There’s an important article on the Caste War in this Tuesday’s edition of Amandala, but it is a fairly long article and I’m sure most of you won’t take the time to read it. The reason the article is important is because it was written by a former British High Commissioner to Belize, Mr. Peter Thomson, and because it is the first admission I know of, in 2004, by a British official that the British and the Santa Cruz Maya had a “rapprochement” in the second half of the nineteenth century, at the same time that the “Mexicans” had a similar relationship with the Santa Cruz Indians’ “most significant rival Indian tribe, the Icaiche (or Chichuanha).” In other words, it was Belize and the Santa Cruz Maya (the bravos) versus Mexico and the Icaiche (the pacíficos) at various times during the 1850s.

The quotation marks around “Mexicans” are mine because in 1853, when the Mexicans and the Icaiche cut a deal, Mexico was not the modern nation-state we know today. The Yucatán had always been somewhat of a self-contained entity, because it was so distant from the federal capital in those days. Transportation was probably faster by sailing ship than by road 150 years ago, and if you look at the map you will see that Texas is actually much closer to the Yucatán than Mexico City is. There is a history between the Yucatecans and the Texans, who were both giving the federal Mexican authorities all kinds of trouble from time to time.

Before its independence in 1821, Mexico was known as “New Spain,” and its territory included both the Yucatán and Texas. A couple decades after Mexican independence, there were Sam Houston and Davy Crockett and Santa Anna and the Alamo, and Texas became a part of the United States of America.

Anyway, when Thomson referred to “Mexicans” on page 91 of his book, Belize: A Concise History, he was referring to Mérida and Campeche. I can’t see it any other way.

Before I proceed, let me say this. There is a scholar in Belize who is an expert on the Caste War. His name is Dr. Angel Cal, but he never, ever participates in any kind of public discourse on that conflict which is so historically relevant to the history of Belize. The reason Cal never engages in public discourse in his area of expertise, I submit, is because he is a professional academic, and he is concerned about his career in Belize, this being a country where academics are intimidated by politicians.

Belize is not Jamaica, and Belize is not Barbados. Belize is not the British Caribbean. The reason this is so, apart from the fact that Belize was the only British possession in Central America, is because of the Caste War. This was a war which was buried in history because such a burial suited the interests of the Yucatecans north of us and the British here in Belize. But such a burial in history of the Caste War is definitely not in the best interests of the new nation-state of Belize.

By the way, in this issue of Amandala there is another long article on the Caste War, even longer than Tuesday’s. This one is taken from Don E. Dumond’s epic The Machete and The Cross, published in 1997. I urge you to read it. The excerpt from Professor Dumond’s book covers a period of conflict between the British and the Santa Cruz Maya between 1860 and 1861. There was no real border between British Honduras and the Yucatán in 1860 and 1861. Mahogany contractors from Belize had been encroaching on Mexican territory to cut and extract hardwoods. When the Caste War broke out in 1847, the Santa Cruz Maya, followed by the Icaiche, began to “tax” these contractors. The extortions involved violence, and the British, according to Dumond, “felt themselves powerless to take effective action.”

Since, it appears to me, the history has recently emerged in these parts that Belize settlers arranged for London to make Belize a British colony in 1862 because the Belize settlers had gone broke, it suggests to me a reason why in Belize we never used to hear a thing about the second half of the nineteenth century here, except for the beginning of “Centenary” in 1898. The reason is that the Maya, who were not supposed to exist, were kicking a—in the north and the west, and the Brits couldn’t do much about it.

In 1892, a delegation of Santa Cruz Maya visited the British Governor, one Sir Alfred Maloney, at Government House in Belize. The Santa Cruz leader was General José Crescencio Puc, and he brought with him a black man as his interpreter. In his dispatch, Governor Maloney refers to this black man, seated in the middle of the front row with his legs crossed in the accompanying photograph from Dumond’s book, as “a saucy ruffian.” The caption describes the black man as “a demerara boy” who came to Belize as a servant to one of the West Indian Regiment officers and ran away to the Santa Cruz Indians.

