The Maya people constitute a diverse range of Native Americans in southern Mexico and

northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to

include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage;
however, the term embraces many distinct populations, societies, and ethnic groups, who
each have their own particular traditions, cultures, and historical identity.
Mayan population Pre-Columbia is approximately 8,000,000.
[3]
Today there are an
estimated 7 million Maya living in this area at the start of the 21st
century.
[1][2]
Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatn Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador,
and western Hondurashave managed to maintain substantial remnants of their ancient
cultural heritage. Some are quite integrated into the majorityhispanicized Mestizo cultures
of the nations in which they reside, while others continue a more traditional, culturally
distinct, life often speaking one of the Maya languages as a primary language.
The largest populations of contemporary Maya inhabit Guatemala, Belize, and the western
portions of Honduras and El Salvador, as well as large segments of population within
the Mexican states of Yucatn, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas.
Yucatec Maya[edit]


A Jade mask from the state of Campeche
One of the largest group of modern Maya can be found in Mexico's Yucatn state and the
neighboring states of Campeche and Quitana Roo. They commonly identify themselves
simply as "Maya" with no further ethnic subdivision (unlike in the Highlands of Western
Guatemala). They speak the language which anthropologists term "Yucatec Maya", but is
identified by speakers and Yucatecos simply as "Maya". Among Maya speakers Spanish is
commonly spoken as a second or first language. There is a significant amount of confusion
as to the correct terminology to useMaya or Mayanand the meaning of these words
with reference to contemporary or precolumbian peoples, to Mayan peoples in different
parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and to languages or peoples. Linguists refer to Maya
(language) as Yucatec or Yucatec Maya to disambiguate any confusion with other Mayan
languages. This norm has often been misinterpreted to mean that the people are also
called Yucatec Maya, but that term only refers to the language and the correct name for the
people is simply Maya (not Mayans). Maya is one language in the Mayan language family.
Thus, to refer to Maya as Mayans would be similar to referring to Americans as Germanics
because they speak a language belonging to the Germanic language family.
[4]
Further,
confusion of the term Maya/Mayan as ethnic label occurs because Maya women who use
traditional dress autoidentify by the ethnic term mestiza and not Maya.
[5]
As well, persons
use a strategy of ethnic identitification that Juan Castillo Cocom refers to as
"ethnoexodus"meaning that ethnic self-identification as Maya is quite variable,
situational, and articulated not to processes of producing group identity, but, of escaping
from discriminatory processes of sociocultural marginalization.
[6][7]

The Yucatn's indigenous population was first exposed to Europeans after a party of
Spanish shipwreck survivors came ashore in 1511. One of the sailors, Gonzalo Guerrero, is
reported to have started a family and taken up a position of counsel among a local polity
near present-dayChetumal. Later Spanish expeditions to the region were led by Crdoba in
1517, Grijalva in 1518 and Corts in 1519. From 1528 to 1540, several attempts
by Francisco Montejoto conquer the Yucatn failed. His son, Francisco de Montejo the
Younger, fared almost as badly when he first took over: while desperately holding out at
Chichen Itza, he lost 150 men in a single day.
[8]
European diseases, massive recruitment of
native warriors from Campeche and Champoton, and internal hatred between the Xiu Maya
and the lords of Cocom eventually turned the tide for Montejo the Younger, and
consequently resulted in the fall of Chichen Itza by 1570.
[8]
In 1542, the western Yucatn
peninsula also surrendered to him.
Historically, the population in the eastern half of the peninsula was less affected by and
less integrated with Hispanic culture than the western half. Today, in the Yucatn Peninsula
(Mexican States of Campeche, Yucatn and Quintana Roo) between 750,000 and
1,200,000 people speak Mayan. However, three times more than that do not speak their
native language, are of Maya origins, and hold ancient Maya last names.


Chichen Itza
Matthew Restall, in his book The Maya Conquistador,
[9]
mentions a series of letters sent to
the King of Spain in the 16th and 17th Centuries. The noble Maya families at that time
signed documents to the Spanish Royal Family; surnames mentioned in those letters are
Pech, Camal, Xiu, Ucan, Canul, Cocom, and Tun, among others.
A large 19th century revolt by the native Maya people of Yucatn (Mexico), known as
the Caste War of Yucatn, was one of the most successful modern Native American
revolts;
[10]
results included the temporary existence of the Maya state of Chan Santa Cruz,
recognized as an independent nation by the British Empire.


