The Blue Monkey Review

The Spanish conquest of the New World went along more like a bad marriage, with periods of rapid progress (deterioration from the inigenous point of view) and long stretches of slow encroachment. Considering the size of their empire in the Americas, relatively few Spanish made the trip there to lend a hand. They always depended upon indigenous as collaborators, and in many areas the local people held out. The Pueblo in the North of New Spain came under the rule of cross and crown in the 17th century, then rebeled and had to be reintegrated into the empire..

Accorind to Michael Coe, the Maya held out longer than any other indigenous people, at least any other under direct pressure from Spanish civil and religious authorities. Mayan lords borkered deals witht the Spanish and resisted conquest even against the brutal Pedro Alvarado. The last area that came under control was the lowlands of Guatemala, El Peten, and the last Mayan city was Tayasal.

Tayasal requires some explanation. It certainly belonged to the Mayan culture, but the Itza people who lived there had assimilated to Mayan culture in the centuries after the classic period. This group had first migrated north, giving the Itza to Chichen Itza, and exercised influence over a large area--one of the few "empires" in the Mayan experience. But even post-classic cities eventually declined, and people migrated to other areas. One group of Itza made its way to El Peten, to the lake where they built an island city.

Much of the classic culture disappeared by the post-classic period (ca. 900-1524). Priests apparently lost the knowledge that allowed them to make the long-count calendar calculations. Glyph writing fell into disuse. The stone and pottery art will still impress, but the cities of the period lack much of grandeur. Still, the culture persisted along with some form of the social and economic system that marked Mayan culture.

How long did they hold out? Remarkably, they persisted into the 17th century. They resisted military pressure from the Spanish governor of the region, and when friars visited in 1695 the king of Tayasal flatly rejected Christianity. Finally in 1696 to 97 Martin de Ursua led the military expedition that laid siege of Tayasal and brought down the last Mayan city.

1697? Michael Coe encouraged his readers to imagine the implications. Here stood the last of the great stone age civilizations, Coe wrote, still carrying on blood sacrifice to their gods while Harvard students worried over Calvinist theology. It's easy to extend this. Did the kings of Tayasal still draw blood from their penises to please the gods while John Locke was writing his treatises on civil government? Did priests still cut out the hearts of sacrificial victims while Isaac Newton was sorting out the law of universal attraction? When was the last juego de pelota, the distinctive ball game that Mayans played on into the years of the conquest?

In the event, Flores turned out to be kind of a disappointment. The island is tiny. I made a slow circuit of it in about 20 minutes. My only adventure there involved not finding an automatic teller and having to pay for a beer with my Visa card. From my in-depth survey, it appears that most of the business on the island consists of hotels, bar/cafe/restaurants, and travel agencies providing tours to Tikal and hikes to anywhere. Later I hired a launch to take a tour of the lake (the launch seats 24, but the 16 year old boatman, Aristides, had only me to keep under control). The Tayasal people clearly made a living from fishing and probably from trade. The thick jungle that surrounds the lake must have helped keep European civilization at bay.

My homage to Tayasal ended well, though. I finally found an ATM in Santa Elena (after several false starts) and also met Kea and Marissa, who were having the same trouble finding a machine that worked. They were both young women (Candadian and American respectively) traveling on a very short shoestring. I treated them to beers, and they appreciated the relative opulence of Hotel Esplendido where I stayed.

It's fairly consistent that when I meet other tourists (and recall, these are non-tour tourists) they turn out be really good people. They value other cultures and diversity, recognize the need for more cooperation to help people in poor countries, respect the environment, and also respect the local people they meet. We had a great time discussing common interests. Kea had an amazing story about staying for a couple of weeks in Havana at the end of three months in Cuba. Some former (?) IRA activists happened to be holding a reunion in the same hotel and drank the hotel out of all its beer. Everyone who wanted to drink had to go looking for it in other bars.

Both Kea and Marissa are still making their way through college, and both have interesting career ideas. Neither one is likely to become a stock broker or a Christian conservative. They just need more time to have the influence they deserver. Maybe the next Tayasal will fare better.