MAYAN PRIDE
From temples to cuisine to language, Yucatan region celebrates its heritage,
IZAMAL, MEXICO— Walking through the streets of Izamal it’s hard not to be blinded by the bright yellow pastels that emanate from every building in sight.
According to Mayan history, a “man with blond hair and blue eyes” founded the city in AD 200. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the city had been the seat of Mayan power and its walls were not the glistening ones you see today.
In 1553, the Spanish Franciscan priest Diego De Landa, the archbishop of the Yucatan at the time, ordered the temple razed so it could be replaced with a monastery that sits on top of the Mayan temple’s ruins to this day.
Although it’s a 45-minute drive from Merida, Izamal is undoubtedly one of the Yucatan capital’s crown jewels. It’s also symbolic of the clash of cultures and architectural styles that make Merida a fascinating place to visit.
Merida’s contemporary history is inherently tied to the henequen trade.
Henequen is a thread made out of the agave plant, which is also used to make mescal and tequila. Mayans used the thread, but it wasn’t until it was exported as a commodity under the Spanish in the early 1800s that it began to blossom as an industry.
The henequen trade grew exponentially in the late 19th and early 20th century, peaking in 1916 when more than 70 per cent of all cultivated land in Yucatan was used for henequen production.
The evidence of the wealth accumulated during henequen’s glory days makes up one of Merida’s main attractions: the wonderfully ornate haciendas, which the industry’s magnates built for themselves.
Today, local heritage laws protect the haciendas and all the city’s buildings, including storefronts.
Some, as a result, have been preserved in the form of spas, hotels, restaurants and private houses, with some of the finest examples being located along Merida’s famous Paseo De Montejo. One hacienda even houses a Starbucks.
Although the Spanish succeeded in wiping out large swathes of Mayan culture, including many of their texts, some impressive sites have survived.
“If you wanted to just visit archeological sites all day, you could be here for weeks,” explains Olivia Kragen, North American representative for Yucatan Tourism.
The sheer size of some of the temples around Merida is incredible in itself and, like other ancient cultures, what makes the Mayans so impressive is not just their incredible architectural skills but also their penchant for astronomy.
Mayan sites, such as Chichen Itza and Dzibilchaltun, which are a 90minute and 45-minute drive outside Merida respectively, are aligned so that when the moon reaches a certain point on either the equinox or the solstice, it aligns with a stone that indicates it.
Mayan culture can be measured by much more than just ancient ruins, though: Although most Mexicans consider Spanish their first language, 30 per cent of the people in the Yucatan today speak Yucatec Maya. Yucatan cuisine, which includes such staples as cochinita pibil, a form of pulled pork that is cooked by marinating the meat in spices before burying it underground to be cooked, can be traced to the Mayans.
Aquick conversation with someone of Mayan heritage will reveal just how proud they are of their culture.
One hotel bartender quickly shared videos of his theatre troupe’s traditional Mayan musical performances.
Our passionate tour guide Jose Carrillo, who showed us around Izamal, is adamant that although conquistadors tried to wipe out all traces of Mayan culture, they were doomed to fail.
“You can change my tradition, but my heart, never,” he says of the imposition of Christianity and the Spanish language on the Mayans.
After a few days in Merida, it’s easy to see where Carrillo gets his sense of pride. Cody Punter was hosted by Yucatan Tourism, which did not review or approve this story.