cacao, vanilla and annatto, three production and exchange systems in the southern maya lowlands,...

Cacao, vanilla and annatto: three production and exchange systems in the Southern Mayalowlands, XVI-XVII centuriesAuthor(s): Laura Caso Barrera and Mario Aliphat FernándezReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of Latin American Geography, Vol. 5, No. 2 (2006), pp. 29-52Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25765138 .Accessed: 16/09/2012 14:00

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Cacao, vanilla and annatto: three production and exchange systems in the Southern Maya

lowlands, XVI-XVII centuries1

Laura Caso Barrera Eahoratorio Etnoecologta

Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Puebla

Mario Aliphat Fernandez Eahoratorio Etnoecologta

Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Puebla

Abstract

In this paper various historic agrosystems in the Maya Lowlands are examined; two of

them specialized in semi-intensive and intensive production of three main crops: cacao,

annatto and vanilla. The paper also examines the political and military pressure exerted

by the Itza on the Lacandon and Manche Choi territories which produced these valued

crops. After the conquest of Verapaz, Spanish civil and religious authorities also exer

cised constant pressure over these territories and the encomienda towns of Verapaz traded

with them to obtain cacao and annato. The Manche Choi cacao orchards are presented as an example of true cacao plantations.

Keywords: cacao, annatto, vanilla, chocolate, Southern Maya lowlands, trading systems, It%d Maya, Manche Choi, Eacandon.

Resumen

En este articulo se analizan diversos agrosistemas en las tierras bajas mayas, dos de los cu

ales se especializan en la production semi-intensiva e intensiva de tres cultivos relevantes:

cacao, achiote y vainilla. Tambien se examina la presion politica y belica que ejercieron los

itzaes sobre las poblaciones de los lacandones y choles del Manche, en cuyos territorios

se producian estos apreciados cultivos. Despues de la conquista de La Verapaz, las auto

ridades civiles y religiosas hispanas tambien ejercieron una presion constante sobre estos

territorios, lo mismo que los pueblos de encomienda que comerciaban con los lacandones

y choles para obtener principalmente cacao y achiote. Las huertas de cacao de los choles

del Manche pueden considerarse como ejemplos de "verdaderas plantaciones." Palabras clave: cacao, achiote, vanilla, chocolate, tierras bajas mayas, sistemas de intercambio, itzaes,

choles del Manche, lacandones.

Introduction More than fifty years ago, Rene Millon provided us with the first glimpse of the

complexity of cacao production and trade in Mesoamerica where, in his words, "money

truly grew on trees". Property rights, production and regions of cacao cultivation were

first laid-out as a product of his seminal research (Millon 1955). The regions currently studied in the production and intensification of the cacao

crop, have neglected the analysis of the historic cacao-producing region located along the reaches of the main river systems in the Southern Maya Lowlands. This region also

journal of Eatin American Geography, 5 (2), 2006

30 Journal of Latin American Geography

had a significant production of annatto and vanilla during the XVI and XVII centuries.

Cacao, annatto and vanilla are products which, together, comprise a true cultural triad,

represented by the consumption of chocolate among the peoples of Mesoamerica. In

this paper the growing, intensification, exchange and distribution of three products: ca

cao (Theobroma cacao L.), annatto (Bixa orellana L.) and vanilla (Vanillaplanifoha G. Jackson) are discussed in the regions occupied by the Manche Choi and Lacandon.

Because of its edaphic and climatic conditions, the central Peten, core of the Itza

domain, is a region of poor productivity for growing cacao (Schwartz 1992: 23-25; Atran

1993: 670, 2004: 129). The consumption of ritual drinks such as cacao, flavored with

annatto and vanilla was a basic element at Itza government and council meetings, one

key reason why these products were essential for the consolidation of the political and

economic power of the ruling elite. All of this brought about the imperious need for

the Itza to integrate into their sphere of influence, the cacao producing regions of the

Lacandon and Manche Choi, located in the southern area of Peten.

The first section of this paper describes the environmental characteristics of the

Southern Maya Lowlands. The distribution of the distinctive ethnic groups occupying the region presented here, is based upon an analysis of primary sources.

The progressive encroachment of the Spanish domain beyond the Verapaz re

gion, towards the Peten, is best exemplified by the Spanish entradas which in the XVII

century brought about the final conquest of the Manche Choi, Lacandon, Mopan and

Itza, a conquest that had as its underlying purpose control over the rich cacao producing lands, as cacao became a highly priced commodity in New Spain. The Itza represented the opposing and competing regional power to Spanish intentions. The conspicuous con

sumption of chocolate by the Itza elite supported the whole structure of production and

trade of cacao, annatto and vanilla for the entire Maya Southern Lowlands. An analysis of the agrological components and the ethnohistory of the production, processing and

trade of the three crops is crucial to an understanding of the significant role played by the Lacandon and Manche Choi in the regional and wider colonial systems. The interme

diate region between Peten and Verapaz occupied by Choi-speaking groups was, without

doubt, an intensive producing region which had a major impact over the entire area.

The regions here described also endured the impacts of conquest and financial

control from the later expansion of Hispanic dominance. The Indian villages and in

habitants of Verapaz represented a new sector of competition for the control of the

production of cacao and annatto of the Manche Choi and Lacandon. The Spanish

conquest, at the end of the XVII century, and the forceful eviction of the Manche Choi

and Lacandon from their territories, meant the loss of the complex systems of intensive

and semi-intensive production in the region.

The Southern Maya Lowlands: settlements and trade routes The Southern Maya Lowlands comprise the Lake District of central Peten, Be

lize and further south, lands which include the large watersheds of rivers including the

Usumacinta and its tributaries, as well as part of the Sarstun, Dulce, Motagua and Cha

melecon (Figures 1 and 2). The region's altitude is below 800 meters and is characterized

by a hot and moist climate and an exuberant vegetation of lush tropical forests (Morley etai 1983:31-40).

The Itza, who speak a related form of Yucatec Maya, were the last independent

Maya polity of the Spanish dominion established in the Lake District of Peten (Guate

mala), where they developed an active economic and political resistance in an attempt to prevent Spanish encroachment into their territory. With great determination the Itza

rebuilt the old exchange system which existed in the central region of Peten and occupied

Cacao, vanilla and annatto: three production and exchange systems 31

the vacuum left after the Spanish conquest of the Chontal Maya of Acalan. Key elements

of this exchange system were cacao, annatto, vanilla, precious feathers, slaves, victims for

sacrifice as well as salt, cotton and even iron tools introduced by the Europeans. They achieved their goal by gaining control of the Salinas de los Nueve Cerros (Figure 2) from the Lacandon. This site is the only source of salt in the entire region. Once they had gained control of this important product, the Itza forced the Manche Choi and the

Lacandon to exchange this vital resource, mainly for cacao and annatto. This economic

reorganization was imposed by the Itza by means of violence, especially forcing the

Manche Choi into submission (Caso Barrera 2002). The Itza were thus able to integrate and control, at some time, the entire production of cacao and annatto in a vast region

covering the south of Peten, the southeast area of Yucatan and Belize, and as far as the

region of the Gulf of Honduras. This complex production and exchange system lasted

until 1697, when the Itza were finally conquered by Spanish armies (Jones 1998; Caso

Barrera 2002). The historical Lacandon were a Maya group that spoke the Choi language (Chol

chi or Cholti according to Moran 1695), they inhabited the region to the south and

southwest of Peten. They characterized themselves as being deadly enemies of the Itza.

