User:Cooochukempachella

College student: studying anthropology for a major and minoring in Latin american studies and Spanish Orgin:Mestizo

from Michocan/Zacatecas

History
Christopher Columbus traded with Maya merchants off the coast of Yucatan in 1502 but he never set foot on land in Yucatan .Within a decade,The first Spanish that arrive to Yucatan came from a Caribbean sea shipwreck the Maya sacrificed  most of them and only two survived  . (Gerónimo de Aguilar) who in 1519 joined Hernán Cortez on the Yucatan island of Cozumel and took part in the conquest of central Mexico.The other survivor  (Gonzalo Guerrero) was a Mexican legend as father of the first Mestizo: by Aguilar’s account he went native married native women he wore traditional native apparel and fought against the Spanish. Francisco de Montejos military incursion of Yucatan took three generations and three wars of  heavy fighting that lasted a total of 24 years .The Maya Empire has been around since 1500 BC, was on stable decline when Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1517 AD. From 200 to 800 AD the Maya  were doing well and making great technological advances and created a system for recording numerals and hieroglyphs that was more complex and efficient than what they had before .They migrated Northward and Eastward to the Yucatan peninsula from Palenque,Jaina, and  Bonampak. In the 12 and 13 centuries a coalition in Yucatan peninsula between three important centers Uxmal,Chichen Uitza, and Mayapan where they were able to grow and practice intellectual and artistic achievement  during a period of peace but then,  war broke out and both intellectual and artistic achievements came to end. By the 15 century  Mayan Toltec fell. In the 18th century Spanish turn the lands to  large maize and cattle plantations with luxurious haciendas  and exported natural resources. The Yucatec Maya language evolved from Mayan family to the branch Yucatecan to where it divides into subgroups Mopan-itza and Yucatec-Lacandon then from the two subgroups splits into the four languages Itza,Mopan in mopan-itza and Yucatec Maya and Lacandon in Yucatec-Lacandon as seen in the image ,which all originate from main Maya Language Proto Maya that was believed to have originated from ancestral language that was was spoken some 5,000 years ago by the Maya empire inhabitants In order for there to be written works of the Yucatec maya the Spanish Missionaries took to phase three of reduccion. Less well known by historians, was the reform of language. The Spanish saw that in order for them to be able to evangelize and have a way to govern the Yucatec Maya they needed to reform the maya language. So in the process of phase three later to become lengua reducida. They look to eradicate all Maya religion and written works of it ,the Missionaries made a language  that was more acceptable to the spanish as a proper language Lengua reducido which in terms becomes Maya reducido. They believed that with getting rid of the indigenous religion they could instil their religion and have a way to govern the Maya. The Yucatec Maya where subjects of the Spanish Empire from 1542 to 1821.The oldest written records were written in Yucatec Maya but in the roman alphabet, from 1557 to 1851 they were written by Maya notaries,their written works exist in the U.S.A, Mexico, and Spain Libraries or archives