The photograph intrigues me at the same time that it frustrates me. From his exaggerated pose, you can see that Governor Maloney was a pompous British official who would have had a problem with a liberated black man. Personally, I would have liked to meet the “saucy ruffian.” More than that, I would have liked for him to have had an encounter with Simon Lamb. I am betting that in Noh Cah Santa Cruz, “demerara boy” would have been like royalty. And in Belize, he would not have taken any disrespect from Maloney or any of his people.

The frustration derives from the fact that we don’t know anything else about this brother. Running north to freedom in the Yucatán was a journey black men in Belize had been taking from slavery days in the settlement. The classic such journey was in 1773, when 19 slave rebels from the Belize Old River, out of an original total of 50, reached Bacalar.

Once a black man from Belize reached the Yucatán, the important thing was for him to accept the Catholic religion. Once he did so, the chances are he would end up marrying a Maya or a Mestizo lady. His children, their children, and all his generations down the line, would be considered full-fledged Mexican citizens, and their ancestral origins in Baymen Belize would be forgotten, except perhaps in family anecdotes.

There are black Belizeans here who are Anglophiles: they are British in their behavior and thinking. I understand why. I am not one of those. I am African in my thinking, and I know why. I give maximum respect to the Santa Cruz Maya.

Power to the people. Power in the struggle.

Amandala

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When Did the Caste War End?

The Power of General Bravo

The Caste War of Yucatán officially ended, after fifty-four years of horror, when a Mexican army occupied the Maya capital on May 4, 1901.

But the deep-rooted and lingering war really had no definitive final battle, no conclusive peace treaty.  No Waterloo, no Appomattox.  The end came several times.  Or maybe not.

The interethnic conflict began in 1847, raged ferociously for a decade or so, then settled into guerrilla clashes and murderous raids.  The cost was about a quarter of a million lives and hundreds of towns destroyed.  The Yucatán Peninsula lost a third to half of its population, killed or forced to flee from the violence.  The rebelling Maya, defending their culture against subjugation and the advances of capitalist agriculture, established and maintained an independent nation, roughly today’s state of Quintana Roo, with their capital at Chan Santa Cruz.

The independent Maya, known as the Cruzo’ob because of their adherence to the indigenous Speaking Cross religion, were sustained by trade with British Honduras (now Belize).  They bought arms and other goods, paying with captured loot and with “taxes” charged to British woodcutters allowed to work in areas they controlled.  Great Britain recognized the Maya free state as a de facto independent nation.

The war might have ended in 1884.  Mexico re-established diplomatic relations with Great Britain, broken seventeen years earlier in retaliation for Britain’s recognition of the French-imposed Maximilian regime.  Britain responded by acting as a peacemaker, sponsoring negotiations between the Spanish Yucateco state and the Maya Cruzo’ob state — while continuing the lucrative arms trade.  A delegation of Maya leaders met with a Yucatecan representative, General Teodosio Canto, in Belize.  They reached a peace agreement that afforded the Maya a measure of autonomy, selection of their own leaders, and an exchange of prisoners.  The day after the signing, a drunken General Canto insulted one of the Maya leaders, Antonio Dzul.  The Maya denounced the treaty and left in anger.

In 1887 the Maya formally requested that Britain annex their territory and place them under the protection of Queen Victoria.  The British declined the offer.  But this incident inspired talks between the Mexican and British governments aimed at pacifying things along their mutual border.

Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, working to put down several long-running Indian revolts, recognized that cutting off the arms supply was key to winning in Yucatán.  A first step was to settle the long-disputed boundary between Mexico and British Honduras.  The Spencer-Mariscal Treaty, signed in 1893, did that by establishing the Río Hondo as the boundary.  Howls of protest arose from Yucatán over the loss of territory they believed to be theirs.  Mexico resolved some outstanding debt problems, and the British agreed in principle to suppress the arms trade.  In fact, little changed on the last point.