This people used to live originally on Lake Miramar (Chiapas) in a small island called

Lacantun, and throughout the XVI century they were constantly attacking the encomienda

towns in Chiapas. In 1555 the Acala, a neighboring group, murdered the Dominican friar

Domingo de Vico, whose death became the excuse for continuous Spanish military raids, with the goal of pacifying and conquering both the Acala as well as the Lacandon (de Vos

1980: 73:75). The Spaniards started several punitive raids into the Lacandon region, one

of which took place in 1586, under the command of Captain Juan de Morales Villavi

cencio. These military incursions forced the Lacandon to leave their original settlements.

With time, they established a new town called Sac Balam, near the Lacantun River, where

they planted maize, cacao and annatto orchards (Figure 2). The Manche Choi also spoke Cholchi or Cholti. They were located south and

east of the Peten. This people were also ravaged by the Itza, who wanted to seize their

production of cacao, annatto and vanilla. However, this group has not been well-studied

and it is poorly understood since, in relation to the neighboring Lacandon and Itza, it

appears that their political and social organization was distinctive (Feldman 2000). The

fact of finding them organized in small settlements under the authority of one or more

chieftains, and the apparent non-existence of a principal ruler in this group, has led some

authors to consider them as people with "very simple" social and political organization

(Perez Gonzalez 1993). This image of the Manche Choi was created originally by the

early chronicles of the Dominican Order, in relation with their efforts to convert and

control this group. The Dominican friars in general accused the Choi of being lazy,

indolent, with a constant tendency to flee their towns, lacking true political organization, and of having neither respect nor obedience for their caciques (Ximenez 1973 Vol. 5; Gal

legos 1676). However, an in-depth analysis of the historical sources shows the great im

portance of the Manche Choi as specialized producers of three main crops, which were

of extreme importance for Mesoamerican peoples in relation to the consumption of

chocolate, that is, cacao, annatto and vanilla. Even if the Dominican friars complained that the Choi were lazy and poor, since they only grew small plots with maize, at the same

time they do mention their important production of cacao and annatto (AGI, Guatemala

67,181;Gallegos, 1676). The journey towards Higueras (now Honduras) by Hernan Cortes in 1525, fol

lowed the routes used by the Itza merchants towards the territory of the Manche Choi,

specifically to the city of Nito, which was a great trading center, where even some neigh


borhoods were occupied by people from distant places such as Acalan2 (Cortes 1981). Cortes had the opportunity to visit the Itza capital of Noh Peten and to meet with the

principal ruler named Canek, who gave him instructions and facilitated guides who would

take him and his army to the city of Nito, following the routes used by the Itza traders.

Canek reported to Cortes that in the vicinity of Nito "he had some vassals who served

him working in certain cacaguatales (cacao groves), because these lands were very good for that purpose" (Ibid. 243). All of this demonstrates that the Itza maintained close

relationships with the Manche Choi. Not only Canek had cacao orchards inside their

territory, there were also profound economic, social and political relationships between

the Itza, the Chontal from Acalan and the Manche Choi. The Chontal were large-scale

producers of cacao and long-distance merchants who traded in cacao, precious feathers,

jaguar skins, slaves and turtle-shell spoons which were very highly appreciated to drink

the froth of chocolate (Scholes and Roys 1968: 29-30).

Cortes, in the last stretch of his trip towards Nito, met a Chontal tradesman, which is evidence enough that the merchants did use the river waterways and the overland

routes controlled by the Itza. In these routes there were ports, resting places and provi sions (Cortes 1981: 245-246). Cortes himself describes a river port called Tenciz, where

the merchants left their canoes to travel from there towards Noh Peten or towards Choi

territory. Cortes' narrative is very clear when it states that there were no cacao orchards

in the Peten core area and that they were only able to find them towards the southeast, which was mainly Choi territory. The Spanish conquest of Tabasco and Campeche put an end to the Chontal's production and control of cacao and to their long distance trade.

The Itza would fill the void left by them and would become the leading force of a new

trade network (Jones 1989: 104; Caso Barrera 2002: 231). After the first Cortes chronicle of the Maya Southern Lowlands we have many

detailed descriptions written by the Dominican friars who entered this region from the

end of the XVI century and throughout the XVII century, trying to spread the gospel and to reduce the Manche Choi population (Ximenez 1973, Vol. 5). In 1620 Fray Gabriel

de Salazar wrote a thorough geographical description of the area in which he made refer

ence to the settlements of the Manche Choi and Lacandon. This friar was the first to

make a trip starting in the Golfo Dulce (close to the Bay of Honduras), traveling to the

north along the shoreline of Belize until he reached Yucatan, continuing south through

Campeche and Tabasco, and from there traveling overland to Chiapas as a steppingstone to Verapaz (Figure 1). He ended his journey back in the Golfo Dulce, his staring point, thus completing the first known circuit of the Maya area. (AGI,3 Guatemala 67).

Salazar later undertook a second trip through Choi and Lacandon territories and

wrote a highly detailed account of the towns, the cacao and annatto groves, trade routes

and exchange places. In his reports he makes reference for the first time to two main

routes used by the Choi to reach Noh Peten, capital of the Itza (Figure 2). These reports, sent by Salazar to the Provincial of his order, fray Alonso Guirao, were originally accom

panied by a map, which to date has not been located. The approach used by this friar to

draw his first sketch map is particularly interesting, since he used indigenous informants,

mainly merchants who knew well the area, as well as some elderly people, from whom

he collected information on the geography of the entire region. The body of data put

together by Friar Salazar, was enriched by cross-referencing the information provided by different informants as a way to draw comparisons and to confirm their geographical de

scriptions. For example in Coban, the provincial capital of Verapaz, he had an interview

with a bachih, or wise man, at the barrio (neighborhood) of San Marcos. This bachih had

been a prisoner of the Lacandon and knew the area very well. The friar gave the informer

a basket with cacao seeds and asked him to draw with them in the floor, by placing


0 100 Km

SML = Southern Maya Lowlands

Figure 1. The Maya Region.

rows of cacao seeds where the rivers flowed and in the localities where towns were lo

cated, the bachih was supposed to place three cacao seeds. The old man started drawing a

map on the earth using the questions that Salazar was asking him as a guide to locate and

name the "mouth of rivers, headlands, rocks, hills and resting places". With the bachih's answers, Salazar started writing labels that he placed on the "riv

ers" of cacao and with this he drew a sketch map on paper. So as to confirm the infor

mation, he removed the seeds from the floor as well as his labels. He erased the map drawn by the old man and asked him to do it again. He did this for three consecutive

times, until the friar was satisfied with the old man's answers (AGI, Guatemala 67,


Trade routes

Figure 2. Routes and localities in the Maya southern lowlands.