Dr. Francisco Luna Kan is a Maya holding the very common surname "Kan"
Francisco Luna-Kan was elected governor of the state of Yucatn from 1976 to 1982.
Luna-Kan was born in Mrida, Yucatn, and he was a Doctor of medicine, then a Professor
of Medicine before his political offices, his first being overseer of the state's rural medical
system. He was the first Governor of the modern Yucatn Peninsula, from a full Maya
background. Currently, there are dozens of politicians including Deputies, Majors and
Senators of full or mixed Maya heritage from the Yucatn Peninsula.
According to the National Institute of Geography and Informatics (Mexico's INEGI), in
Yucatn State there were 1.2 million Mayan speakers in 2009, representing 59.5% of the
inhabitants.
[11]
Due to this, the cultural section of the government of Yucatn began on-line
classes for grammar and proper pronunciation of Maya.
[12]

Maya People from Yucatn Peninsula living in the United States of America have been
organizing Maya language lessons and Maya cooking classes since 2003 in California and
other states: clubs of Yucatec Maya
[13]
are registered in Dallas and Irving, Texas; Salt Lake
City in Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; and California, with groups in San Francisco, San Rafael,
Chino, Pasadena, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks,
Oxnard, San Fernando Valley and Whittier.
[13]

Chiapas[edit]


Maya populations in Chiapas. The area officially assigned to theLacandon Community is the Montes
Azules Biosphere Reserve, which partly overlaps with the Tzeltal, Tojolabal andCh'ol areas
Chiapas was for many years one of the regions of Mexico that was least touched by the
reforms of the Mexican Revolution. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, launched a
rebellion against the Mexican state, Chiapas in January 1994, declared itself to be
an indigenousmovement and drew its strongest and earliest support from Chiapan Mayans.
Today its number of supporters is relevant. (see also theEZLN and the Chiapas conflict)
Maya groups in Chiapas include the Tzotzil and Tzeltal, in the highlands of the state,
the Tojolabalis concentrated in the lowlands aroundLas Margaritas, and the Ch'ol in the
jungle. (see map)
The most traditional of Maya groups are the Lacandon, a small population avoiding contact
with outsiders until the late 20th century by living in small groups in the Lacandon Jungle.
These Lacandon Maya came from the Campeche/Petn area (north-east of Chiapas) and
moved into the Lacandon rain-forest at the end of the 18th century.
In the course of the 20th century, and increasingly in the 1950s and 1960s, other people
(mainly the Maya and subsistence peasants from the highlands), also entered into the
Lacandon region; initially encouraged by the government. This immigration led to land-
related conflicts and an increasing pressure on the rainforest. To halt the migration, the
government decided in 1971 to declare a large part of the forest (614,000 hectares, or
6140 km
2
) a protected area: the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. They appointed only
one small population group (the 66 Lacandon families) as tenants (thus creating the
Lacandon Community), thereby displacing 2000 Tzeltal and Ch'ol families from 26
communities, and leaving non-Lacandon communities dependent on the government for
granting their rights to land. In the decades that followed the government carried out
numerous programs to keep the problems in the region under control, using land
distribution as a political tool; as a way of ensuring loyalty from different campesino groups.
This strategy of divide and rule led to great disaffection and tensions among population
groups in the region.
(see also the Chiapas conflict and the Lacandon Jungle).
Belize[edit]

This section
requires expansion.(January 2012)
The Maya population in Belize is concentrated in the Cayo, Toledo and Orange
Walk districts, but they are scattered throughout the country. The Maya are thought to have
been in Belize and the Yucatn region since the second millennium BC; however, much of
Belize's original Maya population was wiped out by disease and conflicts between tribes
and with Europeans. They are divided into the Yucatec, Kekchi, and Mopan. These three
Maya groups now inhabit the country: The Yucatec (who came from Yucatn, Mexico to
escape the Caste War of the 1840s), the Mopan (indigenous to Belize but were forced out
by the British; they returned from Guatemala to evade slavery in the 19th century), and
Kek'Chi (also fled from slavery in Guatemala in the 19th century).[66] The later groups are
chiefly found in the Toledo District.
Tabasco[edit]

This section
requires expansion.(January 2012)
The Mexican state of Tabasco is home to the Chontal Maya. Tabasco ( taasko
(helpinfo)), officially Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco (Spanish: Estado Libre y
Soberano de Tabasco), is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise
the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 17 municipalities and its capital city is
Villahermosa. It is located in the southeast of the country along the Gulf of Mexico
bordering the states of Campeche, Chiapas and Veracruz, as well as the country of
Guatemala. Most of the state is covered in rainforest as, unlike most other areas of Mexico,
it has plentiful rainfall year round. For this reason, it is also covered in small lakes, wetlands
and rivers. The state is subject to major flooding events, with the last occurring in 2007,
which affected eighty percent of the state. The state is also home to La Venta, the major
site of the Olmec civilization, considered to be the origin of later Mesoamerican cultures.
Even though it produces significant quantities of petroleum and natural gas, poverty is still a
concern. The state is also the origin of the cocoa bean, from which chocolate is made.

