Quiche
The term Quich (K'iche ', according to the new alphabetic transcription of the Mayan languages ) designates a people Native to Central America related to Maya. It also means their language and nation of the same name to the pre-Columbian era. Quiche is also the name of a department of Guatemala today.
Rigoberta Menchu , an activist for indigenous rights, who received the Nobel peace in 1992 , is perhaps the best known of the Quiche.
Summary |
The people Quiche
The Quiche people is one of the Mayan peoples of Guatemala plateau. In the Postclassic period he formed one of the most powerful states in the region. The ruling class of this state strongly Mayan Mexicanization legitimized his power by its origins: whether to believe the Popol Vuh , they would come from "Tollan" . Allied to their neighbors Kaqchikel , they subdued the neighboring nations in the reign of the eighth sovereign Q'uq'kumatz. Their kingdom reached its greatest extent in the middle of the fifteenth century under the reign of K'iq'ab. The capital was Gumarcaj, also known under the name Utatln in Nahuatl , whose ruins lie near Santa Cruz del Quiche. Around 1470-1475, the Kaqchikel rebelled and founded their own capital, Iximche. Clashes between K'iche 'and Kaqchikel culminated in a battle in which the rulers and the elite K'iche were captured and killed . After this terrible setback, other tributaries, including Tz'utujil, shook off the yoke of K'iche '. In the early sixteenth century, the latter, strong weak, clashed with the Aztecs , about control of Soconusco, a region rich in cocoa. In 1510, the K'iche 'had to pay tribute to the Aztecs
It seems that the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II has warned the K'iche and Kaqchikel the arrival of the Spaniards . After the conquest of Tenochtitlan by Cortes, the Kaqchiqel sent an embassy to the conqueror and offered him their bid, hoping that would help the Spaniards against the K'iche '. In 1523 , Cortes sent one of his captains, Pedro de Alvarado , Guatemala at the head of a Spanish contingent with Mexican allies. The showdown took place February 22, 1524, at the Battle of Xelaju ( Quetzaltenango ), where the K'iche 'were crushed. One of their leaders, Tecun Uman , killed by Alvarado during this battle, remained a popular hero and a legendary figure at national level. The K'iche 'sued for peace and invited the Spaniards to enter Utatln. Suspecting a trap, Alvarado, known for his cruelty, burned alive rulers K'iche and burning their capital.
The department of Quiche was named in reference to this people, it is the central focus of the Quiche people, although in recent times the population is dispersed over a larger area of the plateau of Guatemala.
The language Quiche
The Quiche (or K'iche 'in Quiche) belongs to the family of Mayan languages. It is still spoken by many Quiche, although the majority of the population also has the rudiments of the Spanish language, except in some isolated rural areas.
The most famous work is in Quich Popol Vuh.
Personality
Rigoberta Menchu , who won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1992 , is part of the ethnic K'iche '
Notes and References
- In central Mexico, this term, meaning "The place of reeds, meant not only the capital of the Toltecs , but applied to any large city, and was a source of legitimacy
- Nikolai Grube (ed.), The Maya. Art and Civilization, Knemann, P. 362
- Linda Schele & Peter Mathews, The Code of Kings, Scribner, 1998 297
- David Drew, The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings, Phoenix, 2000 384
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