always came to the same conclusion: the religion was pure, but humans were fallible.
Hamilton continued. ‘In the history of the Maya, there has never been a more controversial figure than Diego de Landa. To many, he is hated for his cruelty and his destruction of invaluable ancient documents. To others, he is praised for his personal preservation of the Mayan culture. In all of my years as an historian, he is the most complex man I’ve ever encountered.’
Maria frowned. ‘How could he be known for such contradictory things? It doesn’t seem possible.’
‘As I mentioned, Landa was complicated. When he first arrived in the Yucatán, he was stationed as a monk in the mission at Izamal, a small city to the west. While there, Landa noticed the Maya’s use of glyphs and decided to translate them into Spanish. Working with Mayan royalty, he established a base for their glyphs – which were a mixture of syllables and words – which is still used by scholars today. Two decades later, on his return voyage to Spain, Landa started to write a book called
Relación de las cosas de Yucatán
in which he chronicles the Mayan culture in remarkable depth. In it, he discusses their language, their religion, their writing and their ethnology. Over the years, I have used it many times as a guide.’
‘I have to admit, none of that sounds bad to me. Why is he so reviled?’
‘Why?’ Hamilton asked rhetorically. ‘The main reason that modern scholars like myself are reliant on Landa’s book is because he personally burned the Mayan glyphs. If he hadn’t done that, our knowledge of the Maya would be much more advanced. We would be able to read Mayan history in the hand of the Maya, not his distilled version of ancient events.’
‘Landa translated the documents, then burned them?’
He nodded gravely. ‘Are you familiar with the term “auto-da-fé”? It was a ritual used during the Spanish Inquisition.’
She grimaced in disgust. The ceremony was one of the skeletons in the Church’s closet that they would rather forget. ‘The term meant “act of faith” in medieval Spanish. The ritual involved a Catholic Mass, followed by a public procession of the condemned and a reading of their sentences. Torture was quite common, so was burning at the stake.’
Hamilton lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘In July of 1562, Landa ordered an auto-da-fé in the city of Maní. At the end of the ceremony, he burned more than twenty thousand Mayan images and a reported five thousand Mayan idols, claiming they were the “works of the devil”. This marked the beginning of a new campaign, where Mayan nobles were jailed, interrogated and tortured to speed up the mass adoption of Catholicism. Scared for their lives, thousands of Maya fled from the cities and into the jungles to avoid abuse.’
‘He burned twenty-five thousand items? The fire must have been huge.’
‘It could be seen for miles and signalled the start of Landa’s brutal regime. Over the next several decades, the Spanish burned every Mayan document they could get their hands on – much to the dismay of the Maya, who were forced to watch their entire history go up in flames.’
She took a deep breath. ‘The thought of it sickens me.’
Hamilton nodded in agreement. ‘Do you know how many Maya are still living in Mesoamerica today?’
She shrugged. ‘I have no idea.’
‘Approximately ten million. That’s a significant amount when you consider there are less than three million Native Americans still living in the United States.’
‘Ten million is way more than I figured.’
‘Amazingly, do you know how many Mayan codices managed to survive?’
She shook her head, unwilling to guess.
Hamilton held up his hand with his fingers spread. Then he tucked his little finger under his thumb. ‘Only three.’
11
Maria thought back to Hamilton’s earlier pronouncement, when he had claimed that the Maya vanished overnight during the ninth century, and figured he
Hamilton continued. ‘In the history of the Maya, there has never been a more controversial figure than Diego de Landa. To many, he is hated for his cruelty and his destruction of invaluable ancient documents. To others, he is praised for his personal preservation of the Mayan culture. In all of my years as an historian, he is the most complex man I’ve ever encountered.’
Maria frowned. ‘How could he be known for such contradictory things? It doesn’t seem possible.’
‘As I mentioned, Landa was complicated. When he first arrived in the Yucatán, he was stationed as a monk in the mission at Izamal, a small city to the west. While there, Landa noticed the Maya’s use of glyphs and decided to translate them into Spanish. Working with Mayan royalty, he established a base for their glyphs – which were a mixture of syllables and words – which is still used by scholars today. Two decades later, on his return voyage to Spain, Landa started to write a book called
Relación de las cosas de Yucatán
in which he chronicles the Mayan culture in remarkable depth. In it, he discusses their language, their religion, their writing and their ethnology. Over the years, I have used it many times as a guide.’
‘I have to admit, none of that sounds bad to me. Why is he so reviled?’
‘Why?’ Hamilton asked rhetorically. ‘The main reason that modern scholars like myself are reliant on Landa’s book is because he personally burned the Mayan glyphs. If he hadn’t done that, our knowledge of the Maya would be much more advanced. We would be able to read Mayan history in the hand of the Maya, not his distilled version of ancient events.’
‘Landa translated the documents, then burned them?’
He nodded gravely. ‘Are you familiar with the term “auto-da-fé”? It was a ritual used during the Spanish Inquisition.’
She grimaced in disgust. The ceremony was one of the skeletons in the Church’s closet that they would rather forget. ‘The term meant “act of faith” in medieval Spanish. The ritual involved a Catholic Mass, followed by a public procession of the condemned and a reading of their sentences. Torture was quite common, so was burning at the stake.’
Hamilton lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘In July of 1562, Landa ordered an auto-da-fé in the city of Maní. At the end of the ceremony, he burned more than twenty thousand Mayan images and a reported five thousand Mayan idols, claiming they were the “works of the devil”. This marked the beginning of a new campaign, where Mayan nobles were jailed, interrogated and tortured to speed up the mass adoption of Catholicism. Scared for their lives, thousands of Maya fled from the cities and into the jungles to avoid abuse.’
‘He burned twenty-five thousand items? The fire must have been huge.’
‘It could be seen for miles and signalled the start of Landa’s brutal regime. Over the next several decades, the Spanish burned every Mayan document they could get their hands on – much to the dismay of the Maya, who were forced to watch their entire history go up in flames.’
She took a deep breath. ‘The thought of it sickens me.’
Hamilton nodded in agreement. ‘Do you know how many Maya are still living in Mesoamerica today?’
She shrugged. ‘I have no idea.’
‘Approximately ten million. That’s a significant amount when you consider there are less than three million Native Americans still living in the United States.’
‘Ten million is way more than I figured.’
‘Amazingly, do you know how many Mayan codices managed to survive?’
She shook her head, unwilling to guess.
Hamilton held up his hand with his fingers spread. Then he tucked his little finger under his thumb. ‘Only three.’
11
Maria thought back to Hamilton’s earlier pronouncement, when he had claimed that the Maya vanished overnight during the ninth century, and figured he
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