Within the Cruzo’ob nation, disputes over peacemaking and allocation of timbering proceeds were causing rapid changes in leadership.  Central authority deteriorated, people were emigrating, and the number of effective troops was falling.  A rare visitor in 1888 reported Chan Santa Cruz depopulated, although still used as a ceremonial and meeting place, with the Speaking Cross shrine heavily guarded.  The Cross itself had been taken to Tulum and then, amid further political squabbles, moved to Chunpom, about midway between the two rival sanctuaries.  In 1892, a British merchant opened a store in ruined Bacalar, undermining the isolationist leaders.

In 1896, actions got underway that led to the official end-of-the-war date five years later.  Independent-minded Yucatán finally accepted that all-out Federal assistance was the only way to end the war.  Mexican and Yucatecan troops established a headquarters for invasion at the abandoned town of Sabán, on the frontier east of Peto, about fifty miles northwest of Chan Santa Cruz.  President Díaz selected General Francisco Cantón to be governor of Yucatán, a military man to support a joint military effort.

In a move to stop the flow of arms and timber proceeds to the Maya, Federal authorities ordered a young naval officer, Sublieutenant Othón Pompeyo Blanco, to establish a military station and customs post at the mouth of the Río Hondo.  Blanco decided he preferred a floating fortress over a land-based one.  His superiors accepted the plan, and Blanco supervised construction of a suitable vessel at New Orleans.  It was a game-changer.

Blanco’s vessel, christened Pontón Chetumal, was an unpowered, tub-like barge.  Built of cypress planks with an armor-protected deck, it was 62 feet long and 24 feet wide with a draft less than three feet.  A single mast supported an armored crow’s nest.  Armament consisted of one rapid-firing Hotchkiss cannon, one machine gun (a French mitrailleuse or possibly a U.S. Gatling), fifteen Winchester repeating rifles, six pistols, and eighteen machetes.  Chetumal had a motor launch and small sailboat as auxiliaries.

His unusual vessel was towed to Belize City.  There Blanco dealt with the delicate diplomacy of enforcing an international boundary on a river woodcutters had long considered their private waterway.  The British authorities gave their assent, and on the afternoon of January 22, 1898, an American-flagged steamer towed Blanco with his twelve-man crew into Chetumal Bay and to their station off the Mexican shore at the mouth of the Río Hondo.  Blanco’s men soon received a letter from the rebel Maya warning them to “leave or have their skulls converted to drinking cups.”

Unintimidated, Blanco recognized the need for an actual settlement, not just his floating fortress, to hold this strategic location.  He recruited Mexican refugees and founded a town beside the bay on the left bank of the river.  Under protection by his sailors, the settlers cleared the brush, put up barracks and a pier, and laid out sand streets.  At dawn on May 5, 1898, and with great emotion, the first residents cheered the raising of the Mexican flag and sang the Himno Nacional Mexicano accompanied by a brass band.  They called the town Payo Obispo in honor of a bishop — later archbishop and viceroy of New Spain — Payo Enríquez de Rivera y Manrique, who had stopped there briefly in the 17th century.

The humble barge Chetumal effectively intercepted the supply of arms, gunpowder, and timber revenue and provided a base for conducting reconnaissance on Maya strength in the region.

Then the serious troop build-up began at Sabán — seven battalions of Mexican regulars and three of state militia, equipped with modern five-shot Mauser rifles, machine guns, and rapid-fire de Bange field artillery.  General Ignacio A. Bravo, a long-time military supporter of President Díaz, arrived to take command.  A small, seventy-year-old man with a huge, drooping white moustache, Bravo was chosen because of his genocidal success against the Yaquis in Sonora.  The General declared he was on a “humanitarian and civilizing” mission.

The British government urged last-minute negotiations, but neither the Maya nor the Mexicans had much interest.

Bravo initiated a “scientific” campaign.  Well supplied, he progressed eastward on a road built through wide clear-cuts, establishing strong points connected by telegraph lines and field telephones.  It was basically a construction project, with the military protecting the work gangs and the state government pouring in money.

Maya soldiers first opposed Bravo’s advance on December 27, 1899.  Although they outnumbered the Mexican-Yucatecan army, the Maya found their dry stone walls were no match for artillery fire.  Their shotguns, ancient muzzle loaders, and machetes were ineffective against modern weapons, and they were short on ammunition for the single shot Martini-Enfield rifles they bought from the British.  As shot for their muzzle-loaders, they resorted to using bits of telegraph wires they had taken down and cut up.  Bravo’s fortifications, clearings, and good communication precluded the ambushes they had used effectively for so many years.

