History
The western highlands are home to one of the American continent's largest groups of indigenous people, the Maya , who have lived in this land continuously for over two thousand years. Despite the catastrophe of the Spanish Conquest, their society, languages and traditions remain largely intact, and they continue to form the vast majority of the population in the western highlands. The highlands are still divided up along traditional tribal lines. The K'iche' language is spoken by the largest number of people, centred on the town of Santa Cruz del Quiche and reaching west into the Quetzaltenango valley. The highlands around Huehuetenango are Mam- speaking, while the Tz'utujil occupy the southern shores of Lago de Atitlan, and the Kaqchikel the east. Smaller tribal groups , with distinct languages and costumes, such as the Ixil and the Awakateko, also occupy clearly defined areas in the Cuchumatan mountains. Though pre-conquest life was certainly hard, the arrival of the Spanish in 1523 was a total disaster for the Maya population. In the early stages, Alvarado and his army met with a force of K'iche' warriors in the Quetzaltenango basin and defeated them in open warfare. Legend has it that Alvarado himself slew the great K'iche' warrior, Tecun Uman , in hand-to-hand combat. The Spanish made their first permanent base at Iximche , the capital of their Kaqchikel Maya allies, but this uneasy alliance was to last only a few years. Alvarado then moved to a site near the modern town of Antigua, from where the Spanish gradually brought the rest of the highlands under a degree of control. The damage done by Spanish swords, however, was nothing when compared to that of the diseases they introduced. Waves of smallpox, typhus, plague and measles swept through the indigenous population, reducing their numbers by as much as ninety percent in the worst-hit areas. In the long term, the Spanish administration of the western highlands was no gentler than the Conquest, as indigenous labour became the backbone of the Spanish Empire. Guatemala offered little of the gold and silver that was available in Peru or Mexico, but there was still money to be made from cacao and indigo . As well as being at the heart of Spanish Guatemala, Antigua also served as the administrative centre for the whole of Central America and Chiapas (now in Mexico). In 1773, however, the city was destroyed by a massive earthquake and the capital was subsequently moved to its modern site. The departure of the Spanish in 1821 and subsequent independence brought little change at village level. Ladino authority replaced that of the Spanish, but Maya were still required to work the coastal plantations and, when labour supplies dropped off, they were simply press-ganged and forced to work, often in horrific conditions. It's a state of affairs that has changed little even today, and remains a major burden on the indigena population. In the late 1970s, guerrilla movements began to develop in opposition to military rule, seeking support from the indigenous population and establishing themselves in the western highlands. The Maya became the victims in this process, caught between the guerrillas and the army. A total of 440 villages were destroyed; around 200,000 people died and thousands more fled the country, seeking refuge in Mexico. Indigenous society has also been besieged in recent years by a tidal wave of American evangelical churches , whose influence undermines local hierarchies, dividing communities and threatening to destroy Maya culture. Today, following the signing of the 1996 peace accords , tensions have lifted and there is evidence of a new spirit of self-confidence amongst the highland Maya population. Fundamental problems remain - poverty, racism and the still unsettled issue of land reform - but there is a reawakened sense of pride in Maya identity. Despite intense pressure - and an increasing migration of young Maya men north to the US to look for work - the traditional structures of society are still largely in place. Rejecting ladino commercialism, the Maya see trade as a social function as much as an economic one. Conservative and inward-looking, they live in a world centred on the village, with its own civil and religious hierarchy, and the subsistence farming of maize and beans.
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