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60-683: The Putunes, or Chontal Maya, established founded two main populations: Potonchan (Putunchan), situated in the mouth of the Grijalva River in the current state of Tabasco , and Itzamkanac, near the Candelaria River , which ends at the Laguna de Términos in Campeche . Groups of the Putún were, throughout their development, neighbors with groups of Nahuatl who influenced them from a linguistic perspective. Like

120-501: A translator, told some natives that were in a boat that "he would do no harm, to those who came in peace and that he only wanted to speak with them." But Cortés, seeing that the natives were still threatening, ordered weapons brought on the boats and handed them to archers and musketeers, and he began planning how to attack the town. On the day following March 13, 1519, the chaplain Juan Díaz and Brother Bartolomé of Olmedo, officiated what

180-557: A year after, on March 12, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived at the mouth of the Grijalva river. He decided to have his ships drop anchor and enter the river in skiffs , in search of the great city of Indians described by Juan de Grijalva. Cortés landed right at the mouth of the river, at a place named "Punta de los Palmares." "On the twelfth day of the month of March of the year one-thousand five-hundred nineteen, we arrived at

240-505: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Potonch%C3%A1n ...There exists a great city extending along the Tabasco river; so great and celebrated, as one cannot measure, however, says the pilot Alaminos and others with him, that is extends flanking the coast, about five hundred thousand steps and has twenty-five thousand houses, dispersed among gardens, that are made splendidly with stones and lime in whose construction projects

300-660: Is an identity between the Putunes and the Itza people who arrived to the Yucatán during the early classical period. There is mention of an extant relationship between a Putún group settled in Chakán Putún that was thrown out and immigrated to Petén , in what is now Guatemala , and from there towards the coast of the Caribbean ( Bacalar ). Then they again headed towards the west through the north of

360-528: Is called the Potonchán province." Once ashore, Juan de Grijalva, with the help of Mayan interpreters that he had taken earlier, began to strike up a friendly dialog. In addition to flattering the natives with gifts, Grijalva begged them to call their boss to meet and hold talks with him. And so, after a while, the chief Tabscoob appeared with his nobles to greet Grijalva. During the talk, both figures exchanged gifts: to Grijalva, Tabscoob presented some gold plates in

420-469: Is celebrated for the flood season. During the 1980s, the Catholic Church sought to decrease the influence of Protestant missionaries, who had established themselves in the region as stalwarts against alcoholism and la costumbre , or traditional Maya religious practices. In response, the Catholic Church formed groups of neighborhood catechists to take a hardline stance. They gave Catholic studies of

480-439: Is generally done in under one of these awnings. One modern element of house construction that has been incorporated is the use of nails. The Yoko'tan family is nuclear, monogamous, and cohesive. There is a tendency to marry young, and gender roles are specifically defined. Nonetheless, women are accorded more respect in traditional villages than in villages with high mestizo populations. The original mythology and cosmogony of

540-567: Is humid and tropical, and the fauna was typical of tropical regions until the environment was altered by human industrialization . The mangrove is the predominant form of vegetation. The territory of the Yokot'an was the cradle of the Olmec civilization, which lived there from about 1400 BCE until about 400 BCE. The Maya civilization reached its height in about the year 300 of the Common Era . At this time,

600-547: Is known that it was one of the most populated Mayan cities of the Tabasco Plain, because the cleric Juan Díaz, in his " Itinerary ," speaks of the arrival of Juan de Grijalva's expedition in 1518, it "had more than two thousand Indians..." For his part, Bernal Diaz del Castillo in Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España , says that when they reached Potonchán, it had "over twelve thousand warriors ready to attack [in

660-540: Is no longer profitable. The agriculture of the Yokot'an has been studied extensively and has been shown to be related to ancient Maya agrarian methods. They cultivate high-altitude lands that are enriched with mineral-rich loam by flooding. The principal crop is maize . Agriculture has been in decline since the Spanish conquest of Mexico , when animal husbandry was introduced. Maize, beans, and squash are planted seasonally. While fishing may have been as an important part of