1) Route to Noh Peten via Mopan river, 2) Route to Noh Peten via Rio de la Pa

sion, 3) Route to Xocmo "Feria del Achiote" 4) Route to Noh Peten from Acalan,

5) Route to Noh Peten from Yucatan, 6) Route to Noh Peten from Belize.

f. 24v Feldman 2000: 34-36). In the description made by Salazar of the Manche Choi towns, these are distrib

uted in an arch towards the northeast and even reached the southern coast of Belize

and from there, south to the Golfo Dulce. The Choi settlements on the southern coast

of Belize were Yaxhal, Paliac, Campin and Tzoite. The town of Xibun (Sibun) was the

first settlement of people who spoke Yucatec Maya (AGI, Guatemala, 67, ff. 20v-21)

(Figure 2). The towns of Tzoite, Campin and Mayapan had been granted in encomienda to

Hernando Sanchez de Aguilar during the XVI century, and they had been left under the

jurisdiction of the province of Bacalar4 (Jones 1989: 83). These towns had large cacao

and annatto orchards as described by Salazar himself "towards the east where the drain

ages of Bacalar were, there is another large town by the name of Yaxal which has four

hundred Indians and beautiful cacao groves, because they are falling towards the lands of

Tzoite, where a lot of cacao is grown" (AGI, Guatemala 67, f. 20v). These Choi towns

which had been subject to Hispanic dominance at Bacalar since the XVI century were

in close contact with other Choi towns located further south. The men from Manche

used to visit these towns searching for suitable women to marry and they carried out


continuous trade with them. The Choi people from Bacalar used to go to Manche as well, as happened in 1618 when the town of Campin rebelled because they did not want to

obey the parish priest at Bacalar. This was the principal motive why the majority of the

population fled south looking for refuge (Ibid). The Manche Choi also settled the head waters and main channel of the Cancuen

River, where several towns were located. These towns included San Miguel Manche,

Chocahau, San Pablo Yaxha and Santo Domingo Yol, and they produced great quantities of cacao, annatto and vanilla, acting as trade centers from where Choi traders took their

products either overland or through waterways, to the encomienda towns of Verapaz, such as Coban and Cahabon and to other Maya towns, including the Itza capital.

Fray Gabriel de Salazar also described the westernmost region which was popu lated by the Lacandon; their principal settlement was called Sac Balam. According to the

friar, the Lacandon were settled "on the bank of the Tuhal River" (Salinas-Chixoy River). This river joins the Pasion River and becomes the Usumacinta River (Figure 2). North

of the Tuhal River, beyond a sinkhole, the Lacandon had lands where they grew cacao

and annatto, trading these products with the Chuj of San Mateo Ixtatan and with the Itza

of central Peten. There were two principal routes to Noh Peten, the Itza capital: one

went along the Tzibistun (Mopan) River. This waterway was used by the peoples of the

southern coast of Belize and by the Manche Choi, who used to travel by canoe for two

days until they arrived at a place called Chacchilan, where they left their canoes and went

on overland until they arrived at Lake Peten, where the Itza capital was located (AGI, Guatemala 67, f. 19v).

The other way was via the Pasion River, which reached the port of entrance of the

Itza, which, according to Salazar, was fortified and had the name Ilibec ["From Where

You Can See the Road,y] (Figure 2). This route was used by both the Manche Choi

and the Lacandon. When the Spaniards arrived in 1695 at Sac Balam, the Lacandones

denied being in touch or having any commercial relationship with the Itza. However,

the Spanish realized that they did have trade relations, because when going through the

Itza village of Saclemacal they found a very well- traveled trail through which the Itza

and Lacandon had access to the Manche Choi region (AGI, Guatemala 151 bis, f. 128

v). There was a trading port that fray Francisco Gailegos described in 1676 as the "An

natto Fair", that took place in the town of Xocmo, on the banks of the Sacapulas River,5

where 40 houses had been built and many canoes were moored so that the Lacandon

could go over to Verapaz, and people from Verapaz would be able to cross over to the

lands of Lacandon. It was here, at this trading port, where the Manche Choi and the

Lacandon met to exchange cacao and annatto. The Itza went looking for cacao as did the

people from the encomienda towns of Coban, San Agustin Lanquin and Sacapulas in the

Verapaz (Gailegos 1676: 6). The route of the Pasion River was the one traveled by the Mercedarian priest

Diego de Rivas in 1698, after the conquest of the Lacandon. Rivas left the Lacandon

town of Nuestra Senora de los Dolores (originally Sac Balam) escorted by twelve men

with the goal of finding the route towards the Itza capital, which by that time had already

been conquered by Captain Martin de Ursua y Arizmendi. After leaving the town of

Dolores, Rivas and his group walked for four days until they boarded boats at the De los

Dolores River (Lacantun River) and sailed for two days until they reached a place called

El Encuentro de Cristo (where the Lacantun River and the Pasion River join to form the

Usumacinta). From this place they went on sailing for more than three days until they

arrived at a marsh, from where they went on sailing for two more days, after which they

finally arrived at the port of entry of the Itza, the place where the canoes were left, and

started making headway overland to the banks of Lake Peten (AGI, Guatemala 345).


The existence of several different river waterways and overland routes used by the Choi

and Lacandon traders to reach the Itza capital city, confirms the importance that Noh

Peten must have had as an economic and political center.

The Manche Choi and the Lacandon used different routes which allowed them to

trade with peoples who had fled from Spanish domination, such as the Ah Xoy, who were

Kekchi fugitives from Coban. They also traded with other peoples, such as the Mopan and the Xocmo (who spoke the Itza language). It has also been argued that the Choi and

Lacandon also had routes to trade with encomienda towns such as Coban, Cahabon and

San Mateo Ixtatan in Verapaz. All of this allows us to establish the existence of several

different exchange circuits in the XVII century. The circuit of greatest importance di

rected the production of cacao, annatto and vanilla from the Choi and Lacandon towns

towards the Itza capital, seemingly exchanging these products for salt. This was a com

pulsory trade based on the military power of the Itza, who constantly raided these towns

(Caso Barrera 2002: 230-231). On the other hand, the Choi and Lacandon bartered

cacao and annatto with the encomienda towns in exchange for metal tools and salt. It

should be noted that the Spaniards and Indians of the encomienda towns of Verapaz, also used violent methods to extort cacao and annatto from the Manche Choi.

