The Maya Of Yucatan
The Maya of Yucatan: The Mayans seemed to have entered Yucatan from the west led by their son-god hero ( Itzamna). This immigration originated from the far-east beyond the ocean along what is mythically believed through the waters.
The second migration was led by Kukulcan , a priest and teacher who founded the Mayan kingdom and civilization. Under Kukulcan, the people were divided into four major tribes namely , cocom, tul-xiu, itza and chele.
These were a tribe from Mexico who were talented and experts in mathematics and were commonly accepted to have the initial concept of the zero number. They were also renowned astronomers. They inhabited Yucatan from roughly 300-1000AD. The Chichen Itza ( was the main city) is the site of the two different eras of settlement of the Mayans.
The first settlement left behind ruins of their former temples and religious sites originally built around 500 AD. At around 800 AD, they intermingled with the Toltecs ( their neighbors) and this saw they birth of the Golden Age popularly known as the Golden Age and what is currently referred to as The Maya –Toltec culture.
The Mayans had the ability to understand the stars and the sun rotation and were also able to extend their calendar for a 2000 years period into the future. This was the only way to fore-tell the future then until the introduction of the calendar system by the Europeans.
They were also renown agriculturalists and to ensure they had rains throughout the year , they used to offer human sacrifices to the ‘rain god’. At around 1000 AD and with the mingling of the Mayans with the Toltecs, things changed as the Toltecs were very influencial and thus they imposed their religion of human sacrifices to the Itza . These sacrifices came from victims mostly young women, children , old men and women.
However, at around 1194 , the Mayans broke this alliance and subdued the Chichen and Uxmal thus causing the city to be abandoned.
The Caste War: The mayans were warlike and always invaded their neighbors for land , citizens and captives ( for human sacrifices). Some of the captives were subjected to double sacrifice where the heart was torn out for the sun and the head cut-off to pour blood out for the earth. The caste war was fought between the European Yucatecos and the mayan people. This was ignited by the execution of three mayans at Vallidolid, Yucatan for planning an uprising against the colonialists. This move was more politically based than racial and so deep-rooted was the war in the sense of defense of communal lands against the expansion of private ownership.
The greatest success occurred in 1848 when the Europeans were driven from the peninsular after heavy rains and with a delayed decree from the then governor, Miguel Barbachano. The majority of the maya troops left to plant their crops planning to return after but with the traditional signal of swarming of flying ants, they abandoned the war. This forced the Yucatan to be prematurely declared independent but was officially united with Mexico on 17th August 1848.
The European forces ( Yucateco) rallied and with fresh supplies of guns, money and troops from Mexico managed to push the maya back from more than half the state. The European Yucatecan government took control of the northwest and the maya the south east with a small population in the in-between jungle frontier.
The Mayans continued to struggle so as to free their land but this did not stop until on 11th January 1884 when a treaty was signed between the Vice-governor of Yucatan and the general of Chan Santa Cruz in Belize declaring the latter an independent nation.
The rebels were the anti-government armies ( the mayans ) who were opposed to the government’s ( European ) idea of private ownership of land as compared to their way of communal land ownership.
Emilio Zapata Salazar: He was born on August 8, 1879 and died in April 10, 1919. He was the son and 9th born of Gabriel Zapata a trainer and trader of horses. Despite a lot of difficulties in his childhood , Zapata did manage to acquire limited education from his teacher Emilio Vara. His family were metizos , a mixture of Nahua and Spanish ancestry. However, at a tender age of 17 years, e lost his father and took up his family responsibility.
At the time, the ruling social system did not favor the indigenous communities but instead forced them into slavery as it took control of more and more of their land. Zapata’s family was however middle-class and therefore was able to maintain their land and as a result of his love for bull-fights ( common entertainment then) Zapata attended a meeting in 1906 in Cuautla to discuss a way to defend the land of his fellow community on which he worked as a farm-hand. In 1908 , and with a post rebellion experience , he was drafted into the 9th regiment and sent to Cuernavaca. As a result of his skills with the horses , he was exonerated after six months.
In 1909, however , the chief elder of the village, Jose Merino, decided to resign and called an important meeting to name his pre-decessors. Out of the three names that were mentioned, Zapata’s was chosen and thus he became the Chief Elder.
For several years, he campaigned endlessly for the rights of his villagers and got infuriated at the pace which the government was moving at to implement reforms. As a result, he turned to the armed forces for assistance. In 1910, he was elected the Army general and formed the Liberation Army of the South ( Morelos). He , together with his colleagues ( Madero, Pancho Villa, Pascual Oruzco) saw Madero overthrow the then president in May 1911.
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