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720-719: The Nahuatl word for chontalli , which means "foreigner", has been applied to various ethnic groups in Mexico. The Chontal refer to themselves as the Yokot'anob or the Yokot'an , meaning "the speakers of Yoko ochoco ", but writers about them refer to them as the Chontal of Centla, the Tabasco Chontal, or in Spanish, Chontales . They consider themselves the descendants of the Olmecs , and are not related to

780-580: The Nahuatl : "pononi" means "smell" and "chan" is a toponymic termination; therefore, it translates as "place that smells." Another, more plausible, etymology is that "poton" comes from the name the Chontal Maya called themselves: the Putún Maya which was also spelled Poton; thus it most likely translates as "Poton place." The city of Potonchán was located on the left on delivered of the Tabasco River, which

840-547: The Oaxacan Chontal . The Yokot'an inhabit 21 towns in a large area known as "la Chontalpa " that extends across five municipalities of Tabasco : Centla , El Centro , Jonuta , Macuspana , and Nacajuca . In Nacajuca, they form a majority of the population. The terrain is highly varied — no single landform dominates — and it has many bodies of water. The land is traversed by seasonally-flooding rivers, and there are numerous lakes, lagoons, and wetlands. The climate

900-647: The Spanish conquest of the Yucatán , Putún territory was thought to have extend from the Copilco River to Comalcalco in the west (in what is now the state of Tabasco), through the deltas of the Usumacinta and Grijalva Rivers, passing through the Laguna de Términos and the Candelaria River Basin up to what is now the city of Champotón in Campeche. The toponomy of the region the Putún originally inhabited invites

960-514: The hunting of small game. In the Terminal Classic period Chontal Maya merchants controlled river and coastal trade routes in the Maya lowlands. Another source of income is palm-wood artisanry. In the past, the manufacture of oyster -shell lime for mortar was an important economic activity, but the availability of mass-produced building materials has reduced demand to the point where its production

1020-532: The Gospel, discouraged the making of ofrendas (dedications to saints upon the building or purchase of a new house). They even discouraged music and dance. This strong Catholic stance against la costumbre prompted a general withdrawal of the people from service to the Church and the decentralization of feast day celebration. Now the feasts are celebrated privately, among the family. Most Yoko'tan are bilingual. Yoko ochoco

1080-486: The Grijalva river, that is called Tabasco(...) and in the skiffs we all went to disembark at the Punta de los Palmares," that was by the town of Potonchán or Tabasco, about half a league. They walked along the river and on the shore among bushes all full of Indian warriors(...) and so on, they were together in the village more than two thousand warriors prepared to make war with us..." To discover their intentions, Cortés, by way of

1140-560: The Indians Julián and Melchorejo so that they could explain to the natives in the Mayan tongue that they came in peace. Thus they continued along the river and, after less than a league, discovered the population of Potonchán. "We started eight days in June 1518 and going armed to the coast, about six miles away from land, we saw a very large stream of water coming out of a major river, the fresh water

1200-493: The Indians flee and take refuge in the mountains. In this manner, Cortés took possession of the great main square of Potonchán, in which there were rooms and great halls and which had three houses of idols. "...we came upon a great courtyard, which had some chambers and great halls, and had three houses of idols. In the "cúes" [temples] of that court, which Cortés ordered that we would repair (...) and there Cortés took possession of

1260-512: The Indians gave the Europeans 20 young women, including a woman who has been referred to as Malintze , Malintzin, and Malinalli by differing sources. The Spaniards gave her the name Dona Marina, and she served as counselor and interpreter for Cortés. Later, Cortés had a son with her. Chontal Maya people The Chontal Maya are a Maya people of the Mexican state of Tabasco . "Chontal", from

