San Mateo Ixtatán
Encyclopedia
San Mateo Ixtatán is a municipality
in the Guatemala
n department
of Huehuetenango. It is situated at 2540 metres (8,333.3 ft) above sea level
in the Cuchumatanes mountain range and covers 560 square kilometres (216.2 sq mi) of terrain. It has a cold climate and is located in a cloud forest
. The temperature fluctuates between 0.5 and 20 °C (32.9 and 68 F). The coldest months are from November to January and the warmest months are April and May. The town has a population of about 10,000, and is the municipal center for an additional 20,000 people living in the surrounding mountain villages. It has a weekly market on Thursday and Sunday. The annual town festival takes place from September 19 to September 21 honoring their patron Saint Matthew. The residents of San Mateo belong to the Chuj
Maya
ethnic group and speak the Mayan Chuj language
, not to be confused with Chuj baths, or wood fired steam rooms that are common throughout the central and western highlands.
language, from the words Ixtat = salt and tlan = close or nearby.
of Huehuetenango, San Mateo Ixtatán (then known by the name of Ystapalapán) was given in encomienda
to the conquistador
Gonzalo de Ovalle, a companion of Pedro de Alvarado
, together with Santa Eulalia
and Jacaltenango
. In 1549, the first reduction
of San Mateo Ixtatán took place, overseen by Dominican
missionaries.
In the late 17th century, the Spanish misssionary Fray Alonso De León reported that about eighty families in San Mateo Ixtatán did not pay tribute to the Spanish Crown or attend the Roman Catholic mass. He described the inhabitants as quarrelsome and complained that they had built a pagan shrine in the hills among the ruins of precolumbian temples, where they burnt incense and offerings and sacrificed turkeys. He reported that every March they built bonfires around wooden crosses about two leagues
from the town and set them on fire. Fray Alonso de León informed the colonial authorities that the practices of the natives were such that they were Christian
in name only. Eventually, Fray Alsonso De León was chased out of San Mateo Ixtatán by the locals.
In 1684, a council led by Enrique Enriquez de Guzmán, the then governor of Guatemala, decided upon the reduction
of San Mateo Ixtatán and nearby Santa Eulalia, both within the colonial administrative district of the Corregimiento
of Huehuetenango.
On 29 January 1686, captain Melchor Rodríguez Mazariegos, under orders of the governor, left Huehuetenango for San Mateo Ixtatán, where he recruited indigenous warriors from the nearby villages, with 61 from San Mateo itself. It was believed by the Spanish colonial authorities that the inhabitants of San Mateo Ixtatán were friendly towards the still unconquered and fiercely hostile inhabitants of the Lacandon region
, which included parts of what is now the Mexican
state of Chiapas
and the western part of the Petén Basin
. In order to prevent news of the Spanish advance reaching the inhabitants of the Lacandon area, the governor ordered the capture of three community leaders of San Mateo, named as Cristóbal Domingo, Alonso Delgado and Gaspar Jorge, and had them sent under guard to be imprisoned in Huehuetenango. The governor himself arrived in San Mateo Ixtatán on 3 February, where captain Melchor Rodríguez Mazariegos was already awaiting him. The governor ordered the captain to remain in the village to use it as a base of operations for penetrating the Lacandon region. The Spanish missionaries Fray Diego de Rivas and Fray Pedro de la Concepción also remained in the town. After this, governor Enrique Enriquez de Guzmán left San Mateo Ixtatán for Comitán in Chiapas, to enter the Lacandon region via Ocosingo
.
In 1695, a three-way invasion of the Lacandon was launched simultaneously from San Mateo Ixtatán, Cobán
and Ocosingo. Captain Melchor Rodriguez Mazariegos accompanied by Fray Diego de Rivas and 6 more missionaries together with 50 Spanish soldiers left Huehuetenango for San Mateo Ixtatán, managing to recruit 200 indigenous Maya warriors on the way; from Santa Eulalia, San Juan Solomá and San Mateo itself. They followed the same route used in 1686. On 28 February 1695, all three groups left their respective bases of operations to conquer the Lacandon. The San Mateo group headed northeast into the Lacandon Jungle.
The Dominican Order
built the Catholic church in San Mateo, which fell within the parish of Soloma
.
in 1876 and it struggled to keep its communal lands. At the beginning of the 1900s, a law was enacted throughout Guatemala that the mayor and councilmen should be ladinos
.