The triad of chocolate: cacao, annatto and vanilla as traditional crops The existence of semi-intensive and intensive production of cacao, annatto and

vanilla in the regions occupied by the historical Lacandon and Manche Choi, demon

strate that these products were consumed in large quantities in the form of chocolate

beverages by members of the Itza ruling elite (Caso and Aliphat 2002). Chocolate has

a symbolic parallelism with blood and it was therefore considered as a precious fluid in

Mesoamerican cosmogony (Thompson 1956; Coe 2004: 208; Coe and Coe 1999: 59). In this sense we can say that it was a drink reserved strictly for nobles and the indigenous elites. The symbolic complex represented by chocolate and its relationship with royal

power and lineage is stated as a riddle in a text in the language of Zuyua6, in the so-called

books of Chilam Balam:

"My son, bring me four Chac Dzidzib, Cardinal Birds, those that can

be found at the entrance of the cave and bring them standing on my

precious food. Let me see them with their head tufts rendered red and

let them come standing straight on my precious food when you come

before me".

"And so it will be, oh Father! This that he is asking for is the Ciui, An

natto-in-a-paste, the head-tufts he is speaking about is the foam of the

chocolate and his precious breakfast is freshly ground cacao". (Barrera

Vasquez and Rendon 2005: 134).

It was precisely annatto that gave chocolate the red color that made people as

sociate it with blood; in addition, it must have given it a characteristic flavor (Coe 2004:

206-208). In addition to annatto, the Maya of the lowlands seem to have seasoned and

aromatized their chocolate with vanilla. In several different Mesoamerican cultures we

find a close association between drinks prepared with cacao and vanilla. Among the

Mexicas, honey, vanilla, fragrant plants and flowers were added to chocolate with which

they were able to obtain drinks of several different colors and flavors (Durand-Forest

1967:164). In addition to finding a close relationship between the growing and tending of

cacao, annatto and vanilla and their consumption under the form of chocolate, we note


that all three require transformation processes that give these products unique charac

teristics. Fuentes y Guzman (1932, Vol.2: 390) states that a Maya lord by the name of

Hunahpu was the one who discovered the processing of cacao. According to this author,

Hunahpu is a historical Quiche ruler, but we think that this is a direct reference to the

mythical personage mentioned in the Popol Vuh. Cacao requires a chemical and physical

process that takes four basic steps which are: fermentation, drying, toasting and sieving. This process, that allows the transformation of cacao seeds into high quality chocolate, dates back to at least 3,000 years (Enriquez 1985: 183-208; Coe and Coe 1999: 30-31).

Vanilla also requires a modification process, similar to that of cacao; the

fruit of the orchid which originally has a green pod must be cured and dried so

that it will become a thin, dark-colored pod which produces a characteristic fra

grance (Bruman 1948: 361). Annatto does not require a fermentation process, but it

does need the extraction of the dye, by means of soaking and cooking the seeds. In

the Relaciones geogrdficas of Guatemala we can find a description of how the Indians

from Verapaz obtained the annato dye and molded into cakes to be sent to market:

Among the milpa and among the houses there are various evergreen

trees full of leaves which produce fruit, similar to chestnuts, which have

inside of them several tiny grains covered in a crimson colored wax. The

Indians take these grains in large amounts and cook them during long

periods of time, until all color is drawn out together with the grease of

the grains which floats on the water. With this dough they form some

cakes. It is a kind of spice which provides color to their drinks, and the

ladies of this land can bear witness to this happening.

(Acuna 1982: 231).

The Lacandon and particularly the Manche Choi, had ample knowledge of their

agro-ecosystems, which allowed them to grow cacao, annatto and vanilla in a semi-inten

sive and intensive manner. In addition they must have had abundant and highly special ized labor devoted to the necessary transformation processes demanded for these prod ucts. We also know that not only did they plant and transform the crops associated with

the consumption of chocolate, but that they also maintained a complex trade network,

which allowed them to exchange these products in on-going long distance trade.

Agricultural systems in the Southern Maya lowlands The different Maya peoples, during prehispanic times and at present, have dis

tinguished themselves by their efficient and complex agricultural milpa system (a polyc ulture agro-ecosystem of maize-beans-squash and tubers) (Hernandez-Xolocotzi et al.

1995), and by intensive agro-ecological systems for the traditional growing of crops in

raised fields, terrace systems, bounded fields, in the fertile lowlands along the rivers, etc.

(Turner 1978; Harrison and Turner 1978; Gliessman et al. 1981). From the standpoint of

arboreal species, the Maya have an outstanding background in the management of the

tropical rainforests, by growing home gardens, planting trees in rejqyadas (soil traps in

karstic landscapes), constructing tolches, which are fields for cultivation clearly bounded

by tree hedges acting as shaded pathways, and orchards with intensive and semi-intensive

cultivation of arboreal species, as well as in managed or artificial rainforests which, in

a simplified manner, replicate the structure and composition of the tropical rain forest

(Barrera et al. 1977; Gomez-Pompa 1987; Gomez-Pompa et al. 1990; Wiseman 1978,

1983). In the Maya lowlands, under the milpa system, a plot of land is cleared to plant


maize associated with corn-beans-squash and tubers. However, many arboreal species are

not destroyed when the original vegetation is being cleared. Some trees are protected and

even encouraged to grow thus giving these species an ecological advantage in the succes

sion process which is being established when the milpa is abandoned after two or three

years of agricultural production (Baer and Merrifield 1981; Nations and Night 1980;

Gomez-Pompa 1987; Atran 1993: 682-687, 2004: 14-15). All of this is an example of

targeted ecological processes and it implies an intentional modification of the course of

ecological succession which produces the enrichment of the tropical rainforest diversity with useful plants and trees which results in a "man made" rain forest (Barrera etal\911\

Martin 2001). There is therefore a relationship of succession in the management of the

tropical forest by the Maya, which starts from the clearing of the land and ends with the

reestablishment of the original forest, by a series of steps: primary tropical rain forest

> milpas

> secondary vegetation

> orchards/plantations of arboreal spp. >

secondary

tropical forest.

The milpa system of the present-day Lacandon, consists in cutting down the

primary or secondary tropical rainforest and then burn the stubble and plant selected

species in the milpas. They plant and harvest their milpas for two to five consecutive

years, but before abandoning the milpa they plant different species of trees which have

economic value, this allows the reestablishment of the vegetation with an "enriched"

rainforest (Baer and Merrifield 1981: 177-209; Nations and Nigh 1980: 8). The central

idea which can be gleaned from the agricultural system of the modern Lacandon, is the

slow replacement of the non-economic species for economic ones, always trying to pre serve the ecological balance of the tropical forest ecosystem. The present-day Lacandon

milpas are characterized by the large diversity of species under cultivation, because, in

addition to planting maize, beans and squash, they grow several different types of roots

and tubers, fruit trees, cacao, annatto, cotton, tobacco, among many other species (Na tions and Nigh 1980: 10).