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1320-504: The Indians lost, owing primarily to the higher technology of the Spaniard's weapons. "... And we came upon them with all the Captaincies and squads. They had departed in search of us, and they brought great plumes, drums and small trumpets. Their faces were red with ochre , pale and dark. They had great bows and arrows and spears and bucklers (...) and they were in such large squads that all

1380-549: The Maya chief Tabscoob to whom, it is said, he gave his green velvet doublet. Later, on March 12, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived. Cortés, unlike Grijalva, was received by the natives in a warlike fashion, leading to the Battle of Centla . After the native defeat, Cortés founded the first Spanish settlement in New Spain , the town of Santa María de la Victoria , on top of Potonchán. The word Potonchán comes from

1440-458: The Putunes' prehispanic importance, although when they integrated with other peninsular groups, a process that had already occurred by the Mesoamerican post-classical period, they became the inheritors of many of the archeological sites located in territories they inhabited. The Probanza de Pablo Paxbolón , which was discovered and translated by France V. Scholes and Ralph L. Roys attracted

1500-557: The Spaniards that, if they disembarked, they would be killed. They began to shoot arrows at Cortés' soldiers, initiating combat. "... and they surrounded us with their canoes with such a spray of arrows that they made us stop with water up to our waists, and there was so much mud that we could get out and many Indians charged us with spears and others pierced us with arrows, ensuring that we did not touch land as soon as we would have liked, and with so much mud we couldn't even move, and Cortés

1560-485: The Yokot'an economy as agriculture in Pre-Columbian times, today, due to environmental degradation , it doesn't have the same importance. The people continue, however, to fish, especially during periods of abundance. There are three main groups of fishermen. The " libre " ("free") fishermen use very simple "hoop and basket" technology and work in small groups led by an elected "boss". Members of official cooperatives enjoy

1620-585: The Yokot'an is only beginning to be studied. Their myths are filled with supernatural water- and mangrove-creatures, and the story of La Llorona is also told. Public religious displays center around feast days due the adoption of the Catholic faith. The most important feasts are of Our Lady of Mount Carmel , the Immaculate Conception (December 8), and the Archangel Michael (September 29). April 29

1680-423: The Yokot'an were also at their cultural apex. They had already begun to decline by the time of the Spanish conquest of Yucatán , and are mentioned in the narratives of Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Hernán Cortés . In 1518, Juan de Grijalva arrived in Yokot'an lands, and was greeted with hostility. The next year, Cortés's expedition reached Tabasco, and he met with Tabscoob and other chiefs , who supplied him

1740-536: The Yucatán Peninsula, founding cities like Chichén Itzá , Izamal , and Mayapán . All of this would have occurred between the second and fifth centuries CE . There is not, however, historical certainty surrounding these migrations and the dates which they occurred, nor for the hypothesis that establishes that those which were identified as members of the Itza had been Putunes in reality. This Mexican history article

1800-518: The admirable industry and are of the architects... Potonchán , was a Chontal Maya city, capital of the minor kingdom known as Tavasco or Tabasco . It occupied the left bank of the Tabasco River, which the Spanish renamed the Grijalva River , in the current Mexican state of Tabasco . Juan de Grijalva arrived to this town on June 8, 1518, and christened the river with his name and met with

1860-564: The assumption that there was intermingling, as typically occurs in border zones, between the mayas-putunes (the Chontal Maya) and the Aztecs . The paytonymics that, even today, are found in the region indicate this as well. Three provinces of Nahuatl origin, which were used to sustain constant wars, were found nestled in the territory dominated by the Chontal Maya: For some scholars, there

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1920-419: The battle ended, Cortés and his men returned to Potonchán, and where they healed the wounded and buried the dead. On the following day, ambassadors sent by Tabscoob arrived at the Spanish camp with gifts because, according to Indian tradition, the loser must give gifts to the winner. Among the gifts were gold, jewelry, jade, turquoise, animal skins, domestic animals, feathers of precious birds, etc. Furthermore,

