[Aztlan] Votan

[Karen Bassie]

<>The early events of Three Votan and his followers are similar to the 
Chontal ruler called Auxaual who came from Cozumel, ascended the 
Usumacinta and created a town called Tanodzic (near present day 
Tenosique) sometime in the mid-fourteen century as noted by Scholes and 
Roys.  Auxual's descendants then moved to the northeast and were in 
control of the entire Acalan region by the time the Spanish arrived in 
A.D. 1519. Whether Three Votan arrived before or after Auxual or was his 
contemporary is unknown. The information about Votan stems from the 
publications of Núñez and Ordoñez. Núñez described how Three Votan left 
behind relics that were to be honored by his descendants. To house these 
relics, it was said that Three Votan created a cave simply by blowing 
(thus he had the powerful wind attribute of One Ixim and Kukulcan). 
Votan assigned a female ritual specialist to guard and maintain his 
shrine and then he mysterious departed. This departure parallels the 
Popol Vuh story of the primary lineage head Balam Quitze of the K'iche' 
who gave his people a sacred bundle that represented him, and then he 
and the heads of the other three K'iche' lineage miraculously 
disappeared. The Votan cave was located near Huehuetlán (modern 
Huehuetán) in Soconusco. When Núñez made his inspection of this town in 
A.D. 1691, he discovered the cave shrine was still guarded by a female 
ritual specialist and that the natives continued to venerated Three 
Votan. Núñez confiscated the relics and publically destroyed them in the 
main plaza of the town. There is nothing in the original documents on 
Votan to substantiate the idea that he was associated with Palenque.

Ordoñez played a role in the early investigation of Palenque. In 1746, 
Fray Antonio de Solis was appointed the resident priest for the Tumbala 
region, and he spent six months in the town of Santo Domingo Palenque. 
As was the custom, Solis was accompanied by his extended family: three 
married brothers, one sister and several nephews. The Solis family 
visited the Palenque ruins during one of their jungle outings, and they 
were astonished by its size. The family's time in Santo Domingo Palenque 
was cut short when Fray Solis unexpectedly died. Solis's young nephew 
José de la Fuente Coronado was sent to study in San Cristobal where he 
met his six year old cousin Ramón de Ordoñez y Aguiar (the older brother 
of Fray José). Coronado's stories of the jungle ruins intrigued the 
young Ramón. Like his brother José, Ramón joined the priesthood and rose 
to the position of canon of the San Cristobal cathedral. His strong 
interest in native history continued, but time and financial limitations 
prevented Fray Ramón from leading his own expedition to investigate 
Palenque. Instead, he asked his brother José and a group of friends to 
make the journey, which they did in 1773. Ramón then sent a report of 
their findings to Luis de Roca, the Dominican provincial, urging that 
the site be mapped and excavated and that the art work and inscriptions 
be drawn. Roca, in turn, sent the report to the President of the Royal 
Audiencia José de Estachería. In 1784, Estachería ordered José Antonio 
Calderón (the alcalde mayor of Santo Domingo Palenque) to explore the 
ruins, and thus began the early investigations of Palenque.
But I repeat, there is no evidence that Votan was ever associated with 
Palenque.