In four months, Bravo’s army advanced thirty miles toward Chan Santa Cruz, building good wagon road and forts along the way.  When the rainy season began in May 1900, the supply routes became impassable, a severe measles epidemic struck the Maya forces, and military action paused.  Things resumed in early 1901, with the Maya attacking in force but unable to stop the relentless advance.

A simultaneous naval operation from Chetumal Bay advanced against light resistance and occupied the ruined and abandoned town of Bacalar on March 31, 1901.  Forces under General José María de la Vega began advancing toward Chan Santa Cruz from the south.  Vega also sent forces to land at a sand spit on Ascensión Bay called Vigía Chico; at Tulum; and at Xcalak, a deserted peninsula seaward of Chetumal Bay.  The Maya nation was surrounded.

By Robert D. Temple

The Yucatan Times

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THE YUCATEC MAYA CULT OF THE TALKING CROSS AND THE CASTE WAR

During the nineteenth century the subject Maya population of the Yucatan revolted against the Hispanic overlords who kept them in servitude. The conflict, known as the Caste War of the Yucatan in 1847 . Soon the Maya had nearly succeeded in driving the Hispanics out of the peninsula, driving them back to one final refuge, the city of Merida in the north of the peninsula. However, the Maya abandoned their seige of the city when the season for planting corn came. That allowed the Hispanics to bring in new troops. The Hispanics with the new force push back the Maya deeper to the Jungle . When the Maya was losing the war a miracle happen .

In that jungle setting a miracles Crosses dress with a Maya huipil appear and it is said that God spoke through them . The cross was originally found at a small spring or cenote (it is said that there were actually several talking crosses, but this is the most famous and hisorically important). The miracle of its speech inspired the Maya resistance. In time a large church, called the Balam Na, was built (partly with White captive labor), and the talking cross was relocated there. From this jungle refuge, known as Chan Santa Cruz or the Little Sacred Cross, the Maya operated autonomously with their Maya State called Chan Santa Cruz and their Capital Noh Kah Balam Nah Chan Santa Cruz . At its greatest extent, from the 1860s through the 1890s, the Chan Santa Cruz state encompassed all of the southern and central parts of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. With associated, buffer and splinter groups, this state was the core of a broader indigenist independence movement that controlled virtually all of the old Iz'a territories. These territories include the eastern, central and southern portions of the Yucatán peninsula, extending from Cape Catoche south to include what is now northwestern Belize and northeastern Guatemala. During and after the War many Maya rebels from the Chan Santa Cruz area came to Belize bringing with them the tradition of dressing the Cross with a Maya huipil . Today in Northern Belize many Maya continue dressing their Crosses with a Maya Huipil especially for Hanal Pixan (Day of the dead) altars as a reminder of their grandparents struggle during the War . While in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo the Maya continue worshiping the talking cross .

Note: Hispanic is some one from Spanish descent . The Yucatec Maya(Masewal) who follow the Cult of the talking Cross are known as Cruzoob Maya . The caste war ended in 1901 when the Mexican federal army took Chan samta Cruz capital . The Maya continue their arm struggle until the 1940's until the last rebel groups sign peace with the Mexican state . The Yucatec Maya rebels called them selves Masewal or Maya Masewal . Masewal meaning "Us" or " The people" and they called the Spanish "Dzuloob" meaning "foreigner " . The term Masewal is still used today by the Yucatec Maya in the Quintana Roo state(Mex) and also it is used in Belize (Cayo,Orange Walk & Corozal)

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Belize Caste War project by SJC

The history of the Maya of northern Belize today known as the Yucatec Maya. This is the stories of Maya of Orange Walk who are telling their story from their Grandparents about the Guerra Social Maya "Caste War". The Caste War was a Maya rebellion where the Yucatec maya fought against the Spanish and British.

