[Aztlan] Rebel Maya villages

[Mike Reed]

I am responding to Hube Smith's remarks about the
descendents of the rebel Maya from the 19th century
Caste War.  That is indeed interesting hearing that
the Mexican army officers were met with resistance to
the evacuation orders in the hurricane zone this week.
 However, it is not surprising to hear of their
reaction.  What is more surprising is that these
officers would not expect such a response from these
villagers, who are the descendents of the rebels, and
who continue to maintain the military structure of
their small society, as well as their belief system
and their distrust of ladino authorities, especially
the Mexican army.  The Mexican authorities and army
are well aware of the history of these groups and
their distrust of the Mexican military.  

There is some confusion presented here in your
statement about these rebel villages being close to
Cancun.  Actually, the furthest north that rebel
villages continue to exist is in the forests directly
to the west of Akumal, and of course the Maya
residents of Tulum, who have lived there for at least
a century, following their return from exile in Belize
in the later parts of the Caste War.  There are no
rebel villages to the west of Cancun any more.  I
understand that the rebel inhabitants of places like
Kantunil Kin are long gone.

The greatest concentrations of rebel communities
surround the Ladino town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto,
which was the original rebel capital and sacred shrine
of Noh Cah Chan Santa Cruz.  This town, which did not
exist prior to 1850 was a gathering spot for the
various rebel groups driven from the state of Yucatan
following the collapse of the rebel offensive in 1848
that drove the Spanish speaking population into the
northwest corner of the Yucatan Peninsula, around the
capital of Merida.  The famous "speaking crosses"
appeared on a mahogany tree above a minor cenote in
1850 during the Maya retreat, and is said to have
given comfort and hope to these defeated groups, while
they made a new life in that formerly unpopulated
forest.  Once established around the little cenote,
and organized again into communities of fighters, the
rebel Maya developed a small independent state that
held out for the next 50 years, away from the
authority of the Yucatecan and Mexican governments. 
They can be considered the most successful Native
American rebellion in the past five centuries. 
However, disease, internal discord and modern military
technology put an end to the independence of these
Maya in 1901 with the capture of Chan Santa Cruz. 
During the past century, the little town was
repopulated, mostly by Spanish-speaking Ladinos, and
was shunned by the Maya groups that built the town. 
The great Maya temple, the Balam Na, located on the
main square of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, and dominating
the town by its height and size is now the town's
Catholic Church.  The property in the town that
surrounds the old Shrine of the Speaking Crosses, the
original Balam Na was ceded back to these rebel
villagers in the 1990s, and is today a park, where the
rebel Maya venerate the place where the crosses first
appeared, and hold religious services and festivals. 
Visitors are welcome, but expected to be respectful of
the holiness of the site.  A full time guardia
composed of members of the rebel groups continues to
maintain a rotation of duty at the schrine.  These are
Maya soldiers, led by generals, who continue the
military structure of this Maya society, but with the
understanding that they are no longer independent from
the authority of the state.  They are generally left
alone by local authorities.  When confrontational
situations occur, it is usually along the lines of
what was described in the above posting, when the
authorities intervene in any way in the activities of
the residents of the rebel villages.  

Tulum continues to support an active community of
rebel descendents, who maintain their own "Iglesia
maya" in the "old" part of Tulum.  They have basically
been pushed into the background of their own town as
the once communal forest has been sold off and
subdivided into property lots, bringing in the tourism
industry, since the 1980s.  

These Maya have an interesting understanding of what
has happpened to their holy shrine town, and recent
events.  During much of the Caste War, Tulum was a
sacred Maya shrine, and rebel center, surpassing in
importance, the older capital of Chan Santa Cruz by
the mid-1860s.  When I used to travel there in the mid
and later 1970s, the town of Tulum was a collection of
Maya huts, a Pemex gas station, and a Mexican army
outpost, which was located at the turnoff to the Tulum
ruins.  

I recently visited with Pablo Canche Balam, who owned
property on the Tulum beach, and offered hospitality
to vagabonding young people more than 30 years ago. 
He is an elder in the Iglesia Maya and was a well-know
figure on the east coast for many years.  He was also
given a lead role in the '70s film, "Chack, the Rain
God", the only movie with dialogue only in Maya until
Mel Gibson's recent film.  

Pablo told me in 2005 that the spate of huge
hurricanes was part of the punnishment that the Chacs
(he also used the term, God) sent to his Maya children
for their failure to continue planting corn around
Tulum.  The economic understanding that the government
had sold off parcels of land had nothing to do with
Pablo's understanding.  They were being punnished for
their failure to fulfill their religious duty to plant
corn.

A very old and interesting perspective on recent
hurricanes by very traditional Maya.

Mike Reed


       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's 
Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when. 
http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/222