1 comments about Yaxcaba and the Caste War of Yucatan: An Archaeological Perspective.

1. The "caste war" that took place in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico from 1847 to 1901 is justifiably considered to be the most successful Native American rebellion against European influence and domination to take place in the recorded history of the New World. It was the attempt by the Mayan people to eradicate foreign domination and revitalize their ancient culture. The conflict led eventually to successful agrarian reform and the reassertion of traditional Mayan land use. It also generate a new religion with priesthood and cultural practices focused on the worship of a prophetic "talking" cross. The resulting economic and cultural transformation provided informative insights for understanding present-day Mexico and the expansion of capitalism to the rural countryside. Yaxcaba And The Caste War Of Yucatan: An Archaeological Perspective by Rani T. Alexander (Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, New Mexico Statue University - Las Cruces) is an impressive work of original scholarship and a highly recommended addition to academic library reference collections and New World Archaeology supplemental reading lists.

No comments about THE CASTE WAR OF YUCATAN.

1 comments about The Machete and the Cross: Campesino Rebellion in Yucatan.

1. This carefully researched history of Yucatan's 19th Century Caste War is a long overdue addition to our understanding of one of the most fascinating chapters in the turbulent history of Mexico. Don Dumond draws from a wealth of primary source documents in this comprehensive overview of the 54 year life-and-death struggle that began in 1847 as a regional rebellion of Maya campesinos living on Yucatan's eastern wilderness frontier. Events rapidly spun out of control, when early Maya success on the battlefield unleased the pent-up energy of long-simmering grievances and hatred directed towards the Spanish-speaking elite, a group the Maya still thought of as foreigners three centuries after the Spanish conquest of Yucatan. As the rebellion caught fire, more Maya communities rose up, sensing the power of the moment, transforming the uprising into a peninsula-wide race war that came close to driving the Ladino population from the land.
   
   Dumond presents a detached and balanced description of the major players and events of the rebellion, leaving the more colorful details of the battles and the stories of heroism and personal survival to Nelson Reed, whose excellent and very readable "Caste War of Yucatan" provides the stuff of a good war story. The appeal of The Cross and the Machete, is more to the student of Mexican history or the serious history buff. Here, Dumond removes the "climax" of the 1848 Maya offensive from its unlikely pedestal, where the Maya farmer-soldiers are closing in on the final Ladino enclave around the capital, Merida, only to abandon the field of battle at the first sign of the winged insects, whose presence in the skies call them to their sacred obligation to plant corn. Rather than "divine providence" saving the Yucatecan Ladinos, touted by many writers, Dumond argues that the Maya offensive petered out at the outskirts of Merida because the campesino army had not only overextended itself, but it had failed to inspire the long-dominated Maya of the Ladino northwest to join the revolt. In this story, the less exciting historical interpretation triumpths over the myth.
   
   The Maya offensive and Ladino recovery of 1847 through 1850 are only the beginning to what turns into a protracted struggle for survival for the rebels and their descendants, who retreat into the wilderness of the eastern and southern forests, coalescing into a number of independent Maya communities in a permanent state of war against Ladino Yucatan, and much of the time, against each other. The most important of these rebel groups, who became known as the Cruzob, found strength and inspiration from a set of "speaking crosses," which appeared in1851 in a dell containing a small spring, deep in the eastern forest. Manipulated by a small group of rebel leaders, the crosses provided guidance and hope for the rebels in their darkest days, attracting large numbers of rebel families, who created a new Maya society there, and whose aggressive military carried out spectacular raids into Yucatan, and fought to a standstill the Yucatecan and Mexican armies sent against it. A well-equipped Mexican army finally put the rebellion to an end in 1901, by which time, disease, discord and desertions had decimated the ranks of the rebels.
   
   "The Machete and the Cross" gives a great deal of attention to the Cruzob, and other rebel groups known as "Pacificos" who had signed vague peace treaties with Mexico, but lived in mostly independent and self-contained communities far from the reach of the Ladinos. Within the ranks of the Cruzob, Dumond brings to light previously unreported factions that operated somewhat outside of the tight control of the centralized leadership. We learn, for the first time, that the Cruzob town of Tulum, on the far north coast, actually became the most important center of the cross cult after the palace revolt that cut down the ruthless Cruzob leader, Venancio Puc and his Interpreter of the Cross in the capital of Noh Cah Santa Cruz in 1864.
   