Both the mixed-cropped orchards as well as the milpas, show a close relationships and continuity with the agricultural systems existing in the Maya Lowlands during the

XVI and XVII centuries, even though some distinctive variations exist between them.

We have found several historical descriptions of three agricultural systems, two of them

are very similar to the present day Lacandon milpas, and a third system represented by the orchards of the Manche Choi, might be considered akin to true "plantations" (Go

mez Pompa 1987: 6). The ecological succession bears an intimate relationship with the

management of the exposure of certain species to the conditions of light and shade.

In this sense we may say that the Lacandon milpas and the specialized orchards of the

Manche Choi, had an extremely sophisticated form of management which allowed the

growing of cacao, vanilla and annatto together with other plant species. Cacao and vanilla

are planted in the shade, whereas maize is grown under the open sky, because of its de

mand of sunlight. Annatto is a small tree which grows well in open sky and requires little

shade, it occupies an intermediate position between the previously described extremes.

At the level of home gardens, the combination of arboreal species, bushes, herbaceous

plants and other species imply great sophistication in the management of the structure,

composition and function of the vegetation from the ecological standpoint (Gliessman

1998).

The Itza milpas The soils of Central Peten are neither fertile nor deep enough for the intensive

growing of cacao orchards (Schwartz 1992: 23-25; Atran 1993: 670, 2004: 129). In his

travels towards Honduras, as has been stated above, Cortes did not find cacao orchards in


Peten. He mentions the presence of cacao only upon arrival at the Choi province of Ta

huytal (Cortes 1981: 245). Canek pointed out to Cortes, that his lands in Peten were not

good for the production of cacao and that it was the reason why his cacao orchards were

located in the region close to Nito. It should be emphasized that the Itza ruler possessed cacao orchards, which were grown by "his vassals", a fact that emphasizes what Millon

established about the private property of trees; basically cacao trees were the exclusive

property of the elites (Millon 1955: 698-712). The Spaniards described the Itza as "lazy" people because they had small milpas.

However this strategy had proven to be successful in reducing the danger of loss of

crops caused by pests and diseases. By having several small plots of land in different

places, agricultural stability is increased; if one milpa is lost as a result of pests or adverse

weather conditions, there is always the possibility of having some other milpas flourish

(Wiseman 1978: 98). The Itza had several types of milpas cultivated by individuals or

families, as well as community plots which had large granaries which were used to store

the crops to meet the needs of the community and to pay tribute. There were also milpas that belonged to rulers and principales, such as the ones that were cultivated for Canek by the people of his domain called canekes (Caso Barrera 2002: 228).

In these different types of agricultural plots, the Itza grew a great variety of dif

ferent plant species, a type of polyculture, which allowed them to harvest a great diversity of products during the annual cycle. According to the documentary sources consulted, we find that the most frequent crops present in the Itza milpas were maize, beans, ibes

(Phaseolus lunatus), squash, chayote, cotton, tobacco, annatto, yucczjlcama, yams, taro, pine

apples, few cacao trees, vanilla, indigo and grana (Figure 4a). They also planted species introduced by the Spaniards, such as sugar cane, bananas, watermelons and citrus trees to

which they had access via their contact with fugitive Indian towns and encomienda towns

(Hellmuth 1977: 433-438; Caso Barrera 2002: 228-229). In abandoned milpas (acabuales), the Itza planted useful trees and cared for other

wild species of economic importance such as it is done by the modern Lacandon in Chi

apas and the present day Yucatec Maya (Baer and Merrifield 1981; Barrera Marin 1981;

Gomez Pompa 1987; Nations and Nigh 1980). There were cacao trees in these orchards,

carefully grown and protected together with pataxte, (Tbeobroma bicolor Humb. & Bonpl.)

copal (Protium copal Schltdl. et Cham.), annatto (Bixa orellana L.), allspice (Pimenta dioica [L]

Mer.), rubber (Castilla elastica Sesse et Cerv.), sisal (Agave pourcrqydes Lemaire), logwood (Haematoxilum campechianum L.), balsamo (Myroxylon balsamum L.) and other plants such

as vanilla {Vanilla planifolia G. Jackson,), zarzaparrilla (Smilax aspera L.) and plants that

produced dyes of great importance for the manufacture of spun threads for textiles.

They also grew medicinal plants such as the tree called santamaria (Calophyllum brasiliense

Camb.) (AGI, Escribanfa 339B n.5, f.356; Patronato 237 R.11, f.633; Guatemala 151 bis,

f.!26v). Itza orchards with cacao, pataxte, annatto and vanilla produced only enough for

local consumption at a much reduced scale, since most of these valued products were

obtained by means of trade. The Itza elite consumed large amounts of beverages made

from cacao flavored with annatto and vanilla, and to satisfy their ever increasing cacao

needs, the Itza established regional control over the production and exchange of these

resources which came to an end in 1697 with the Spanish conquest (Caso Barrera 2002;

Jones 1998).

The Lacandon milpas In 1586, Captain Juan de Morales Villavicencio wrote a detailed report on the en


trada that he organized to pacify the Lacandon who were settled at the time in Lacantun, close to Lake Miramar (Chiapas). After the fall of their main settlement, the Lacandon

fled and took refuge in their milpas which were located as far as eight or ten leagues (44 to 55 kms.) from Lacantun towards the east (Archivo General de Centroamerica,7 L. 333

Ex. 7011). Morales Villavicencio's strategy was to give relentless chase to the Lacandon, locate their milpas and their granaries, destroying both, so they would surrender. The

original report has valuable information on the types of agricultural plots and crops of

the Lacandon. According to this testimony, they had, like the Itza, different types of

agricultural plots: milpas that belonged to individuals and families, milpas of the commu

nity, and milpas that belonged to rulers and principales. The first plots that Captain Mo

rales ordered to destroy belonged to the cacique Cabnal. These were 40 large and small

milpas, which had maize ready to be harvested. In their milpas the Lacandon planted, in

addition to maize, yams and other tubers, fruit and cacao trees. The Spaniards uprooted all plants and trees and burned them together with six or seven granaries filled with maize

and legumes (AGCA, L. 333 Ex. 7011, f. 7v). The Lacandon carried out multiple cropping. In addition to maize they planted

beans, chile, yams, other tubers and roots, pineapples, bananas and fruits (Figure 4b).

