The Baile de la Conquista or Dance of the Conquest is a traditional folkloric dance from Guatemala. The dance reenacts the invasion led by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado and his confrontation with Tecun Uman, ruler of K'iche' kingdom of Q'umarkaj. Although the dance is more closely associated with Guatemalan traditions, it has been performed in early colonial regions of Latin America at the urging of Catholic friars and priests, as a method of converting various native populations and African slaves to the Catholic Church.
The dance is based upon the Spanish Baile de los Moros ("Dance of the Moors") which recounts and commemorates the expulsion of the Moorish rule from Spain. [1] The Baile de la Conquista borrows its structure directly from the Baile de los Moros.
The dance begins in Q'umarkaj (also known by its Nahuatl translation, Utatlán), the capital of the kingdom, where the Rey K'iche' ("King K'iche'") receives word of the Spaniards' approach from Aztec ruler Moctezuma II in Tenochtitlan. The king then sends his sons and daughters to Xelajuj Noj (now Quetzaltenango) to recruit Tecun Uman to lead the army against the approaching foes. Following scenes depict the K'iche' chieftains and then the Spanish officers swearing allegiance to their respective leaders. Soon after, a battle ensues between the Spanish and native troops, culminating with the battle between Alvarado and Tecún Umán. The K'iche' army is soon defeated, and echoing the Baile de los Moros, the dance concludes as the K'iche' warriors submit peaceably to Spanish rule and embrace Christianity. [2]
The confrontation between Tecun Uman and Pedro de Alvarado is the central theme of the Guatemalan version of the Baile de la Conquista.
The true existence of a historical Tecun Uman is subject of ongoing debate. One piece of evidence to suggest he lived comes from a letter written by Alvarado to Hernán Cortés. However, the letter is quite sparing in details, with Alvarado only mentioning of the battle that ensued: "in this affair one of the four chiefs of the city of Utatlán was killed, who was the captain general of all this country." [3] Alvarado did not provide a name for the K'iche' general, nor did he mention how or by whose hand the man was killed.
Several other indigenous documents describe the arrival of Alvarado in what would become Guatemala, including the Título C'oyoi which describes the battle in terms similar to the modern legend. This document also contains the earliest known reference to the K'iche' leader as Tecum Umam.
The Popol Vuh [4] confirms the observations of Bartolomé de las Casas and the Título de Totonicapán, which record that four lords ruled the K'iche' at the time of the Spanish conquest. The first-born son of the Keeper of the Mat (the most powerful of the lords) was expected to prove himself by leading the K'iche' army and was given the title "nima rajpop achij", the same title given to Tecun Uman in the Título K'oyoi. This is all tied together by the genealogy of the K'iche' lords that is given near the end of the Popul Vuh and a section of the Título de Totonicapan, which both refer to the son of the Keeper of the Mat as "Tecum" at the time of Alvarado's arrival.
A second explanation for the absence of greater detail in Alvarado's letter is that Tecun Uman actually did battle with one of Alvarado's subordinates by the name of Argueta. This suggestion is based on the claim of Argueta's descendants that the lance they keep as an heirloom of their predecessor is stained with the blood of the K'iche' hero. [5]
Since there is little documentation to prove the existence of a lord named Tecun Uman, it has been suggested that his name was created in order to replace the role of the "Moorish prince", the central antagonist of the Baile de los Moros. [6]
This theory has yet to be proven, and is given little attention in light of pre-existing documents speaking of a historical Tecun Uman long before the first performances of Baile de la Conquista.
The Baile de la Conquista is not unique to Guatemala; variations of the dance have been performed throughout Latin America with differences based on local folklore. The one constant in all forms of the dance is the resolution, a religious conversion of the native or "pagan" population. Surviving dances outside of Guatemala are usually performed to honor a town’s patron saint.
Pedro de Alvarado 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 the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés. He is considered the conquistador of much of Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Qʼuqʼumatz was a god of wind and rain of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ Maya. It was the Feathered Serpent that according to the Popol Vuh created the world and humanity, together with the god Tepeu. It carried the sun across the sky and down into the underworld and acted as a mediator between the various powers in the Maya cosmos. It is considered to be the equivalent of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and of Kukulkan, of the Yucatec Maya.
Popol Vuh is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people of Guatemala, one of the Maya peoples who also inhabit the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, as well as areas of Belize, Honduras and El Salvador.
Tohil was is the Maya god of fire. He is a deity of the Kʼicheʼ Maya in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerica.
Kʼicheʼ are Indigenous peoples of the Americas and are one of the Maya peoples. The eponymous Kʼicheʼ language is a Mesoamerican language in the Mayan language family. The highland Kʼicheʼ states in the pre-Columbian era are associated with the ancient Maya civilization, and reached the peak of their power and influence during the Mayan Postclassic period.
Tecun Uman was one of the last rulers of the K'iche' Maya people, in the Highlands of what is now Guatemala. According to the Kaqchikel annals, he was slain by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado while waging battle against the Spanish and their allies on the approach to Quetzaltenango on 12 February 1524. Tecun Uman was declared Guatemala's official national hero on March 22, 1960, and is commemorated on February 20, the popular anniversary of his death. Tecun Uman has inspired a wide variety of activities ranging from the production of statues and poetry to the retelling of the legend in the form of folkloric dances to prayers. Despite this, Tecun Uman's existence is not well documented, and it has proven to be difficult to separate the man from the legend.
Qʼumarkaj is an archaeological site in the southwest of the El Quiché department of Guatemala. Qʼumarkaj is also known as Utatlán, the Nahuatl translation of the city's name. The name comes from Kʼicheʼ Qʼumarkah "Place of old reeds".
