Jacinto Canek
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Jacinto Canek, or Jacinto Uc de los Santos (ca. 1731, barrio de San Román, City of Campeche, New Spain—December 14, 1761, Mérida, New Spain) was a Mayan revolutionary against the Spanish in New Spain.
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[edit] The setting
The excesses of the Spanish Church, the cruel tactics of the military, and the harsh exploitation possible under the hacienda system failed to suppress the Mayan spirit during the centuries following the Conquest. Spanish priests tore down Mayan temples and burned their sacred books, viewing them as pictures of the devil. The hacienda system robbed the Maya of their sacred land, then placed them in slave labor to the new Spanish landowners. The military meted out its own form of swift and final punishment.
Jacinto Canek was born in the middle of the eighteenth century. He was born Jacinto Uc, but apparently adopted Canek to show a relation to past kings of the Itzas with that name. He studied Latin and history in the Franciscan monastery Convento Grande in Mérida, but was expelled for his rebellious spirit. For a number of years he worked as a baker.
[edit] The revolt
Canek arrived in Cisteil, a village near Sotuta and 24 leagues from Mérida, on November 3 or 4, 1761. On November 8 he had an argument with the parish priest from Tixcacaltuyub, who was in Cisteil to say mass. Canek threatened to kill the priest, and the priest complained to the authorities. The following day, while the priest was saying mass, Canek raised a false alarm of fire, apparently to empty the church so that he could kill the priest. The priest, however, was not killed.
By November 12, Canek had been accepted as leader by nearly the entire population of Cisteil. According to the subsequent declaration of Luís Cauich, perhaps the only resident of the town who did not accept Canek and who later aided the Spanish authorities, the population kissed Canek's hands and feet as a sign of obedience.
On November 19 or November 20, 1761, after a religious function in the church at Cisteil, Canek spoke to the assembly in Maya:
My beloved children, I do not know what you await to shake off the heavy yoke and laborious servitude in which the subjugation of the Spanish has placed you. I have traveled through all of the province and have inspected all of the villages and, considering carefully the usefulness the Spanish subjugation has brought to us, I have not found a single thing but painful and inexorable servitude.... The demand for tribute is not appeased by the poverty that locks up our comrades as in a jail, nor is the thirst for our blood satisfied by the continuous whippings that bite and tear our bodies to pieces.
On November 19, Diego Pacheco, a Spanish merchant, arrived in Cisteil intending to collect some debts. He knew nothing about the changed situation there. When Canek heard of Pacheco's arrival, he brought together the chief men of the village, and they went to the tavern where Pacheco was lodged. They were armed with three rifles and some sharpened sticks. After a short dialog between Canek and Pacheco, the merchant was killed. This was the first irreversible act of the rebellion. There was now no going back.
Later that day, Canek was crowned king. His followers went to the church and removed the Virgin of Guadalupe and St. John, along with various ornaments and sacred objects. They were brought back to the place where Canek was staying, and he was crowned with the Virgin's crown and given a mantle and scepter. The population told him that the Virgin, wife of St. John, was now his wife, as lord of the earth. To inspire confidence, he made them believe that he had been given magical powers and could count on the aid of five brujos (wizards). The new royal and supernatural status this ceremony gave to Canek attracted many more followers.
[edit] The suppression
On November 20, 1761, Captain Tiburcio Cosgaya arrived at Cisteil intending to put down the rebellion. The Indians were expecting him. In the skirmish that followed, eight Indians, Capt. Cosgaya, and five other Spanish soldiers were killed. Canek made it known that the ultimate victory of the Mayas was already written in the Chilam Balam.
The governor of Yucatan sent dispatches to all the captaincies of the province, ordering them to assemble the militias. He also ordered that the Indians throughout the province be disarmed.
A major force under the command of Estanislao del Puerto and an officer named Cristóbal Calderón was sent out to surround the village and prevent the entry of reinforcements for the rebels. The rebels in the meantime were preparing their defenses and sending out messengers to nearby villages to incite rebellion.
The Spanish force of 500 soldiers met Canek and the Mayas on November 26, 1761. The plaza of Cisteil was defended by two lines of trenches containing 1,500 Indians. In hand-to-hand fighting, the better-armed Spanish triumphed. The village was burned, and 500 Indians were said to perish in the blaze. This number included eight leaders of the rebellion, known as priests or prophets.
Canek himself escaped with a small guard, fleeing to Huntulchac. There he assembled a force of about 300 men who had also escaped from Cisteil. But Canek and about 125 followers were then apprehended at Sibac. Canek was condemned to death, to be "tortured, his body broken, and thereafter burned and the ashes scattered to the wind."
[edit] The aftermath
The sentence was carried out in the main plaza of Mérida on December 14, 1761, less than a month after the uprising began. Eight confederates were hanged. On the following days sentences of 200 lashes and mutilation (loss of an ear) were carried out against 200 other participants.
José Crespo y Honorato, governor of Yucatán at the time, attributed the rebellion to the following causes. The peaceful history of the Indians of the province led the authorities to allow them firearms for hunting deer. The hunt was important because they struggled to get enough food. Also contributing were the failure of the priests to teach Spanish to the Indians, to indoctrinate them in Roman Catholicism, and to stamp out the festivals, music and dances of antiquity. Crespo thought the celebrations preserved the memory of the ancient rites and religion. He also believed that the rebellion against "God and king" was not spontaneous, but had been plotted for more than a year.
The rebellion again broke out (the Caste War) in 1847, and Canek's name was the rallying cry. At this time the Maya were better organized and determined to drive the Spanish and Mestizos, their mixed-blood descendants, out of their land. For two years they pushed toward Mérida and Campeche, after taking town after town, finally laying siege to Mérida and reaching Campeche. They were rejected little by little but this rebellion continued until the early twentieth century (More than 50 years of war). In 1901, Mexican general Ignacio Bravo, almost obtained the dominion of the whole territory.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- (Spanish) Ancona, Eligio, Historia de Yucatán.
- (Spanish) Barral Gómez, Ángel, Rebeliones indígenas en la América española. Madrid, MAPFRE, 1992.
- (Spanish) Bracamone y Sosa, Pedro, La encarnación de la profecía Canes en Cisteil. Mexico City: CIESAS, 2004.
- (Spanish) "Canek, Jacinto," Enciclopedia de México, v. 3. Mexico City, 1996, ISBN 1-50409-016-7.
- (Spanish) Casarrubias, Vicente, Rebeliones indígenas en la Nueva España, 1945.
- (Spanish) Informe del gobernador José Crespo al virrey de Nueva España sobre la rebelión en Cisteil y sentencia de Jacinto Canek. Mérida, January 16, 1762.
- (Spanish) Reifler Bricker, Victoria, El cristo indígena, el rey nativo. Mexico City, FCE, 1981.