Distinctively from the Itza, the Lacandon had many cacao and annatto trees in their mil

pas, because their soils were definitely apt for these crops and they had a semi-intensive

arrangement of production. (Figures 3 and 4b). In his report Captain Morales states

that he himself destroyed, cut and burned 90 of these milpas plus other small ones which

were not taken into account (Ibid. 13v). In spite of the harassment and persecution suffered by the Lacandon, they were

able to resist the Spanish attacks and finally reestablished their main settlement named

Sac Balam, near the Lacantun River. Their lands were described as "very fertile with

cacao, cotton, honey, maize and many other legumes and lots of fish" (AGCA, Leg. 1546

Ex. 31534, f. 3v). After several adverse confrontations with the Spaniards, the Lacandon

got gradually weaker and lost control of the saltworks at Nueve Cerros, at the hands of

the Itza. Forced by the need to obtain salt, the Lacandon were required to trade with the

Itza, providing them their production of cacao and annatto. The Lacandon also traded

with the Chuj of San Mateo Ixtatan, a town located 66 km. southwest of Sac Balam.

They used to exchange cacao and annatto for salt and iron tools of the Chuj (Caso Bar

rera 2002: 259). Bishop Navas y Quevedo described this trade in 1684:

[....] The Lacandon Indians have dealings with those of San Mateo Ix

tatan and bring to this town cacao and annatto from their land to be

bartered for salt, reales and iron tools for tilling. I have been able to buy

very good and thick cacao." (AGI, Guatemala 158)

The Lacandon traders were engaged in regular and constant dealings with the

Chuj and continually visited their town for trade purposes and even hid in their homes

when any Spaniard arrived suddenly and unannounced. With the Kanjobal from Santa

Eulalia (some 88 to 110 kms. from Sac Balam), the Lacandon were in constant con

frontation. Historical documents mention that an Indian named Luis Cotta, from Santa

Eulalia, entered into the Lacandon milpas where they had "some fruit trees such as cacao,

bananas, sugar cane and zapote" to steal their fruit (AGI, Guatemala 158). As has been

mentioned, for several different Mesoamerican cultures, especially the Maya groups, trees

were considered private property, particularly cacao trees, which generally belonged to

the governing elite. Taking fruit from these trees without permission was considered a

major offense, so much so that starting from the incident with Luis Cotta, the Lacandon


declared war against the people of Santa Eulalia, which was raided on many occasions, even reaching the extreme of taking prisoners for human sacrifice (Ibid).

The importance of the milpas and orchards is also reflected in Lacandon reli

gion: their gods were revered so that they would protect the milpas, cacao orchards and

animals. Drinks made from cacao as well as ground cacao were offered to their gods:

[...] they shaped a big bundle in the courtyard, made of sticks and leaves, while burning lots of pine [Pinus sp.] and copal [incense] and offered it food and drink, and sprayed cacao and maize upon the bundle and at

its feet on top of a slab of stone, they placed large amounts of ground cacao and animal fat.

(AGI, Guatemala 153, f. 274v).

It was not until 1695 that the Spaniards were able to conquer the "fearful" Lacan

don nation, when they took their last capital Sac Balam by surprise, which then received

the Spanish name of Nuestra Senora de los Dolores. They were forcibly removed from

their lands and were taken to the highlands of Guatemala where most of them ultimately died (Ximenez 1973 Vol. 5: 446-447; de Vos 1980:190-211). The forceful removal of the

Lacandon left their lands abandoned, which surely meant the regional collapse of the

production of cacao and annatto. The Spaniards were unable to reestablish the produc tion of these crops, because with the disappearance of the Lacandon, knowledge of their

semi-intensive production and traditional management was lost forever.

The Pakaboob or Manche Choi orchards Cacao orchards could only be established successfully in the fertile valleys with

deep soils neighboring the region of central Peten, along the large rivers such as the Usu

macinta, Pasion-Salinas, the rivers in Belize and the Polochic-Izabal- Dulce river system, as well as in the valley of the Sula River in Honduras. The core area of this extensive re

gion was occupied by the Manche Choi and was a zone of intensive production of cacao

(Figure 3). This region has not been mentioned in the relevant works of the specialists on the topic (Bergmann 1969; Coe y Coe 1999; McLeod 1973). Until now, there was

no description of the intensive management that the Choi carried out in their orchards

called in Cholti, pakab. The ethnohistorical data we analyzed, indicate that in these groves the Choi intensively produced cacao, vanilla and annatto (Figure 4). The large extension

and high productivity of these pakab as well as their remarkable specialization makes

them true "plantations." To the northeast this type of orchards were found along the Belize coastal region,

where there were Choi people living in close vicinity of Yucatec Maya populations (AGI, Guatemala 67). At the encomienda town of Tipu, which was a Yucatec Maya settlement,

descriptions are made of cacao plantations such as the ones of the Manche Choi. In

this town one principal possessed 8,000 cacao trees. Seemingly, since Prehispanic times,

this town had been producing cacao, annatto and vanilla. Twelve leagues (66 kms.) from

Tipu, was the town of Lucu, also of Yucatec Maya where, according to the Franciscan

friar Fuensalida, they had "the best annatto in all of the New Spain, as well as an excellent

thick cacao, red in color and with an excellent flavor, as well as vanillas that they call


Figure 3. Cacao producing regions in the southern Maya lowlands, ca. 16th-17th

centuries.

ci^biques, very good and fragrant for chocolate" (Lopez de Cogolludo 1971 Vol. II: 215). Lucu was considered a very prosperous town because of its large number of cacao or

chards. These specialized orchards in the Yucatec villages must have been introduced by the neighboring Choi populations.

The main Manche Choi settlements were distributed from the south of Belize and

lower part of the Polochic River, north to a region around Lake Izabal. Their lands had

limits to the north and to the west with those of the Itza, Mopan, Xocmo and Lacandon

as well as with other peoples to the south such as the Kekchi towns of Cahabon and

Coban in Verapaz. As has been mentioned, the Choi planted small milpas and concen

trated their agricultural activity in their orchards of cacao and annatto (AGI Guatemala

67, 181). These crops required hard and highly specialized work, which started with the

planting of nurseries (called in Choltf petconob or petpacab) to obtain seedlings. These were

planted with extreme and constant care so as to avoid infestations or any damages. The Manche Choi grew two kinds of cacao: the normal called cacau (cacao) and a

large cacao called uaalcab (Moran 1695). They also had two harvests a year of annatto


Figure 4. Agrosystems of the southern Maya lowlands, a) Itza milpa, b) Lacandon milpa,

c) Manche Choi cacao orchards, ca. 16th - 17th centuries.


or quivi in Cholti. The first was called %ut%il quivi or winter annatto, andyaxkzni/ quivi or

summer annatto. The growing and processing of this spice and colorant also required

very hard work, since the dye had to be extracted and shaped into cakes, for the market.

