World of the Ch’ol

            As I said in my previous blog, the Ch’ol Maya make a living off of the land.  Their main crops are corn, beans, and squash, but they also harvest coffee, sugarcane, potatoes, rice, and vegetables. The Ch’oles most sacred crop is Corn, or maize, and they have referred to themselves as “los miliperos” for centuries.  Miliperos roughly translates to “the people whose lives and existence have revolved around the cultivation of maize.” (Shmal)  They even had a corn god whom they worshipped called Yum Kaaz. The Mayans had many god’s that they worshipped, but after the Spanish conquest they were forced to conform to what their conquerors wished.  In Chiapas a strong following formed around the Virgin Mary and Saint Rose of Lima.

            The Ch’ol people lived quite a different life then I do today in Pennsylvania, it’s difficult to imagine worshipping a god that was connected to a crop.  It’s even more difficult to imagine being forced to change my religion by new conquerors.  What the Spanish did to the natives of Central and South America was brutal.  They killed so many people and destroyed so much knowledge that now can never be retrieved about these ancient people.

Ch'ol Mayan women cultivating their fertile land

(www.atlas.gc.ca)