During the liberal government of Justo Rufino Barrios
, extreme poverty and forced migrations to the southern coast created a lasting state of tension in the northern communities of Huehuetenango
and specifically in San Mateo Ixtatán. The ladino coastal plantation owners sent contractors to San Mateo Ixtatán on market days. These contractors gave money to local people promising double or triple the amount if they came to work in their coffee and cotton plantations. The locals signed documents insuring their manual labor, but were essentially enslaved because the contracts were unjust and treatment inhumane. On July 17, 1898, a plantation contractor was killed. To cover up the crime, 30 more ladinos were killed. One survived and informed the army who responded by killing 310 Chuj people from San Mateo Ixtatán.
The well is managed by the mayor’s office and is open from Monday through Saturday from 1 to 5 pm.
Within the town of San Mateo Ixtatán, there are protected, but not excavated archaeological sites. The largest one is known as Yol K'u meaning within the sun or Wajxaklajunh meaning eighteen. It is spectacularly situated on a promontory, surrounded by four large mounds. It is said to have been an astronomical temple. Another, K'atepan, can be seen from Yol K'u on the other side of the valley and means old temple in the Chuj language
. It lies just north of San Mateo.
The archaeological site of Curvao at San Mateo Ixtatán has been dated to the Classic Period
.
or top is a brightly multi-colored, hand-woven cotton poncho with a lacy collar. It is said that a full-size huipil from San Mateo Ixtatán takes about 9 months to a year to make.
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in the Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
n department
Departments of Guatemala
||Guatemala is divided into 22 departments :#Alta Verapaz#Baja Verapaz#Chimaltenango#Chiquimula#Petén#El Progreso#El Quiché#Escuintla#Guatemala#Huehuetenango#Izabal#Jalapa#Jutiapa#Quetzaltenango#Retalhuleu#Sacatepéquez...
of Huehuetenango. It is situated at 2540 metres (8,333.3 ft) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
in the Cuchumatanes mountain range and covers 560 square kilometres (216.2 sq mi) of terrain. It has a cold climate and is located in a cloud forest
Cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and...
. The temperature fluctuates between 0.5 and 20 °C (32.9 and 68 F). The coldest months are from November to January and the warmest months are April and May. The town has a population of about 10,000, and is the municipal center for an additional 20,000 people living in the surrounding mountain villages. It has a weekly market on Thursday and Sunday. The annual town festival takes place from September 19 to September 21 honoring their patron Saint Matthew. The residents of San Mateo belong to the Chuj
Chuj people
The Chuj are a Maya people in Guatemala and Mexico. Their indigenous language is also called Chuj and belongs to the Q'anjobalan–Chujean family of Mayan languages. In Guatemala, most Chuj live in the department of Huehuetenango in the municipalities of San Mateo Ixtatán and San Sebastián Coatán....
Maya
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
ethnic group and speak the Mayan Chuj language
Chuj language
Chuj is one of the Mayan languages spoken by around 40,000 people in Guatemala and 10,000 in Mexico. Chuj together with the languages of Tojolab'al, Mocho', Akateko, Q'anjob'al and Popti' form the western branch of the Mayan family of languages. Chuj created its own branch about 21 centuries ago...
, not to be confused with Chuj baths, or wood fired steam rooms that are common throughout the central and western highlands.
Etymology
The derivation of "Ixtatán" is uncertain. In Chuj, Ixta = toy or doll; Ta'anh = lime , giving the translation of toy or doll of lime. These lime dolls can be seen on the Catholic Church facade dating back to colonial times. According to historian Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán (1690), the name means “ Land of the Salt” from the words of Ystat = salt and teail = land. On the other hand, historian Jorge Luis Areola considers 'Ixtatán' to be from the NahuatlNahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
language, from the words Ixtat = salt and tlan = close or nearby.
Colonial history
In 1529, four years after the Spanish conquestSpanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
of Huehuetenango, San Mateo Ixtatán (then known by the name of Ystapalapán) was given in encomienda
Encomienda
The encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....
to the conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
Gonzalo de Ovalle, a companion of Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
, together with Santa Eulalia
Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango
Santa Eulalia also known as Jolom Konob is a municipality located in the north-east of the department of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, Central America. This town is rich in culture and traditions...
and Jacaltenango
Jacaltenango
Jacaltenango is a town situated in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. It is located in a valley surrounded by the Sierra Madre Mountains.Jacaltenango serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name....