Vanilla was called chisbic'm Cholti, its processing was also highly specialized and demand

ed much work since the pods had to be cured and dried to obtain a superior quality

product. The historical sources do not specify to whom these orchards belonged, but, it is almost certain they were the property of their rulers and principales. In Cholti the

term hit%inbil means "forbidden tree", which supports the interpretation of trees as pri vate property.

The fertile valley systems were not only important for the growing of cacao or

chards, but also allowed the development of important trade routes. There were wa

terways and overland routes linking Choi towns that served as ports, resting places and

trading centers (AGI, Guatemala 67). We know that some Choi principales were great tradesmen who monopolized the trade with the Itza and with the encomienda towns

in Verapaz. Before the arrival of the Spaniards an intricate commercial network existed

between the Manche Choi, Itza and the Chontal of Acalan. After the Spanish conquest, the Choi took advantage of their vicinity to the Kekchi encomienda towns of Cahabon

and Coban to carry out a continuous trade with them for salt and metal tools in exchange for cacao and annatto, as stated in 1605 by Fray Juan de Esquerra:

And later they have come many other times. I had once twenty two

[Manche Choi] here in Cahabon on the day of the festivity of the

town which is the Nativity of Our Lady. Every time that they came we

preached to them and told them to receive the gospel and they always

gave the same answer. I sent messengers many times and sent them salt

(they do not have any in their country) and some knives and machetes that

they hold in great esteem. (AGI, Guatemala 181).

Among the Manche Choi different words are used to refer to tradesmen: one is aical, which translates as rich person and refers to traders belonging to the elite. There are also

the terms ahpolon and ah chon which refer to common merchants (Moran 1695). It seems

that the kinsmen of the rulers acted as aicaloob, as must have been the case of the son of the great lord Acusaha, as cited in the testimony of Andres Fernandez Pareja in 1600:

[....] and then, at that time, they came [the Manche Choi] to buy salt and

other necessary things under the mandate of their great lord, whose son

was there amongst them, and whom they respected very much. He told me that on behalf of all [Spaniards], I should write to their great lord his

father, named Acusaha [Ah Cusaha?] and should send him messengers, so that they would deal with the case. He promised to tell his father

about the good treatment that he and all the other Indians had received

(AGI, Guatemala 59, ff. 2-2v).

In spite of the constant statements of the friars over the simple political organi zation of the Choi and the little respect they had for their authorities, the above docu

ment gives us a different perspective by pointing out the existence of a great lord whom

"they respected very much". This document, dated 1600, seems to demonstrate that the political organization of the Manche Choi was gradually being modified through the

XVII century. We assume that this was due to the constant attacks carried out by the Itza polity, as well as the fact of being under continuous pressure by the Spaniards and


the Dominican Order, which tried to convert them whatever the cost (AGI, Guatemala

179; Tovilla 1960: 265). To the invitation extended in 1600 by the Alcalde Mayor of

Verapaz asking them to convert to the Catholic faith and to become vassals of the Span ish Crown, the Choi excused themselves by saying that they "were busy harvesting their

cacao and milpas" (AGI, Guatemala 59).

Throughout the XVII century the efforts of civil and church authorities of Gua

temala to conquer and convert the Choi, did not come to an end (Ximenez 1973). It was

a long and troubled process because of the resistance presented by the Manche Choi, as

stated by Fray Agustin Cano, "the barbarous Indians of those mountains are trouble-free,

just as they easily accept the faith, they easily abandon it" (AGI, Guatemala 152 f. 36). No

one can blame the Manche Choi for their "lack of constancy" because, once reduced,

they were easy prey to the Spanish and Indian authorities of the encomienda towns of

Verapaz, who soon enough started exploiting and extracting them their resources and

labor. This was the case in 1678, when the Alcalde Mayor of Verapaz, Sebastian de

Olivera, decided to "seize from the poor, newly converted [Manche Choi] their annatto, cacao and vanillas" (Bancroft Library, Documents of Chiapas, Yucatan and Guatemala

MM-4338). This was done by appointing as Indian governor of the town of Cahabon, a

certain Bartolome Coc, his accessory, who imposed compulsory trade practices with the

Manche Choi and forced them to receive metal tools and other wares at extremely high

prices in exchange for annatto, cacao and vanilla. Each machete was sold to them for

a xiquipil of cacao (8,000 grains of cacao), when in Guatemala City a machete used to

cost four reales (Ibid). Through the same historical source, we know that up to seventy machetes were acquired by one Manche Choi town, as well as many other goods in the

same visit. If one takes into consideration that one grain of cacao weighs around one

gram, a xiquipil of cacao weighed approximately eight kgs., which gives us an idea of

the production of cacao of one town. In the aforementioned case, the price paid by the

Manche Choi for seventy machetes was 560 kgs. of cacao.

After cacao, the second important product for exchange was annatto. In 1626,

only one Manche Choi town produced 920 kgs., at that time worth 1,700 pesos (AGI, Guatemala 181). From the standpoint of the exploitation endured by this group at the

hands of the Alcalde Mayor Sebastian de Olivera and his associate, the Indian governor Bartolome Coc, it is important to note that in Tipu (Belize), one xiquipil of cacao cost

around 10.5 reales in the mid XVII century (Jones 1989: 112). In addition we know that

in Guatemala in 1678, one iron machete cost four reales. The seventy machetes which

had been sold to the Manche Choi for a total of 70 xiquipiles of cacao, were worth the

equivalent of 735 reales; if they had been acquired in Guatemala City, their price would

have been 280 reales, which means that Olivera and Coc were left with a huge profit of

455 reales. The Manche Choi were forced to pay 2.5 times their original price. In an in

direct way this is evidence that the Choi orchards were under intensive production, since

they had to meet not only the demands of the Itza, under the threat of violent retribu

tion, but they also had to meet the demands of the Spanish authorities who imposed

heavy tribute and even more, this cacao production had also to fulfill the needs of the

encomienda townsfolk who had to resort to trade with the Choi, to have access to these

products which were being demanded as part of their own tax and tribute burden. As

was emphasized by Fray Francisco Gallegos in 1676:

The Catholic Indians living in the neighborhood of Manche, believe that

those mountains are their Indies, from where they receive a large rev

enue, which on the one hand consists of a lot of cacao, and on the other

hand the more than thirty six thousand pounds of annatto which exit


through Verapaz and the Castillo [del Golfo].The Indians of Verapaz have very few, if any, plants of annatto, and this latter part is for certain

(Gailegosl676: 3; italics added).

The production of cacao and annatto of the Manche Choi orchards became in

corporated at the end of the XVII century into the colonial market of Guatemala by means of trade and the repartimiento system. Such cacao production has not been quan tified nor its significance adequately considered by scholars. A careful analysis of the

significance of this production and the effects of its collapse should be considered in

studies of the cacao booms in colonial Guatemala.

