THE GUATEMALAN INDIANS

BY LILLY DE JONGH OSBORNE,

Member of the Society of Geography and History of Guatemala and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid

T first sight, the Guatemalan Indians are just merely picturesque

A people, who adorn the landscape with their colorful clothes; a cross

between beasts of burden and handy persons to have around on a plantation or on moving day; primitive individuals, who seemingly are quite content with their lot. It is enough for an Indian to have a small thatched hut and a diminutive patch of ground on which to plant sufficient corn for the needs of his immediate family; three meals a day with a monotonous menu of tortillas (corn paste cakes), frijoles (black beans), and coffee of a very indifferent quality; and a few chickens and a pig, which nine times out of ten looks anæmic and longsuffering. One suit of clothes is the rule, but it must conform in every detail of it and color combination to the rules prescribed for those worn by all his tribe. He must have a little money, enough with which to buy "white eye" on Sundays and fiestas.

On closer acquaintance, the Indian is a much more interesting individual, with a personality all his own and traditions which still retain a strong flavor of those in vogue centuries ago among his ancestors.

Properly to understand the modern Indian, it is necessary to have a background of his history. This is furnished by various periods of historical events. Taken as a whole, the Indians form the first great period of Guatemalan history. No other country has more well-defined periods in its historical development than Guatemala; the first period begins in the Dark Ages and ends with the arrival of the Spaniards; the second covers all the colonial period, in which the Spaniards made efforts to conquer and christianize the Indians, ending with the Declaration of Independence from Spain in 1821; then comes the modern or last period, which covers the events during the Republican régime up to the present time. The last period has witnessed the development of the Republic, which has taken its place among the civilized countries of the world and asserted itself as a distinct personality among its sister republics of Central America.

THE MAYAS

In the humid lowlands of what is now Guatemala, Honduras, and Yucatan (Mexico), there flourished a civilization which can be compared to no other before or after. During the years preceding

and following the beginning of the Christian era, until the opening of the seventh century, thousands of Maya Indians lived in enormous stone cities, the ruins of which still bear evidence of the high degree of civilization which these people had attained.

During this period, the Mayas developed and lived in what are called the Old Empire sites, including Copan, Quirigua, Tikal, Palenque, Piedras Negras, and Naranjo, to mention only a few of the many which flourished during that time.

After they had reached tremendous heights in their artistic and scientific development, for some as yet undiscovered reason the Mayas abandoned these cities. It may have been that the soil was exhausted, or that earthquakes occurred; perhaps epidemics or great wars drove the people away, letting the forests again cover the enormous temples, palaces and other stone buildings. The beautifully carved stelae and carvings in high and low relief on all the buildings could only have been made by a people of artistic temperament. The well-developed system of hieroglyphic writing and counting was amazing. What has been learned of their civil and religious life is also wonderful, especially for a people living in that day and age. As I have stood before the enormous carved stones in Copan and Quirigua, it was hard to realize that the labor involved had been executed solely with stone implements, with no beasts of burden to help transport the huge blocks of stone to the places where they were left at the exodus of the Indians.

The New Empire of the Mayas attained its greatest glory in the peninsula of Yucatan, where Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Mayapan formed what is called "the League of Mayapan." During this period, which ended about the thirteenth century, great cities were erected and Maya civilization flourished and reached great heights in every branch of the arts.

Between the arrival in Yucatan of the Maya people from the south in the tenth century and the time when they abandoned their Old Empire sites, they seem to have built a few smaller places en route, but none of consequence or to be compared to the great Old Empire sites or the New Empire sites in Yucatan.

The ruins of the New Empire sites show these places to have been simply stupendous; highly developed architectural knowledge conceived the enormous buildings which in the last few years have been uncovered and partly restored.

Once again, some unknown reason forced the Mayas to abandon their cities, and this time they scattered to the south, but made no further attempt to form nations and build cities as their ancestors had. It may safely be said that with the breaking up of the League of Mayapan about a century before the Spaniards arrived, the history of the Mayas ended. After this, outside forces, especially Mexican,

influenced these people, and the pure Maya civilization ended for all time.

But there is still another part of the history of their ancestors which we must take into account, the story of the Indians whom the Spanish conquistadores found in Guatemala in the early part of the sixteenth century.

Utatlan, Iximche, Tzaculheu, and Tecpan-Atitlan were al flourishing cities at the beginning of the sixteenth century, strongholds wherein lived thousands of Indians, with a well-regulated civil and religious life; the inhabitants preserved very little of the artistic

MONOLITH FROM TECPAN, GUATEMALA

This gigantic carved stone discovered near Tecpan, one of the centers of the Cakchiquel Indians, has been removed to Aurora Park in Guatemala City as a monument to an early civilization.

development of their ancestors, the Mayas, although they had a calendar of their own and a literature which expressed their thoughts. They had palaces, temples, and fortifications against the enemy; outside these cities as many more people lived in thatched huts, exactly as the present-day Indians do. Their artistic abilities were expressed in gold and silver work, in feather and cotton embroideries on their clothes, in music and in dancing; architecture, however, was much neglected. Warfare occupied much of their time. The Spaniards found many parts of the country at odds with each other, a fact which facilitated in no small degree the conquest by the Spaniards.

