Tales From The Yucatan

Caste War of the Yucatan by Jeanine Kitchel

Corozal Town was the entry point for Hispanic settlers fleeing the Caste War in the Yucatan. Photo shows the colonial-style Corozal Town Roman Catholic church in the 1930s.

ENTER HENEQUEN
With independence from Spain just two decades earlier, the Yucatan was reeling from loss of trade with Europe. As one-time key exporter for goods like cattle, timber, salt and cotton, it had been replaced as a trade partner by Argentina and Belize.
With the failure of old money-making exports, the Yucatan needed a new cash crop. Enter henequen, an agave plant, raised for fiber that could be manufactured into rope. An overseas market soon developed and in 1833, the first commercial henequen plantation was founded.

Local landowners slowly converted their rural farms to suit this new crop, named green gold, and as the adaptation took time, cattle and corn crops were not immediately affected, leaving the land issue status quo, and imposing no drastic changes to the Mayan lifestyle. But by 1845, henequen became the major export crop of the Yucatan, and a port city named Sisal was developed near Merida to handle all overseas shipments of the fiber.

Sugar cane, too, began its reign when other traditional crops and exports were phased out after Mexico's split with Spain. And with cane's lofty payback, a 700 percent annual profit guaranteed by the second year's production, this high maintenance crop became popular with the hacendados, or landowners, according to Nelson Reed, author of The Caste War of Yucatan. Two things were needed to expedite this new moneymaker: Land and labor.

Due to this, forest land became a coveted item and although it had been deemed "land owned by all" under Spanish rule, with a new Mexican government, this land could be cultivated and sold. The Mayans would be allowed to lease it back from the government, but then they would be subject to taxation on the land they used. Few Mayans had the resources to do this.

Regarding labor, at the time of Mexico's independence, the Maya were declared free, but hacendados decided that 'the custom of the land' would continue, meaning the Mayan would remain in servitude to his master. The ancient hacendados had grown accustomed to a class of native serfs; they came with the property and could not leave nor marry without the master's consent. And by creating a 'company store' debt system, the Maya could never repay the hacendado, meaning he would stay on indefinitely in serfdom. This well-suited the need for intensive labor in the sugar cane and henequen fields.

SOCIAL CHANGES
Great social changes were taking place on the Yucatan Peninsula. Prior to Mexico's secession from Spain, the Maya had been forbidden to serve in the army or to own military weapons. But with changing times and governments, Mayan numbers were needed to assure victory in whatever present battle was being fought, both on the peninsula and elsewhere.
Three times the Maya were recruited and armed with rifles and machetes, and the third time it backfired. In 1847, after hearing of the death by firing squad to one of their leaders, Maya troops marched on Valladolid , the most elitist and separatist city in Yucatan, and macheted 85 people, avenging old wrongs. Mutilated bodies were carried triumphantly through the streets. With this news, a wave of dread hit Merida, the economic axis of the peninsula, as it was sure to be the next staging ground for what was now becoming a race war.

"The Maya were recognizing their true enemy, the white man," Reed states in The Caste War of Yucatan. "There was a debt to be paid and it was paid with the machete -- for the robbery of their land, for imposed slavery, for whippings, for impiety to God and the forest, and for the severed ears of their grandfathers."

In retaliation for the Valladolid massacre, the Yucatecans descended on the ranch of one of the Maya leaders, raping a 12-year old Indio girl. With this affront, eight Maya tribes joined forces and drove the entire elite population of the Yucatan to Merida, burning towns and pillaging as they went. So fierce was the threat of slaughter, all non-Maya prepared to evacuate Merida and the peninsula, leaving both entirely in Maya hands.

But just as the Maya approached Merida, sure of victory, fate intervened when great clouds of winged ants appeared in the sky. With this first sign of coming rain, the Maya knew it was time to begin planting. They laid down their machetes and headed for home and their corn fields, in spite of pressure from their chiefs. Now it was time to plant corn. A thing as simple and ancient as that.

In 1848, the Yucatecans staged a comeback, killed Mayan leaders and reunified. But as the Mayans harvested corn they had planted in hidden fields, they kept fighting. Hunkering down, they attacked Yucatecan villages, burned huts, murdered any white man they encountered, with no thought of giving up. They relied on guerilla war tactics and fought to preserve the only life they knew.

Through all this, they were pushed to the eastern and southern regions of Yucatan and Quintana Roo, as far south as Bacalar. Mexico slowly gained control over the Yucatan, but the rebels held firmly onto Quintana Roo, using the pueblo of Chan Santa Cruz (present day Felipe Carrillo Puerto) as their base.

CHICLEROS
Eventually a peace treaty was signed, but the Chan Santa Cruz Indians still remained hostile. Although the caste war officially ended in 1855, more or less from lack of interest by those in power in Merida, the struggle which had killed 247,000 would continue well into the 20th century, and involve a bizarre cult named The Speaking Cross, organized by the Chan Santa Cruz Indians who were to remain hostile for decades. Only when the chicle boom hit Quintana Roo in 1915 did their hostility weaken. The Wrigley Company sent in chicleros, chicle collectors, to gather the resin from the sapodilla tree which was used for chewing gum.
At first the chicleros were killed by the Chan Santa Cruz, or robbed of their equipment. But in time, a new Mayan leader took over, General May, who recognized deals could be made with the chicle companies, and slowly an end came to the old system of killing any white man who walked into the territory. Progress was on the way, and in the depths of the forests of Quintana Roo, even the Chan Santa Cruz Indians heard the call.

When 1915 ushered in the Mexican Revolution, General Salvador Alvarado was sent from Mexico City to restore order to the Yucatan, Mexico's most prosperous state, due to the henequen boom.

That September, the final decree ending the caste war came, riding in on the coat tails of the Mexican Revolution. Topping his list of reforms, General Alvarado canceled all 'debt labor' which freed 60,000 Maya and their families, after 350 years of slavery. The Revolution had arrived, and with it, the caste war of the Yucatan ended after 60 years of revolt by a people who fought fiercely to preserve their way of life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeanine Lee Kitchel lives in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Her recent travel memoir, Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, is available at bookstores or at Amazon.com. Jeanine is a new contributor to Belize with her Tales from the Yucatan series.

Contact Jeanine via email casamaya@yahoo.com or through her website Casita Maya.

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