By 1689, with the assistance of the Indians of Cahabon, the Manche Choi popula tion was collected together and then forcibly relocated to the Valley of Urran in the high lands (Ximenez 1973, Vol. 5: 281: 462-465). Such forced relocation brought about the

abandonment of their orchards and finally led to their disappearance. In 1699, Captain Marcelo Flores, assigned at the Presidio of Peten, and who participated in the conquest of the Itza, stated that some Choi and Mopan Indians were still living in what had been

their lands, and that he had been able to realize this because of the great care that was

evidenced in the cacao and vanilla groves:

[....] that I sent sergeant Martin de Montoya to follow some trails bus

tling with Indians who live in villages in those mountains, which, accord

ing to my way of thinking, are the ones that have limits with those of

the Gulf [Dulce] and which belong to several different nations such as

the Mopan and Choi, and nowadays there is a town of more than four

hundred people that belongs to the doctrine of the priests of Santo Do

mingo, which is the town of Belen, close to Rabinal. And in all of these localities there is evidence that there are Indians using these paths and

trails at their own manner and habits, as is evidenced in the care and tidiness

of their cacao and vanilla orchards and otherfruits. (AGI, Guatemala 151 bis, f. 134v; italics added).

By the year 1710 in the town of Belen, in the Valley of Urran, there were only four Manche Choi left. The whole population had died from disease, famine and "mel

ancholy" (Ximenez 1971, Vol. 6: 220). With the disappearance of the Manche Choi, all knowledge about the specialized orchards in the production of cacao, annatto and

vanilla, was lost.

Conclusions

The Chontalpa, Soconusco, Suchitepequez and Izalco, have been considered by scholars to be the all inclusive regions of intensive cacao production, for prehispanic and

colonial periods (Bergmann 1969; Fowler 1993; Gasco 1990; Scholes and Roys 1968; Voorhies and Gasco 2004). However, research on the relationships of the Itza polity with

the Manche Choi and with the historic Lacandon (Caso Barrera: 2002; Caso Barrera and

Aliphat 2002), has allowed us to outline and define the Lacandon and Manche Choi ter

ritories as a new and vital cacao producing region, which in addition provided significant quantities of annatto and vanilla, crops of great relevance for the Maya. This region was

a liminal area between the independent territory of the Itza and the Kekchf populations under Spanish rule at Verapaz.

The study of different regional agrosystems, from the standpoint of environ

mental history, has helped us to differentiate at least three historical agrosystems present


in the region, which show different degrees of integration and intensification of cacao

farming (Figure 4). These three agrosystems imply the management of the ecological structure and diversity and represent a practice whose goal was to modify and control

different stages of ecological succession of the tropical rainforest. Cacao requires the

presence of shade trees which can provide support for the vines of vanilla. Annatto

demands light, placing it in an intermediate position on the luminosity requirements of

maize and other species grown in milpas. The Itza milpas and orchards created a complex mosaic of productive manage

ment of multifaceted interactions among the species of the tropical rainforest and the

areas under cultivation. The Itza growers transformed the structure of the forests of

the Peten region and enriched them with arboreal species of economic importance. The

agricultural limits imposed by the shallow soils of medium and low fertility characteristic

of central Peten, defined the agroecological limits of the intensification processes of ca

cao annatto and vanilla production. These ecological limitations are basic to understand

the expansion of the Itza to the south, to gain control on the one hand, of the saltworks

of Nueve Cerros, as well as the neighboring cacao producing regions, of the Lacandon

and Acala to the southwest and on the other hand, to bring under their sphere of influ

ence the territories of the Manche Choi, in the fertile valleys of the Pasion River and its

tributaries. All of these Choi-speaking populations had to face the constant and ferocious

pressure of the Itza.

The Lacandon of Sac Balam, at the time of their conquest by the Spaniards, had

a system of milpas in which they grew not only maize, beans, squash, and tubers but also

kept under cultivation a significant number of arboreal species among which, were their

semi-intensive cacao and annatto orchards. In the other hand the Manche Choi were

described by the Spaniards as an apathetic people, who grew very small milpas and lived

in little settlements dispersed in the region. However, a careful analysis of the historical

sources shows that the Manche Choi were highly specialized cacao farmers and produc ers of annatto and vanilla. The orchards of the Manche Choi, can be considered an

example of intensive cultivation and due to their productivity, extension, labor demands

and marked specialization can be defined as true plantations. The region of the Southern Maya Lowlands is shaped like a fertile crescent which

extends from Tabasco to the Gulf of Honduras (Figure 1). This region formed the

geographical and economic landscape of the exchange system established during the

post-classic period by the Chontal of Acalan, which were specialized in long distance

trade on luxury goods including cacao. The collapse of the Chontal realm caused by the

Spanish conquest left a vacuum which was filled by the Itza, who for eight katun periods

(160 years) were able to reestablish and exploit a commercial system based on cacao, an

natto, vanilla, salt, axes and iron machetes, as well as defending their autonomy against the Spanish. The Lacandon people of Sac Balam, Peta and Map, the Choi of Yol, Yaxha,

Chocahau, Manche, Yaxhal, Campin and Tzoite, the Yucatec settlements of Tipu and Xi

bun as well as the encomienda towns of the Kekchi from Coban, Lanquin and Cahabon

were witnesses to the Itza supremacy, which collapsed abruptly with the capture of Noh

Peten by Martin de Ursua y Arizmendi in 1697.

Notes 1 The authors wish to thank CONACYT (National Council of Science and Technology) for the financial support through the Project "Relationships among the Mayas of Yucat

an, El Peten and La Verapaz, XVII-XIX" 40088-H, to do research and present an early version of this paper at the II Symposium of Environmental History on Latin America

and the Caribbean in the Session "New stories on the rainforests of Latin America and


the Caribbean" coordinated by Christian Brannstrom at Havana, Cuba. The anonymous reviewers of the original paper and their pertinent commentaries are graciously acknowl

edged. David Robinson has also provided a great number of critical and always helpful editorial comments for which we are immensely grateful.

2 The province of Acalan was Chontal and was located in Tabasco and south of

Campeche. It was ruled by Paxbolonacha during the time of Cortes.

3 Archivo General de Indias, hereafter AGI.

4 The province of Bacalar comprised the southern part of Quintana Roo and the north

of Belize.

5 Actually it was located on the tributary called Icbolay, which joins the Chixoy down

stream from Salinas de los Nueve Cerros.

6 The Zuyua language consisted of a series of riddles that the Maya rulers of Yucatan

were under the obligation to know and provide answers to, in order to have access to

government.

7 Archivo General de Centroamerica, hereafter AGCA

8 Bancroft Library Documents of Chiapas, Yucatan and Guatemala MM-433, hereafter

BL-CHYG-MM-433. Informe del prior del convento de Coban al arzobispo de Guate

mala, Andres de Navas y Quevedo, Coban 6 de febrero de 1685.

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