was said that in a remote refugee settlement known as Chan Santa Cruz (Small Holy Cross), the Mayans believed that God was communicating with them through a wooden cross which impelled them to once again raise their weapons against the Europeans. The cultists called themselves “Cruzob” – the Spanish word for cross with the Maya plural suffix. With the help of arms supplied by the British (who occupied neighboring British Honduras – now Belize), the Maya declared war against the Yucatecos again.

The new rebellion was infused with religious significance and Chan Santa Cruz became the political and religious center of the resistance. The city – which is located in present day Quintana Roo – was later renamed Felipe Carrillo Puerto after a native-born politician who was assassinated in 1924. The United Kingdom recognized the Chan Santa Cruz Maya as a de facto independent country, in large part because of the thriving trade between the rebel government and British Honduras.

The Separation of Campeche (1858-1863)
But military pressure on the Cruzob rebellion was distracted when Yucatán’s troops responded to a new separatist revolt in the poorer Yucatán region of Campeche (in the southwestern part of the peninsula). On May 3, 1858, Campeche was formally separated from Yucatán, although it was not recognized as a separate sovereign territory until 1863 by President Benito Juarez.

Operations against the Cruzob
In 1860, the Mexican Colonel Pedro Acereto, with a force of 3,000, reached the Cruzob stronghold at Chan Santa Cruz, but was compelled to retire with the loss of 1,500 men killed after a disastrous battle with the Mayans.  Hostilities continued for many years as the Cruzob continued to hold onto their position. Mexican forces once again occupied Chan Santa Cruz in 1871, but were also forced to retire thereafter.

The Cruzob continued to survive on through their trade with the Belizeans. In 1887, the Mayan even considered asking for the protection of the Queen of England. However that proposal was declined and actually led to talks between the Mexican and British governments in resolving the Mayan insurgency and the territorial status of Quintana Roo and Chan Santa Cruz.

In January 1898, Admiral Othón P. Blanco was commissioned by the Mexican Government to secure the border between the Mayan territory and British Honduras. A customs post was established at the mouth of the Hondo River (the present-day boundary between Mexico and Belize) in an attempt to stop the supply of weapons to the Mayan forces. The city of Cayo Obispo (now known as Chetumal) was founded by Blanco in pursuit of this objective.

The Caste War Ends (1901)
On May 4, 1901, a Mexican Government force under General Ignacio Bravo occupied Chan Santa Cruz, dispersing many of the Cruzob rebels in the region now known as Quintana Roo. The rebels had put up a fierce resistance but eventually fled into the swamps. A year later, on November 24, 1902, by a decree of President Porfirio Díaz, the territory of Quintana Roo was carved out of the southeastern section of Yucatán and named after a famous lawyer, Andrés Quintana Roo, a native of Mérida who had played a role in Mexico’s struggle for independence.

Even after the victory of 1901, peace was not assured and in 1910, Mexican troops put down another serious rebellion in the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. It was also during the early years of the Twentieth Century that Yaquis from the states of Sinaloa and Sonora were exiled by the Díaz regime to Yucatán. By the time of the 1910 census, the Mexican census recorded that 1,072 persons who spoke Yaqui – a language native to northwestern Mexico – were living in the state of Yucatán.

The 1921 Census
According to the 1921 Mexican census, the state of Yucatán contained 358,221 persons in a republic that boasted a total population of 14,334,780.  A total of 155,155 residents of the state were classified as being of pure indigenous background (“indígena pura”), representing 43.31% of the state population. 

Another 121,189 residents of Yucatán were classified as “indígena mezclada con blanca” – or mixed – representing 33.8% of the state’s population. The Yucatecos – classified as “blanca” in the census – numbered 78,249 individuals and comprised 21.8% of the states’ population.

The 1930 Census
However, the 1930 census did not classify people by their ethnic identity, but by the languages they spoke.  And in 1930, when 335,445 persons aged 5 and over lived in Yucatán, 242,298 of them (or 72.23%) were classified as speakers of indigenous languages. When viewed in the context of the 1921 census, it might be assumed that many mixed/mestizo inhabitants of Yucatán were speaking indigenous languages, in addition to the “indígena pura” persons.

The 2000 Census
According to the 2000 census, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous languages in the state of Yucatán totaled 549,532 individuals – equal to 37.3% of the state’s total population of 1,472,683.

By far, the most common indigenous language spoken in Yucatán in 2000 was the Mayan language, which was spoken by 547,098 residents of the state. This meant that 99.56% of the indigenous speakers in Yucatán were Mayan speakers.  The other languages spoken in the State were: Chol (474 speakers), Zapoteco (319), Mixe (283), and Tzeltal (222).  In the 2000 census, 12 of Yucatán’s 106 municipios had populations with indigenous speaking populations of 95% or more. Eighteen municipios had populations of 90% or more.

An Archaeological Treasure
Today, Yucatán is no longer a Mayan kingdom and is now part of the large and diverse Mexican Republic. According to Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) and Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI), the people of Mexico belong to 62 official ethnolinguistic groups (grupos etnolinguísticos) that speak 364 language variants.  Sixty-one of the ethnolinguistic groups are indigenous and include several Mayan groups.

The evidence of the Mayans and their rich culture remains throughout Yucatán. Archaeological sites can be found throughout the State of Yucatán… and its neighboring states. Tulum, Xel-Ha, Cobá, Mayapan, Uxmal, El Rey and Xcaret are just a few of the many places left for tourists to visit and appreciate.

Dedication: I dedicate this to the members of Federación de Clubes Yucatecos-USA, Mundo Maya Foundation and Casa Yucatan-USA, who bring the spirit of Yucatán to Los Angeles and the United States. It has been estimated that 90,000 Yucatec Maya live in the United States today.

Copyright 2010 by John P. Schmal. All rights under applicable law are hereby reserved.

Primary Sources:

Departmento de la Estadística Nacional, “Annuario de 1930” (Tacubaya, Distrito Federal, 1932).

Dumond, Don E., “The Machete and the Cross: Campesino Rebellion in Yucatan” (University of Nebraska Press, 1997).

Gerhard, Peter, “The Southeast Frontier of New Spain” (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993, rev. ed.).

Naturalight Productions Ltd,, “Caste War (1847-1904)” Copyright ©2010. Online:
http:// www.northernbelize.com/hist_caste.html

Patch, Robert W. Patch, “Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1648-1812” (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1993).

Reed, Nelson, “The Caste War of Yucatan” (Stanford University Press, 1964)

Roys, Ralph Loveland, “The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya” (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1957).

Roys, Ralph Loveland, “The Indian Background of Colonial Yucatan” (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1943)

Restall, Matthew, “The Maya World: Yucatec Culture and Society, 1550-1850” (Stanford University Press, 1997)

Rugeley, Terry, “Yucatan's Maya Peasantry and the Origins of the Caste War” (University of Texas Press, 1996).