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Starting of the Caste War (Guerra Social Maya)

300 years after the Spanish came ,300 years of oppression the Yucatec Maya rebel against the Spanish in 1847. This Maya rebellion was plan by Jacinto Pat, Cecilio Chi and Manuel Ay . The Maya rebellion in Yucatan inspired the Maya in Belize to do the same against the British but in smaller scale . While the British constantly promoted “The Myth of the empty land” in Belize . Saying that there were no one when they came to this land now call Belize . Today we know that there are evidence that the Yucatec Maya were still living by the Rio Bravo,Yalbac area and Lamanai in Orange Walk District when the British came . The Yucatec Maya strongly resisted British attempts to take over their territory. In 1788, the British reported a Maya attack on woodcutters at New River. In 1802 some troops were ordered to "be sent up river to punish the Indians who are committing depredations upon the mahogany works". When the Caste War(Guerra Social Maya) started in 1847 and the Migration of other Yucatec Maya groups who join the local ones the rebellion got better organize . At the time when the British wanted to expand their woodcutting operations they faced Maya resistance in Icaiche and in the Yalbac área of Belize. The Yucatec Maya in Belize were able to defeat the British in the village of San Pedro siris in Northwestern Belize December 21,1866 . This battle is known as the Battle of San Pedro Yalbac. .

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The Maya Masewal(Yucatec Maya) rebels did not wanted special rights for the Maya but equal rights for its citizens. For over 300 years the Maya have been oppressed by the Spanish which cause the Guerra Social Maya more commonly and wrongly known as the "Guerra de Castas" but it was not a race war, it was a social war . The rights of owing land,following their traditions,rituals and other rights which had been deny by the Spanish rule through the white supremacy system known as the casta system . This is a letter by several Yucatec Maya commanders during that Period (1847-1930's) .

Note: The Spanish call it "Caste War" but today we use the term Maya Social War . Ts'ul refer to those of Spanish/Hispanic descent or foreigners . Box to those of African descent . Masewal refer to some one of Maya descent(Yucatec Maya) or to some one who have adopted the Maya identity,Maya way of life and was fighting alongside the Maya against the Spanish Yucatecos.

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CASTE WAR STORIES: SAN PABLO ORANGE WALK

Pedro Marin is said to have fled to Belize from Chan Santa Cruz, Quintana Roo with his wife Paula Acosta shortly after the turn of the century. Before coming to San Pablo he lived in Corozal Town and Louisville where he worked as a laborer on sugar ranchos. Many of the Mayeros who settled in the Douglas-San Pablo area during the 1920s came from sugar ranchos in the Corozal and Orange Walk Districts (San Juan Saltillo, Louisville, and Caledonia; and Louisiana Farm, and San Lorenzo).

while others had moved away from BEPC-owned villages (San Estevan, San Felipe, Libertad, and San Joaquin) get out form under company control. There are a number of treasure stories associated with this period which have as their central theme the hoarding and loss of gold—usually through the indiscetions of a woman. It is said that Pedro Marin left his wife Paula Acosta when she divulged to some "Mexicans" the location of Pedro's gold. Marin left his wife and only returned to San Pablo to raise his children after she died.

- The Political Ecology of Peasant Sugarcane farming in northern Belize BY Higgins, John Erwin.

During and after the Caste war many Yucatec Maya(Masewal) rebels left Noj Kaj Santa Cruz territory and came to northern Belize . The Reason for leaving was because of the Mexican federal army took the Maya rebel capital Noj Kaj Santa Cruz (Felipe carrillo puerto ,Mex). While others left because they did not agree with the decisions made by their leaders.

NOTE: This picture is from Don Canuto Marin a Maya elder from San Pablo who still speaks fluently Yucatec Maya. Don Canuto Marin is a descendant from Don Pedro Marin. A Mayero is someone of Yucatec Maya descent. A Maya Masewal is a Yucatec Maya. The term Mexican is used to refer for people of Central Mexico or soldiers of the federal army.