1980-584: The benefits of official organization, but are often underpaid. The third group consists of well-equipped business owners who work with contractors. The raising of livestock, unlike fishing, is a growing sector of the economy, often at the expense of agriculture. Many shallow lagoons formerly used for fishing have been drained for use as pastureland. The Yoko'tan hunt game such as the White-tailed deer , but small game has much more importance. Hats are woven from palm and sleeping mats called petates are woven from

2040-435: The border area of the states Tabasco and Campeche with Guatemala . This trade reached as far as the port of Nito on Guatemala's Atlantic Coast. Regarding the urban design of the city, very little is known. Owing to the nature of the place, in which many structures were made of "seto" (hedgerows) and "guano" (palms of genus Coccothrinax ). In other cases, the vestiges disappeared at the initiation of Spanish construction of

2100-609: The fibers of cañita , the Cyperus giganteus , but the primary craft of the Yoko'tan people is the dugout canoe and its smaller counterpart, the cayuco , which is used for fishing and to reach the many islands used for planting. Traditional houses are rectangular in shape, made of palm, wood and are supported by six to eight posts. The roofs are steep to minimize the effect of the heavy rains, and are built by hired professionals. Houses tend to be surrounded by overhangs for outdoor work. Kitchen work

2160-516: The first in New Spain to give obedience to His Majesty. In 1614, the first church was built in Nacajuca, then considered the center of the Yokot'an world. Nacajuca was the only urban center to survive the colonial period , partly due to the introduction of animal husbandry, which limited the range of cultivation. The traditional economy is based on agriculture , fishing , the raising of livestock , and

2220-737: The form of armor and some feathers; whereas Grijalva gave the Mayan chief his green velvet doublet. Tabscoob told the Spanish captain of a place called Culua that was "toward where the sun set..." there was much more of that material. Grijalva in turn, spoke with the Mayan chief with courtesy, admitting that he came in the name of a great lord named Charles V , who was very good, and he wanted to have them as vassals. Tabscoob responded that they lived happily as they were, and that they needed no other lord, and that if he wanted to preserve his friendship with Tabscoob, Grijalva's expedition should leave. Grijalva, after stocking water and provisions, embarked on his way to Culua (modern-day San Juan de Ulúa ). Nearly

2280-598: The interest of some Mayanists , particularly Eric S. Thompson , who Scholes and Roys worked with to reconstruct the pre-Columbian history of this ethnic group. After the classic Mayan collapse , which radically altered Mesoamerican geopolitics, the Putunes saw an era of expansion and, thanks to various migrations, reached such distant regions as the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, territory that belongs to Belize and Honduras today, where they established provinces or chiefdoms and confederated villages dedicated to trade and other economically productive activities. During

2340-474: The king that decree was made... " The next day, Captain Cortés sent Pedro de Alvarado with a hundred soldiers so that he could go up to six miles inland, and he sent Francisco de Lugo, with another hundred soldiers, to a different part. Francisco de Lugo ran into warrior squads, starting a new battle. Upon hearing the shots and drums, Alvarado went in aid of Lugo, and together, after a long fight, they were able to make

2400-400: The land, for his Majesty and in his royal name, in the following manner: His sword drawn, he dealt three stabs to a large ceiba tree in a sign of possession. The tree was in the square of that great town and he said that if there were one person that contradicted him, he would defend it with his sword and all those that were present said it was okay to take the land (...) And before a notary of

2460-431: The main square], plus the riverbank was all full of Indians in the bushes...." Peter Martyr says in his chronicle, that "the great city flanks the river of Tabasco, so great that it has twenty-five thousand houses..." This gives us an idea of the size of the city and of the quantity of inhabitants Potonchán would have had, as well as the natives that were living in nearby towns under control of Potonchán proper. The city