Quetzaltenango is a department in the western highlands of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Quetzaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala. The department is divided up into 24 municipalities. The inhabitants include Spanish-speaking Ladinos and the Kʼicheʼ and Mam Maya groups, both with their own Maya language. The department consists of mountainous terrain, with its principal river being the Samalá River. the department is seismically active, suffering from both earthquakes and volcanic activity.
In a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. Before the conquest, this territory contained a number of competing Mesoamerican kingdoms, the majority of which were Maya. Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as "infidels" who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified, disregarding the achievements of their civilization. The first contact between the Maya and European explorers came in the early 16th century when a Spanish ship sailing from Panama to Santo Domingo was wrecked on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511. Several Spanish expeditions followed in 1517 and 1519, making landfall on various parts of the Yucatán coast. The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a prolonged affair; the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two centuries.
Olintepeque is a town, with a population of 31,545, and a municipality in the Quetzaltenango department of Guatemala, not far from the city of Quetzaltenango. It is located on the Xekik'el River.
The Annals of the Cakchiquels is a manuscript written in Kaqchikel by Francisco Hernández Arana Xajilá in 1571, and completed by his grandson, Francisco Rojas, in 1604. The manuscript — which describes the legends of the Kaqchikel nation and has historical and mythological components — is considered an important historical document on post-classic Maya civilization in the highlands of Guatemala.
Adrián Recinos (1886–1962) was a Guatemalan historian, essayist, Mayanist scholar and translator, and diplomat. Recinos was a student of national history, especially the Maya civilization and the ancient history of the K'iche' and Kaqchikel people.
The Kʼicheʼ kingdom of Qʼumarkaj was a state in the highlands of modern-day Guatemala which was founded by the Kʼicheʼ (Quiché) Maya in the thirteenth century, and which expanded through the fifteenth century until it was conquered by Spanish and Nahua forces led by Pedro de Alvarado in 1524.
Jacawitz was a mountain god of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ Maya of highland Guatemala. He was the patron of the Ajaw Kʼicheʼ lineage and was a companion of the sun god Tohil. It is likely that he received human sacrifice. The word jacawitz means "mountain" in the lowland Maya language, and the word qʼaqʼawitz of the highland Maya means "fire mountain", which suggests that Jacawitz was mainly a fire deity, much like Tohil. In the Mam language, the similar word xqʼaqwitz means "yellow wasp" and the wasp was an important symbol of the deity and its associated lineage. In the Cholan languages, jacawitz means "first mountain", linking the god with the first mountain of creation.
Awilix was a goddess of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ Maya, who had a large kingdom in the highlands of Guatemala. She was the patron deity of the Nijaʼibʼ noble lineage at the Kʼicheʼ capital Qʼumarkaj, with a large temple in the city. Awilix was a Moon goddess and a goddess of night, although some studies refer to the deity as male. Awilix was probably derived from the Classic period lowland Maya moon goddess or from Cʼabawil Ix, the Moon goddess of the Chontal Maya.
Kʼicheʼ, or Quiché, is a Mayan language spoken by the Kʼicheʼ people of the central highlands in Guatemala and Mexico. With over a million speakers, Kʼicheʼ is the second most widely-spoken language in the country, after Spanish. It is one of the most widely-spoken indigenous American languages in Mesoamerica.
The Spanish conquest of the Kingdom of Q'umarkaj took place in the K'iche' Kingdom of Q'umarkaj in 1524 between the Spanish and K'iche'. In 1524, conquistador Pedro de Alvarado arrived in Guatemala with 135 horsemen, 120 footsoldiers and 400 Aztec, Tlaxcaltec and Cholultec allies, and were offered help by the Kaqchikels. Tecun Uman prepared 8,400 soldiers for the Spanish attack, which they had discovered because of their network of spies. After several defeats over the K'iche' people, the Spanish entered Q'umarkaj and the Lords of Q'umarkaj were burnt alive by Alvarado. Following the war, two Spanish noblemen were put in charge of Q'umarkaj, although some fighting continued until 1527.
The Título de Totonicapán, sometimes referred to as the Título de los Señores de Totonicapán is the name given to a Kʼicheʼ language document written around 1554 in Guatemala. The Título de Totonicapán is one of the two most important surviving colonial period Kʼicheʼ language documents, together with the Popol Vuh. The document contains history and legend of the Kʼicheʼ people from their mythical origins down to the reign of their most powerful king, Kʼiqʼab.
Cerro Quiac is a small Maya archaeological site located at an altitude of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft), overlooking the Plains of Urbina in the Guatemalan Highlands. When investigated in 1970 it had five stone sculptures, by 1977 only four were left. The sculptures included figures and geometric decoration. The site is still used for contemporary Maya rituals. Cerro Quiac is located in the northeast of the municipality of Cantel, within the boundaries of the hamlet of Chirijquiac.
The Título Cʼoyoi is an important early colonial Kʼiche document documenting the mythical origins of the Kʼicheʼ people and their history up to the Spanish conquest. It describes Kʼicheʼ preparations for battle against the Spanish, and the death of the Kʼicheʼ hero Tecun Uman. The document was written in Qʼumarkaj, the Kʼicheʼ capital city, by the Cʼoyoi Sakcorowach lineage, which belonged to the Quejnay branch of the Kʼicheʼ, and who held territory just to the east of Quetzaltenango, now in Guatemala. The document was largely written by Juan de Penonias de Putanza, who claimed to be the relative of a Cʼoyoi nobleman who was killed during the Spanish conquest. It was composed with the assistance of the Kʼicheʼ officialdom at Qʼumarkaj, and portions of the text reflect the official version of Kʼicheʼ history as produced in the capital. An illustration in the document shows that the Maya nobility of Quetzaltenango adopted the double-headed Habsburg Eagle as their family crest.