   Finally, the role of the munitions suppliers in British Honduras, and the delicate political position the colony found itself in as a result of its policies are explored at length in this well-crafted history.

No comments about Maya Wars: Ethnographic Accounts from Nineteenth-Century Yucatan.

No comments about Yucatán's Maya Peasantry and the Origins of the Caste War (Symposia on Latin America Series).

4 comments about The Caste War of Yucatan [Revised Edition].

1. I'm the author of books and articles about Mexico, Cancun and the Yucatan Peninsula. I've lived in Cancun since 1983 and I find the The Caste War of Yucatan by Nelson Reed the most useful and fascinating book about this area.
   
   The modern history of the North American continent began here in Quintana Roo, the site of the first Spanish landing on the mainland. The story of Quintana Roo is the story of Mexico in miniature. Nelson Reed's book is by far the most authoritative history of Quintana Roo ever published in English.
   
   Although closely focused on the Maya rebellion that began in 1847 and continued well into the 20th Century, The Caste War of Yucatan presents a sensitive, accurate and comprehensive picture of the entire history of the Yucatan Peninsula, with many important insights into the history of Mexico as well.
   
   Meticulously researched but written in a gripping narrative style that reads like a popular novel, this book is entertaining, horrifying, sad and always profoundly fascinating. Very highly recommended.
   
   jules_siegel@cafecancun.com



2. Nelson Reed's "Caste War of Yucatan" tells the story of an obscure Maya rebellion in Mexico in the 1840's with vigor and a style that makes this history come alive. This is a history that most Yucatecan ladinos didn't want told for many years. But in a masterful way, Reed has put life into one of the most interesting corners of the history of the Americas...the only successful native American rebellion...one that ended in disaster for all concerned.

   The story covers the 53 year struggle of the communities of Yucatec Maya that rebelled against intolerable oppression in 1847 and whose events snowballed to an all out race war which raged on and off until its flame was finally extinguished due more to illness and exhaustion than to the resolve of the participants. This gripping tale of battles and desperation has enough horror and action to cause the reader to ponder who these Maya are that today greet the Cancun visitors with warm smiles and hospitality.

   Mike Reed




3. Having recently bought property on the Maya Riviera and interacting with the Mayan construction workers I am fascinated by their culture. I like to immerse myself in the local culture and learn all I can of my new neighbors both Mexican and Mayan. It was stated in a book that the Yucatan was uninhabitable by white people until into the 1900's. Therefore I thought it worth a look at this historical event, the Caste War.
   
   This author did extensive research and he tried to include too much into the book. Rather than giving a summation of the war or providing a "big picture", this book quickly dives into every little campaign that there was some journal detailing. And this detail is very thorough. So don't get confused as to what you are reading, this is a detailed analysis, not a history book. This is a slow read and very confusing if you are not familiar with the names as they can be so similar on both sides of the conflict. So many characters and classes are fighting that it sometimes is confusing who is on what side particularly when they switch sides.
   
   But in the end, you will learn a great deal about the land, he people, and how the peninsula developed including the Governor's offer to be taken over by the United States. There are significant discussions of the crops and religion of the Mayans as well. A new "gabacho" such as me identifies the region from Cancun or the Mayan Riviera while the early history is centered around Merida and the West Coast with the Mayans seeming to control the lower East Coast.
   
   Overall, I achieved what I wanted: an understanding of the culture and how it developed. But most of what I enjoyed was in the early 1900s when he began to discuss the economic development particularly the rope material that controlled the economy, henequen (sp?). The book moves forward in this period through the 1960s and the author's first visit to the peninsula and finally to a return trip in the 1990s. In many respects, not much has changed.
   
   This is a fascinating part of Mexico and has charming, hard-working people who are currently going through an economic change that may or may not be to the benefit of the traditional Mayan people and culture. Read this book if you want to know about the area but be prepared that this is not a light reading but rather in-depth. Definitely not something to read lightly on the beach.



4. It is wrong that the Maya Indians had been abused since the Spaniards put a foot on this continent, but the Caste War showed a people that are savage, revengeful and that made the same atrocities as the Europeans: killed innocents, rape, killed prisoners...
   Then the fake of the Cross that talks and told them to have a religious vendetta against the Europeans and its descendants, gave you a bad image of the exploited and abused Indians that were rebelling against years of sufferings and hunger. The book was written from the White man perspective and although it is based in historical data it let the Ideology of the writer to surface. That is not good for a history book...