. In 1549, the first reduction
Indian Reductions
Reductions were settlements founded by the Spanish colonizers of the New World with the purpose of assimilating indigenous populations into European culture and religion.Already since the beginning of the Spanish presence in the Americas, the Crown had been concerned...
of San Mateo Ixtatán took place, overseen by Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
missionaries.
In the late 17th century, the Spanish misssionary Fray Alonso De León reported that about eighty families in San Mateo Ixtatán did not pay tribute to the Spanish Crown or attend the Roman Catholic mass. He described the inhabitants as quarrelsome and complained that they had built a pagan shrine in the hills among the ruins of precolumbian temples, where they burnt incense and offerings and sacrificed turkeys. He reported that every March they built bonfires around wooden crosses about two leagues
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
from the town and set them on fire. Fray Alonso de León informed the colonial authorities that the practices of the natives were such that they were Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
in name only. Eventually, Fray Alsonso De León was chased out of San Mateo Ixtatán by the locals.
In 1684, a council led by Enrique Enriquez de Guzmán, the then governor of Guatemala, decided upon the reduction
Indian Reductions
Reductions were settlements founded by the Spanish colonizers of the New World with the purpose of assimilating indigenous populations into European culture and religion.Already since the beginning of the Spanish presence in the Americas, the Crown had been concerned...
of San Mateo Ixtatán and nearby Santa Eulalia, both within the colonial administrative district of the Corregimiento
Corregidor (position)
A corregidor was a local, administrative and judicial position in Spain and its empire. He was the highest authority of a Corregimiento. In the Americas a corregidor was often called an alcalde mayor. They began to be appointed in fourteenth century Castile and the institution was definitively...
of Huehuetenango.
On 29 January 1686, captain Melchor Rodríguez Mazariegos, under orders of the governor, left Huehuetenango for San Mateo Ixtatán, where he recruited indigenous warriors from the nearby villages, with 61 from San Mateo itself. It was believed by the Spanish colonial authorities that the inhabitants of San Mateo Ixtatán were friendly towards the still unconquered and fiercely hostile inhabitants of the Lacandon region
Lacandon Jungle
The Lacandon Jungle is an area of rainforest which stretches from Chiapas, Mexico into Guatemala and into the southern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. The heart of this rainforest is located in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas near the border with Guatemala in the Montañas del Oriente...
, which included parts of what is now the Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
state of Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
and the western part of the Petén Basin
Petén Basin
The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, located in the northern portion of the modern-day nation of Guatemala, and essentially contained within the department of El Petén...
. In order to prevent news of the Spanish advance reaching the inhabitants of the Lacandon area, the governor ordered the capture of three community leaders of San Mateo, named as Cristóbal Domingo, Alonso Delgado and Gaspar Jorge, and had them sent under guard to be imprisoned in Huehuetenango. The governor himself arrived in San Mateo Ixtatán on 3 February, where captain Melchor Rodríguez Mazariegos was already awaiting him. The governor ordered the captain to remain in the village to use it as a base of operations for penetrating the Lacandon region. The Spanish missionaries Fray Diego de Rivas and Fray Pedro de la Concepción also remained in the town. After this, governor Enrique Enriquez de Guzmán left San Mateo Ixtatán for Comitán in Chiapas, to enter the Lacandon region via Ocosingo
Ocosingo
Ocosingo is a city and its surrounding municipality of the same name in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The municipality borders the Usumacinta River along a portion where the river forms the international border with Guatemala. The city had a 2005 census population of 35,065 inhabitants, and serves...
.
In 1695, a three-way invasion of the Lacandon was launched simultaneously from San Mateo Ixtatán, Cobán
Cobán
The city of Cobán is the capital of the department of Alta Verapaz in central Guatemala. It also serves as the administrative center for the surrounding Cobán municipality. It is located 219 km from Guatemala City....
and Ocosingo. Captain Melchor Rodriguez Mazariegos accompanied by Fray Diego de Rivas and 6 more missionaries together with 50 Spanish soldiers left Huehuetenango for San Mateo Ixtatán, managing to recruit 200 indigenous Maya warriors on the way; from Santa Eulalia, San Juan Solomá and San Mateo itself. They followed the same route used in 1686. On 28 February 1695, all three groups left their respective bases of operations to conquer the Lacandon. The San Mateo group headed northeast into the Lacandon Jungle.
