Chan Santa Cruz

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Approximate Mayan sphere of influence around 1870

Chan Santa Cruz ( Mayathan "Small Holy Cross"), Xbáalam Nah Kampokolche Chàan Santa Cruz or Noh Kàah Chàan Santa Cruz Báalam Nah Kampokolche ("Great Place of the Small Holy Cross and House of the Jaguar") was the political and religious center of the independent eponymous Maya state on the Yucatán Peninsula (in what is now the state of Quintana Roo ) during the Caste War from 1847 to 1901.

The village of Chan Santa Cruz arose from 1850 around a cenote , next to which Báalam Nah ("House of the Jaguar"), the Temple of the Speaking Cross , was. The independent Maya territory stretched from Tulúm in the north to Bacalar (conquered by the Maya in 1858) in the south on the border with British Honduras and had over 30,000 inhabitants, exclusively Maya . The capital had around 300 houses with 2,000 to 7,000 inhabitants around 1860. The residents of Chan Santa Cruz, especially the fighters, were called Cruzoob ("Kreuzler", also Cruzob or in modern Mayathan spelling Kruso'ob ).

The highest spiritual and military authority in Chan Santa Cruz was the Keeper of the Cross ( Nojoch Tatich , "Great Lord"), who received his commands from God through the Oracle of the Speaking Cross. The two best-known Tatich were Venancio Puc (1858–1864) and Crescencio Poot (1875–1885), feared by the whites and admired by the Maya.

Chan Santa Cruz maintained trade relations with Great Britain through British Honduras (wood for weapons), which were discontinued by the British in 1893. The population of Chan Santa Cruz State decreased from about 35,000 in 1850 to about 10,000 in 1900 due to the effects of the war.

Two attacks by Mexican troops on Chan Santa Cruz in 1851 and 1860 were repulsed. It was not until 1901 that Mexican units under General Ignacio Bravo succeeded in taking the city of Chan Santa Cruz, which had previously been vacated by the Cruzoob. Fighters from Chan Santa Cruz found refuge in hamlets in the forest areas, including in X-Cacal Guardia .

The Mayan city was razed to the ground and the city of Santa Cruz de Bravo was built in its place (named after the victorious General Bravo), which now served as the military garrison and seat of government for the military administration of the newly formed territory of Quintana Roo. Foreign corporations received concessions for the extraction of wood and rubber .

After the fall of Porfirio Díaz , the governor General Bravo was recalled and the administrative seat moved to Payo Obispo (now Chetumal ). The stolen lands of Chan Santa Cruz were returned to the Maya as ejidos in the 1920s . However, the former Mayan capital was no longer used as such and fell into disrepair. An epidemic of smallpox led to further severe population losses among the Maya during this period.

It was not until the 1930s that the place was repopulated as the center of the wood and rubber trade and has been called Felipe Carrillo Puerto since 1932 , named after the socialist governor of the same name of Yucatán after the Mexican Revolution , under which the exploitation of wood and rubber was withdrawn from foreign corporations and only people residing in the region were allowed.

The changed political and socio-economic conditions finally enabled the remaining Cruzoob to conclude a peace treaty with the Mexican government in 1935 , in which the former recognized Mexican rule.

According to the 2000 census, the municipality (municipio) Felipe Carrillo Puerto with 77.75% is the one in Quintana Roo with the largest proportion of Mayan speakers .

SIL International uses the term "Maya, Chan Santa Cruz" [yus] for the variant of Mayathan spoken by the approximately 40,000 Cruzoob -Maya (more precisely: descendants of the Cruzoob of Chan Santa Cruz) in Quintana Roo , in order to linguistically distinguish it from other Mayathan- Speakers ("Maya, Yucatán" [yua]) to be delimited.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Kampocolche: Tree used as a medicinal plant with small leaves, yellow flowers, and small yellow fruits." Flora of Yucatan. http://www.archive.org/stream/floraofyucatanfistan/floraofyucatanfistan_djvu.txt
  2. ↑ Santa Cruz , "Holy Cross", was borrowed from Spanish; Kampocolche is a nearby Mayan settlement; noh  = large, kàah  = village, town, chàan  = small, báalam  = jaguar, x-  = female, near  = house; see. Diccionario Básico Español.Maya.Español, http://www.uady.mx/sitios/mayas/diccionario/index.html

literature

  • Mario Humberto Ruz: Paisajes domesticados - images etnográficas de tres micro-regiones . Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Centro de Estudios Mayas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2002. 348 pages. P. 63: X-Yatil, X-Pichil y Tres Reyes - Comunidades de la Zona Maya .

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