Courtesy Belize Yucatec Maya

THE YUCATEC MAYA AND THE MAYA SOCIAL WAR IN NORTHERN BELIZE & SOUTHERN MEXICO

The Guerra Social Maya (1847-1901) more commonly known as the Caste War is a well known episode of our history in Northern Belize and southern Mexico. The Maya(Yucatec Maya) rise against the oppression of the white men in 1847 after nearly 300 years of being slaves in their indigenous land . The Cruzoob Maya(Blue) were fighting against the Spaniards,The local Maya in Belize Icaiche Maya(Green) and the incoming San Pedro Maya(Red) join to fighting against the British. This 3 groups are all Yucatec Maya and many of us are descendant of this warriors . knowing your history is a good way of knowing yourself.

NOTE: The colors represent the territories under control of the different Maya Masewal(Yucatec Maya) tribes(The Icaiche Maya control the San Pedro Maya territory also) . All this is the Maya world . There was no border between Mexico and Belize it was until 1893 in which the British and Mexico(Spanish elite goverment) agree that the Rio Hondo would be the Border and was Finalized in 1897 as a way to control the Maya . The British try hard to deny the existance of the Maya in whats today Belize . The British conveniently categorized both the indigenous Belizean Maya and the Mayan immigrants of the 18OOs as "aliens". This categorization justified treating the Maya en bloc as outsiders of what they regarded as their colony of Belize. Mayan existence was practically denied by the British authorities. They were rendered invisible. For example, prior to the census of 1861, no attempt was made to count the indigenous Maya. The 1861 census lumped all the Maya as immigrants but there were Mayas in Belize especially in northern Belize before the massive migration because of the Caste War. The Yucatec Maya group known as the Icaiche Maya territory included northerwestern Belize and in a point the British even payed the Maya tax to used thier land . In those same areas the British where attack around 1790's and 1801 by the Maya .



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IN THE MONTH OF APRIL IN 1870, MARCOS CANUL BRIEFLY TOOK COROZAL TOWN:


Marcus Canul was a Yucatec Maya and one of the better known leaders of the Icaiche Maya. The Yucatec Maya group known as the Icaiche Maya territory included part of northwestern Belize and southern Mexico close to the Rio Hondo. When the British arrived in Belize, they discovered mahogany and started to export it. They reported several attacks on the British camps from the Maya in 1788 and 1801. The Maya retreated to the jungle . At the time when the British wanted to expand their woodcutting operations they faced Maya resistance in Icaiche and in the Yalbác area of Belize. With the support of Marcus Canul and the Maya who had migrated to the San Pedro,Yalbác area the Icaiche led by Asunción Ek defeated the British troops in December 21,1866 known as the battle of San Pedro Yalbác.

The British were scared; 5 soldiers dead and 16 wounded. The British sent more troops and weapons to destroy the Maya villages burning their houses and fields. The Maya rebuilt their villages. Marcus Canul and the Icaiche continued fighting. They marched into Corozal Town in April 16,1870 briefly taking over the town. The Icaiche`s last stand was in September 1,1872 when Marcus Canul and over 150 Icaiche warriors attacked Orange walk Town. Marcus Canul was mortally wounded. With their charismatic leader gone, there was a lull in attacks from the Icaiche but the records indicate that their resistance continued until the end of the century.

Information courtesy of Belize Yucatec Maya

What is the source for teh letter by several Yucatec Maya commanders during that Period

Join the Northern Maya Yucatec Association of Belize as they discuss la Guerra de Castas!

One of the reasons for the Caste War in Belize was because the British were expanding their logwood operations in areas where the Maya Máasewal (Yucatec Maya) villages were located. The British did not want to pay tax for the use of the Maya land to the Maya Máasewal (Maya Yucatec). The Maya had the north-western Belize under their control. So, the Maya Máasewal raided the British at Hillbank in 1847, by the New River settlements in 1848, at young Toledo & Company in 1856, at Qualm Hill and Indian Church in 1866, also in 1866 they fought at the battle of San Pedro Yalbac, took over Corozal Town in 1870, fougth the battle of Orange Walk Town in 1872, but the attacks continue until 1879. The Maya Máasewal resisted until the 1930’s in the Yalbac area when their villages were burnt down by the BEC (Belize Estate Company). After the war, many Maya Máasewal became cane farmers.