Ch'orti Maya Area: Past and Present

Part 3: The Southeastern Maya Periphery during the Colonial Period

part iii The Southeastern Maya Periphery during the Colonial Period The history of the Ch′orti′ region has until recently largely been an untold story. As our two historians here mention, sources are scarce and the area has not attracted as much scholarly attention as have other areas of Mesoamerica. Some books and dissertations specific to eastern Guatemala include those of Ingersoll (1972), Flores (1973), MacLeod (1973), Terga (1980), Mosquera (1982), Feldman (1985), Fry (1989), Todd LittleSiebold (1995), Jefferson (2000), and Brewer (2002). Much historical work remains to be done on western Honduras and northwestern El Salvador, although a few national studies of Honduras and El Salvador have covered these regions. Both of the following historical chapters demonstrate that the Ch′orti′ area continued to be demographically dynamic over the three centuries of colonial rule (a.d. 1524–1821). The indigenous population continued to be culturally and linguistically Ch′orti′, but the vast majority of “Indians ” became hispanicized, leaving only isolated pockets of culturally distinctive Ch′orti′, most notably in the Jocotán parish in the GuatemalanHonduran border region. Stewart Brewer’s general history of eastern Guatemala from the Conquest to the 1800s provides the most important features of colonial history, such as the Ch′orti′ resistance to the invasion, the dramatic population decline, the influx of Spaniards and Africans, the export economy of such commodities as cattle, sugar, and cocoa, and the absence of regular clergy (friars) among the missionaries. Brewer’s forthcoming book will go a long way toward shedding light on the history of Ch′orti′ region. 135 136 · Part III Lawrence Feldman has been one of the first and most systematic pioneers in exploring the various archives on eastern Guatemala and western Honduras, and we are fortunate to have his contribution here. He presents two cases that illustrate the demographic instability in the area. His explanation of the many Copans will be welcome to the many of us who have gotten them confused and who are eager to know something about the colonial history of western Honduras. His examination of latecolonial San Juan Ermita in Guatemala provides a rare look at how precarious “the good life” was in the Ch′orti′ region, as Spanish descriptions depict the Indian community going from fairly prosperous to destitute in just a few decades. Figure III. Catholic priest with Ch′orti′ women, circa 1931–33. (Photo by Charles Wisdom, Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives, Manuscript 4826, #274) ...