Resistencia e identidad: El Sistema de Guardias en Kanxoc, Yucatán

Abstract

The Yucatec Maya have used various strategies to confront the cultural imposition and domination of the Spaniards from the very first years of the Conquest. On occasion this resistance has been violent, giving rise to armed conflicts like the Canek Rebellion and the Caste War, which calls into question the model constructed by Mayanists regarding the passivity of this Indian group. However, resistance has also been “passive” in that the Maya have adhered to indigenous patterns of life, allowing them to appropriate and reinterpret foreign cultural elements to redefine their identity and reify their culture. In this context the Sistema de Guardias is an example of the appropriation of a nonindigenous form of organization, which came into being in the War of 1847, but which is based on an indigenous pattern. This demonstrates how phenomena of ethnic resistance and the reinterpretation of culture and identity have contributed to the continuity of the Maya in time and space.