Guatemala[edit]


Ixil women in Nebaj, Guatemala.
In Guatemala, indigenous people of Maya descent comprise around 40% of the
population.
[14]
The largest and most traditional Maya populations are in the western
highlands in the departments of Baja
Verapaz, Quich, Totonicapn, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, andSan Marcos; their
inhabitants are mostly Maya.
[15]

The Maya people of the Guatemala highlands include
the Achi, Akatek, Chuj, Ixil, Jakaltek, Kaqchikel, K'iche', Mam, Poqomam, Poqomchi',Q'anjo
b'al, Q'eqchi', Tz'utujil and Uspantek.
The Q'eqchi' live in lowland areas of Alta Vera Paz, Peten, and Western Belize. Over the
course of the succeeding centuries a series of land displacements, re-settlements,
persecutions and migrations resulted in a wider dispersal of Q'eqchi' communities, into
other regions of Guatemala (Izabal, Petn, El Quich). They are the 2nd largest ethnic
Maya group in Guatemala (after the K'iche') and one of the largest and most widespread
throughout Central America.
In Guatemala, the Spanish colonial pattern of keeping the native population legally
separate and subservient continued well into the 20th century.
[citation needed]
This resulted in
many traditional customs being retained, as the only other option than traditional Maya life
open to most Maya was entering the Hispanic culture at the very bottom rung. Because of
this many Guatemalan Mayans, especially women, continue to wear traditional clothing,
that varies according to their specific local identity.
The southeastern region of Guatemala (bordering with Honduras) includes groups such as
the Ch'orti'. The northern lowland Petn region includes the Itza, whose language is near
extinction but whose agro-forestry practices, including use of dietary and medicinal plants
may still tell us much about pre-colonial management of the Maya lowlands.
[16]

Maya heritage[edit]


Guatemalan girls in their traditional clothing from the town of Santa Catarina Palop on Lake Atitln
The Maya people are known for their brightly colored, yarn-based, textiles that are woven
into capes, shirts, blouses, huipiles and dresses. Each village has its own distinctive
pattern, making it possible to distinguish a person's home town. Women's clothing consists
of a shirt and a long skirt. Roman Catholicism combined with the indigenous Maya religion
to form the unique syncretic religion which prevailed throughout the country and still does in
the rural regions. Beginning from negligible roots prior to 1960,
however, ProtestantPentecostalism has grown to become the predominant religion
of Guatemala City and other urban centers, and mid-sized towns. The unique religion is
reflected in the local saint, Maximn, who is associated with the subterranean force of
masculine fertility and prostitution. Always depicted in black, he wears a black hat and sits
on a chair, often with a cigar placed in his mouth and a gun in his hand, with offerings of
tobacco, alcohol, and Coca-cola at his feet. The locals know him as San Simon of
Guatemala.


Maximn, a Maya deity
The Popol Vuh is the most significant work of Guatemalan literature in the K'iche' language,
and one of the most important of Pre-Columbian American literature. It is a compendium of
Mayan stories and legends, aimed to preserve Maya traditions. The first known version of
this text dates from the 16th century and is written in Quich transcribed in Latin
characters. It was translated into Spanish by the Dominican priest Francisco Ximnez in
the beginning of the 18th century. Due to its combination of historical, mythical, and
religious elements, it has been called the Maya Bible. It is a vital document for
understanding the culture of Pre-Columbian America. The Rabinal Ach is a dramatic work
consisting of dance and text that is preserved as it was originally represented. It is thought
to date from the 15th century and narrates the mythical and dynastic origins of the Toj
K'iche' rulers of Rabinal, and their relationships with neighboring K'iche'
of Q'umarkaj.
[17]
The Rabinal Ach is performed during the Rabinal festival of January 25,
the day of Saint Paul. It was declared a masterpiece of oral tradition of humanity by
UNESCO in 2005. The 16th century saw the first native-born Guatemalan writers that wrote
in Spanish.