Nachi Cocom

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Nachi Cocom (* around 1510 , † 1560 / 1562 ) was halach uinik of Sotuta , a prince of the Maya and leader of the resistance to the Conquest .

Life

Nachi came from the Cocom dynasty . His birth coincided with the first contact of the Maya with the Spanish in 1511 and so his whole life was also shaped by the clash of cultures, whereby he was committed to tradition and independence. Another determining factor in his life was to be the enmity with the Tutul Xiu , who ruled the neighboring principality in the southwest and had allied with the Spaniards.

On June 11, 1541 he was defeated, leading a united Maya army, against Francisco de Montejo at Tixkokob . In 1542 Sotuta was captured by Montejo and Nachi Cocom was imprisoned in Maní . As a result, Nachi was baptized in the name of Juan. Montejo also managed to reach an agreement with Nachi, according to which he would spare Mérida in the future. There were territorial concessions to the Spaniards, but also official landings for Nachi's loyalists. So could u. a. his relative Francisco Cocom kept his cocoa plantation and fields in Oxilá. This Treaty of Ebtún was the first and, until the 19th century, the only treaty that gave the Maya their land.

He was now a respected person among the Spaniards. As u. a. the Cupul 1546 began a new uprising against the Spaniards, Nachi Cocom was a mediator and peacemaker. He did not do this because he did not consider the uprising legitimate, but rather to stop further bloodshed.

Essential information in Diego de Landa's work "Relación de las cosas de Yucatán", written around 1566, is based on his information.

Nachi Cocom died between 1560 and 1562. His grave was venerated like that of a saint, which is why de Landa had him exhumed and cremated. In the 19th century he was u. a. a monument was erected on a central square in his royal seat of Sotuta.

He had a son Francisco and a daughter. His successor as head of the Cocom and Halach Huinik of Sotuta was his brother Lorenzo Cocom. He survived his brother by only a year, he chose suicide in order to avoid questioning by Diego de Landa.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralph L. Roys : The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya. Washington 1957
  2. ↑ Diego de Landa : Relación de las cosas de Yucatán. online version, Spanish (PDF; 513 kB); on page 23 he is explicitly mentioned as Don .
  3. ^ Inga Clendinnen: Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570. Cambridge Latin American Studies, p. 81

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cocom, Nachi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cocom Ah Na Chi; Cocom, na chi; Cocom, Juan; Cocom Juan Nachi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mayan prince
DATE OF BIRTH around 1510
DATE OF DEATH around 1560