It was hard for the conquistadores to judge the degree of civilization the Indians had attained, for according to European standards they were a barbarous people of no intellectual attainments at all. It is not surprising that most of the old chronicles give the impression that the Indians were savages, an absolutely primitive people-which was not the case at all. The few records that survived the wholesale burning and destruction of Indian books prove that the Indians were far from savagery at that time.

Soon after the Spaniards arrived, the Indian civilization underwent further transformations; Spanish traditions and customs mingled with Indian ones, forming a strange mixture. To this was also added the influence of the Mexican Indians who followed the conquistadores into Guatemala.

During this second period of Guatemalan history the Indians lost much of their individuality. Pressure was brought to bear on them to conform to the customs and religion of the invaders. Very soon villages and towns were founded by the Spaniards; the outstanding feature in each one was the large church built on Spanish architectural lines. Around it were grouped houses, like those of the smaller Spanish villages; around the houses the thatched huts of the Indians were placed. This same arrangement may still be seen in every valley and mountain nook in the country; the last four centuries have hardly changed the aspect of these villages. The church forms the center of the village life, and in the open square in front of it all the religious and civil festivals take place. By the end of the colonial era, the Indian, though retaining his Indian way of living, had become a strange mixture. Many had a strong strain of white blood; these were called Ladinos. In the last century their number reached large proportions, especially in some of the southeastern portions of the country, where the real Indian has completely disappeared.

During the last hundred years traditions and old customs have continued, perhaps more openly than in the three centuries immediately preceding. A semblance of old lore can still be found, a most interesting sort of mongrel civilization; it is a queer mixture of foreign influences made by the Indian mind into something completely new. This is what is mistaken by so many as true Indian lore, coming directly from the Mayas, but a good three-quarters of it is outside influences— not necessarily pure Spanish, but also Aztec, Nahuatl, and Mexican, likewise African, and nowadays in some places, German-with a strong Indian flavor.

TRIBES

The Guatemalan Indians are not all of the same stock. In Guate mala to-day there are 21 different groups, more or less, speaking different languages, none of which can be understood outside its respec

tive territory. Most of these groups belong to the large Maya-Quiché family, but they separated from the parent stock so long ago that they developed quite different languages, as well as diverse habits and even physical characteristics. Therefore they may really be called different groups, tribes, or races. The different bloods mixed with the parent strain in smaller or larger proportions make these differences very marked.

To the Quiché tribe, whose ancestors were living in the fortified city of Utatlan in 1524, when the Spaniards destroyed this last Indian stronghold, now belong such important centers as Santo Tomas Chichicastenango, Quezaltenango, Totonicapan, and Momostenango, famed for its lovely woolen blankets. The Quiché Indians are a clean and industrious lot. Their language boasts a literature-among its famous books is the Popol-Vuh, or so-called Quiché Bible, a classic which has been translated into all modern languages; it is full of traditions and lore relating to these people, beautifully expressed, and gives an insight into a side of the Indian character which otherwise would be hard to understand. The Rabinal-Achi is also written in the Quiché language. This drama, with music for religious dances, is full of Quiché traditions; it was admirably interpreted and translated into Spanish by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in the latter part of the last century. In addition, there have been found innumerable land grants in the Quiché language, the most important being the titles belonging to the "Señores de Totonicapan.'

Next in importance are the Cakchiquel Indians, also of the same parent stock. They live near what is now Guatemala City, and their ancestors occupied the stronghold of Iximche when the Spaniards arrived. They also have an important literature; Los Anales de los Cakchiqueles has been translated into other languages and studied by students interested in Indian lore. The Cakchiquel Indians live in and around such centers as Tecpan, Solola, and Antigua.

Around Lake Atitlan the inhabitants of the various villages which cling precariously to the cliffs on the shores of the lake belong to three distinct tribes. Some are Quichés, others Cakchiqueles, but the greater part belong to the Tzutuhil tribe, also of the Maya-Quiché group and related to the above, even though their physical appearance differs greatly. They are good fishermen, their canoes being quite distinctive, built in a style not to be found anywhere else in the country. They had a stronghold called Tecpan-Atitlan from which they defended their homes against the Spaniards, but they were defeated like all the rest of their neighbors.

The Mam Indians were living in and around the great fort of Tzaculheu when the invaders arrived; they also tried to resist their enemies, but were overcome. The descendants of this race still live in the vicinity of the old city, now in ruins, and also in Huehuetenango.