Questions for 18 Rabbit

If I could meet some people from the past, one would have to be 18 Rabbit (695-738 A.D.). He was a Mayan king at the height of a thriving civilization, which was destined to peter out beginning in the 800’s. When the Spanish arrived, in the sixteenth century in Copan, where ruins from the once-great society are found, the indigenous people apparently could not (would not?) tell them anything about the buildings. So, my main question for him would be whether he saw the end coming. Were there signs? Did people think technology would come along to save the day before things got desperate? Did he think his was the most powerful nation in the world? Was anybody freaking out about rising temperatures?

I also like him because, according to our guide at Copan Ruinas, 18 Rabbit broke with the long-standing tradition of tearing everything down and rebuilding every 52 years. Some little voice inside of him might have whispered, “there’s got to be a more efficient way to do this.”

It is really amazing to walk around the ruins and see sculptures of the gods, temples, and nobles’ quarters and the statues of cross-eyed kings. (The kings were depicted as cross-eyed, as this was a major mark of beauty. Our guide said they even placed pendulums so they would touch babies’ heads and cause their pupils to cross.) A successor of 18 Rabbit, Smoke Shell, built a gigantic staircase/bible, which deteriorated enough that it hasn’t been deciphered. It’s still really impressive.

Apparently the Mayans invented a sacred ball game that was the precursor to soccer, but with a couple of twists. The main one is that the MVP was sacrificed to the gods (in your face Darwin! Looks like mortality of the fittest).

So what happened to the Mayans of Honduras? They didn’t just disappear completely. Their descendents are known as the Maya Chortí. Tourists visiting the ruins of Copan may not be aware of their presence in the region, but the reality is they are in a long, intense battle for land the government promised them in the 1990’s. Chortí groups do not receive any benefits from the profits made at the ruins of their ancestors; instead these funds are destined for support of other protected areas of Honduras. From my own experience, racism against the Chortí is rampant, and their attempts at taking over the Ruins in the past to demand the land they are owed has resulted in brutal police retaliation. A major Chortí leader, Cándido Amador, was murdered in 1997, allegedly by local land-owners (*Chandler & Prado, 2006). Several government employees, in charge of working with local groups, have told me of the existence of many groups registered as Chortí who are taking advantage of the label to tap government funds. Due to stigma, many who are probably of Chortí heritage do not openly identify with the tribe. It’s a complicated problem.

One thing that needs to change is the racism. One person at a time, I’m fighting the custom to use the word “indio” as an insult, which essentially equates “indigenous” to “uneducated” or “backward”. A lot more needs to be done; maybe if enough tourists realize the injustice of the system, something can be done.

*Chandler, Gary and Lisa Prado. Honduras & the Bay Islands. Lonely Planet. 2006