Wk. 2 Primary Source Arana Xajilá, Annals of the Cakchiquels (1519-1560)

Question 1

Arana Xajilá, Annals of the Cakchiquels (1519-1560)

Answer 1

Annals of the Cakchiquels (1519-1560) – Author, Arana Xajilá (c. 1502 – c. 1581). It is a history of the Cakchiquels, a Mayan tribe living in what is now Guatemala.

• Xajilá was one of several authors who added to the chronicle over time. These excerpts cover the earliest years of the tribe’s contact with the Spanish, beginning with the first arrival of European diseases.

What were the Spanish looking for in the New World?

• The Spanish were looking for Christians (or to convert people to Christianity) and also wealth.

How did the Cakchiquels react to them?

• It didn’t say how they felt about the Spanish in general, but it went into great detail about how the arrival of the Spanish brought disease that swept through the Cakchiquels and killed them en masse.
• In response to the widespread, terrible death, survivors gave up hope and committed mass suicide and “Threw themselves into the ravines”.
• When the Machiavellian Spanish leader, Tunatiuh, “conquered all the towns” And demanded their wealth, (“Why have you not given me the metal (gold and silver)? If you do not bring me the precious metal in all your towns, choose then, for I shall burn you alive and hang you.”), they at first refused to give him what he asked for (“They fought with the people and persisted in war. Death [the pestilence] ravaged us again, but the whole country continued to refuse tribute”).
• But after a while, “the Cakchiquels surrendered and agreed to pay tribute to the Spanish”.
• After that, the Spanish ruler, Tunatiuh was merciless, demanding great wealth in terms of gold, silver, and slave labor for mining and building.
  
  • “heavy tribute was imposed; they paid gold and silver before the face of Tunatiuh, and there were demanded as tribute five hundred men and five hundred women to go to the gold washings; all the people were busy seeking gold. Five hundred men and five hundred women were also demanded by Tunatiuh to aid in building Pangan for his princely residence.”
• ​When a more sympathetic ruler was sent, the Cakchiquels found some relief, but they were still demeaned and ruled by the Spanish. Life would never be the same again.
• ​Eventually, monks came and introduced them to Christianity. “Brother Pedro and Brother Juan were the first who taught us the word of God.”
• And though the Cakchiquels seemed to accept God, they quickly discovered that such beliefs were no help in shielding them from the death of disease.
  
  • “again the pestilence which had formerly raged among the people. It came from a distance. It was truly terrible when this death was sent among us by the great God. Many families bowed their heads before it [and died].”

How was Cakchiquel society altered by interaction with and eventually rule by the Spanish?

• The Cakchiquel were decimated by disease and war with the arrival of the Spanish. They transformed from a flourishing, self-sustaining, and cooperative society, to a subjugated, impoverished and sickened people, subject to the whims of their Spanish overlords.

Other points:

• The Cakchiquels point out the devastation at the hands of the Spanish, but they were not innocent. They too waged war against their neighbors, and I imagine that they felt quite justified in partaking in that violence even as they were disgusted by the violence of the Spanish.
• The author made it sound like the ultimate spread of the disease from the Cakchiquels was due to the Cakchiquels themselves rather than the Spanish – at least to the Panatacat people, upon whom the Cakchiquels waged war.
• The Spanish Ruler, Tunatiuh was particularly merciless and monstrous in his dealings with these people. And you can’t just chalk that up to them being outsiders as the person who replaced him showed great (relative) compassion for the people.
• The Cakchiquel were strong, proud people, standing up to the Spanish demands – at least for as long as they could. There comes a point when they simply had to surrender or die altogether.