The Dominican Order
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
built the Catholic church in San Mateo, which fell within the parish of Soloma
San Pedro Soloma
San Pedro Soloma or Soloma is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. It is situated in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes at 2,300 m above sea level. The municipality covers a total area of 264 km2 with elevations ranging from 1,900 m to 3,500 m...
.
Republican history
San Mateo Ixtatán was forced to give up some of their territory to create the municipality of NentónNentón
Nentón is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. Its territory extends 762.85 km2 and has 9,113 inhabitants. It became a municipality on December 5, 1876 and was formally known as San Benito Nentón...
in 1876 and it struggled to keep its communal lands. At the beginning of the 1900s, a law was enacted throughout Guatemala that the mayor and councilmen should be ladinos
Ladino people
Ladino is a Spanish term used to describe various socio-ethnic categories in Latin America, principally in Central America.The term Ladino is derived from "latino" and usually refers to the mestizo or hispanicized population...
.
During the liberal government of Justo Rufino Barrios
Justo Rufino Barrios
Justo Rufino Barrios was a President of Guatemala known for his liberal reforms and his attempts to reunite Central America....
, extreme poverty and forced migrations to the southern coast created a lasting state of tension in the northern communities of Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango (department)
Huehuetenango is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. It is situated in the western highlands and shares borders with México in the north and west; with El Quiché in the east, with Totonicapán, Quetzaltenango, and San Marcos to the south. The capital is the city of Huehuetenango.Huehuetenango's...
and specifically in San Mateo Ixtatán. The ladino coastal plantation owners sent contractors to San Mateo Ixtatán on market days. These contractors gave money to local people promising double or triple the amount if they came to work in their coffee and cotton plantations. The locals signed documents insuring their manual labor, but were essentially enslaved because the contracts were unjust and treatment inhumane. On July 17, 1898, a plantation contractor was killed. To cover up the crime, 30 more ladinos were killed. One survived and informed the army who responded by killing 310 Chuj people from San Mateo Ixtatán.
Salt
Highly saturated salt water comes from the ground in several sacred wells. Historically, it is said that many traveled through San Mateo Ixtatán seeking the salt produced there. Many gather to pray in front of the wells to the goddess of salt, Atz’am. Women haul the salt-water up the long mountainside in plastic jugs where they use it as is or boil it to make a tasty, white salt. The salt is most famous as K'ik' Atz'am, Sal Negra or black salt. This is made by a few women in the town by adding a secret ingredient to the salt water as it boils. The black salt is very tasty and highly prized. It is said to have curative powers for the treatment of stomach ailments and headache.The well is managed by the mayor’s office and is open from Monday through Saturday from 1 to 5 pm.
Archaeological sites
Chuj language
Chuj is one of the Mayan languages spoken by around 40,000 people in Guatemala and 10,000 in Mexico. Chuj together with the languages of Tojolab'al, Mocho', Akateko, Q'anjob'al and Popti' form the western branch of the Mayan family of languages. Chuj created its own branch about 21 centuries ago...
. It lies just north of San Mateo.
The archaeological site of Curvao at San Mateo Ixtatán has been dated to the Classic Period
Mesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic , the Classic , and the Postclassic...
.
Clothing
Traditional clothing of San Mateo Ixtatán for men and women is still seen within the community. The men use a woolen capixay. It is made of two woven pieces of brown or black sheeps' wool, sewn together on the sides leaving the sleeves open for the arms. The women traditionally wear a corte or long, Mayan wrap-around skirt. It is generally blue and black patterned with white, yellow and green highlights. Cotton scarves are tied in their hair. The woman's huipilHuipíl
A huipil is a form of Maya textile and tunic or blouse worn by indigenous Mayan, Zapotec, and other women in central to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras, in the northern part of Central America. Some are also worn by men, particularly in Guatemala...
or top is a brightly multi-colored, hand-woven cotton poncho with a lacy collar. It is said that a full-size huipil from San Mateo Ixtatán takes about 9 months to a year to make.
External links
- Municipality in Spanish
- Ixtatan Foundation Charlottesville, Virginia based non-profit that works in San Mateo Ixtatán
- Academia de las Lenguas Mayas
- INGUAT
- Satellite Map of San Mateo Ixtatán
- Prensa Libre Revista D De la sal a los dólares A news article in Spanish about how San Mateo Ixtatán is changing.