284 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
labor of the huge Mayan peasantry inhabiting the Peninsula were exploited. Thou-
sands of Mayas were trapped on the plantations as peons (indebted workers); thou-
sands of others fled to the Quintana Roo frontier zone, where they established
independent peasant communities and became known as the Huites (“the loincloth
people”). The Catholic Church was suppressed by the liberals too, and this dimin-
ished the ruling creoles’ control over the Mayas and hence gave greater freedom for
the latter to perservere in their traditional Mayan religious practices.
Around midcentury (1850), over 100,000 of the Huites in the eastern frontier fi-
nally rose up against liberal rule, and a “caste war” ensued with the Indians on one
side and the now-united creoles and mestizos on the other. For the Mayas, the goal
was liberation from what had become an intolerably repressive system of rule. The
Mayan rebels succeeded in liberating a large area of Yucatán from Mexican control,
but eventually they retreated to Quintana Roo where they established a separate “na-
tion,” which was called the “Empire of the Cross.” This independent Mayan “em-
pire” survived for over fifty years. The rallying symbol in both war and political
organization for the Mayas was a series of sacred crosses dressed in huipils(native
cotton “dresses”), which they claimed had suddenly appeared near a sacred well
(cenote) in Chan Santa Cruz. It was believed that the crosses spoke to the charismatic
leaders of the movement and instructed them on how to make war against the Whites.
The movement’s message was strongly nativist, and it was a rejection of the lib-
eral attempt to destroy the identity and culture that the Mayas had struggled to pre-
serve throughout the centuries of domination, first by the Spaniards, and later by the
peninsular creoles. The society created by the rebellious “people of the cross” was a
fascinating syncretic creation, comprising a surprisingly large number of cultural
features similar to those of the pre-Hispanic Mayas. Political leadership was vested in
a prophet ruler (Tatich) who was said to have received messages from the talking
idols (the crosses). The Mayan society was stratified into the ancient division between
lords, commoners, and slaves (the slaves were white captives); and the traditional Mayan
dispersed settlement pattern was instituted, consisting of a politico-ceremonial center
surrounded by numerous small agricultural villages (Figure 7.9).
Important cultural features from the creole world were also woven into the rebel
institutions. For example, creole-type military companies became important units
of the social system; public administration was performed by secretaries and eccle-
siastical officials similar to those found in creole society; and a Spanish-type cathedral
was constructed on the spot where the crosses had first appeared. Within the church,
masses and rituals dedicated to the saints were regularly conducted by Mayan priests.
In the creole and mestizo areas of Yucatán beyond the Empire of the Cross, the
henequen industry greatly expanded and the nonrebellious Mayas were drawn fur-
ther into the liberal system as indebted laborers. Finally, after Porfirio Díaz came to
power in Mexico, the central government was able to gain control over the caudillo
struggles in Yucatán by appointing loyal military leaders as governors of the state. Gen-
eral Bravo, one of these governors, defeated the hapless warriors of the Mayan empire
around the turn of the century and once again incorporated Quintana Roo into Mex-
ican territory. Despite their defeat, the rebel Mayas had succeeded in making an im-