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2520-704: The majority of groups that inhabited lacustrine zones, the Putún were navigators and merchants who controlled many commercial maritime routes around the Yucatán Peninsula from the Laguna de Términos in Campeche to the Sula Valley in Honduras . As such, they extended their influence from villages in the Tabascan and Chiapan jungles to the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. Precisely because they lived in an alluvial zone, they left few archaeological remnants that would speak to

2580-448: The natives flee. The Spaniards returned to town to inform Cortés. Hernán Cortés was informed by an Indian prisoner that the Indians would attack the town, and so he ordered that all the horses be unloaded from the ships and that soldiers prepare their weapons. The next day, early in the morning, Cortés and his men went through plains to Cintla or Centla, subject towns of Potonchán, where the day before Alvarado and Lugo had fought against

2640-402: The natives. There they found thousands of Indians, beginning Battle of Centla. The Spaniards were attacked by Chontal Maya Indians. The Spaniards defended themselves with firearms like muskets and cannons, which produced terror in the Indians, but what terrified them more was seeing the Spanish cavalry, which they had never seen. The Indians believed that both rider and horse were one. In the end

2700-556: The rivers as routes of transportation and communication with different Mayan cities and provinces. They were good navigators and merchants and controlled many maritime routes around the Yucatán Peninsula, from the Laguna de Términos in Campeche to the center of Sula in Honduras . At a point located between the current states of Tabasco and Campeche, the Mexica port of Xicalango was found with whom Potochán fought countless wars for control of

2760-405: The same governmental system that existed from when they were united until the collapse of the Mayan empire. That is, with the three existing social classes: nobility and the priesthood, tributaries, and slaves. It was like that until the arrival of Hernán Cortés in 1519. The first Spanish expedition to touch Tabascan land was led by Juan de Grijalva, who on June 8, 1518, discovered for Western eyes

2820-427: The savanna was covered. They came furiously and surrounded us on all sides. The first attack wounded more than seventy of us, and there were three hundred Indians for each one of us (...) and being in this, we saw how the cavalry came from behind them and we trapped them with them on one side and we on the other. And the Indians believed that the horse and the rider were one, as they had never seen horses before..." After

2880-417: The territory that is now the state of Tabasco. Grijalva arrived that day at the mouth of a great river, which the crew named "Grijalva" in honor of their captain, its discoverer. Juan de Grijalva decided to go down the river to discover the inland area, and found four canoes full of Indians, painted and making gesticulations and gestures of war. They showed their displeasure with his arrival, but Grijalva sent

2940-478: The territory. The last of these great wars was won by Potonchán just before the year 1512. In tribute, the people of Xicalango presented several women to the chief Tascoob, one of which was Malintzin (famed as " La Malinche "), who was later given to Cortés after the Battle of Centla in 1519. The little that is known of Potonchán is thanks to the chronicles of the Spanish conquistadors . With regards to its population, it

3000-414: The town of Santa María de la Victoria, which was built over top the indigenous structures. The Tabascan historian Manuel Gil Saenz reports that around the year 1872, near the port of Frontera , excavations resulting from some "monterías" (logging camps) discovered several remains of columns, idols, jars, vases and even ruins of pyramids. Although the date of its foundation is unknown, it is known that it

3060-473: The translator who later became known as Doña Marina or La Malinche . According to Díaz, "Before we left, Cortés won the chiefs by his many kind words, telling them how our master, the Emperor, had many grand lords who gave him obedience and that they should also obey him ; that whatever they might need we would give them. All the chiefs thanked him very much and declared themselves vassals of our great emperor,

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3120-425: The water's salinity. Some species have been driven to extinction and others have abandoned the affected habitats, reducing the average catch. The mangrove has receded and has thus been able to provide fewer forest resources. These actions have spurred local peoples movements against Pemex and their contractors. The environmental degradation has driven many Yokot'an, especially men, to urban centers for employment. As

3180-419: Was christened the Grijalva River by the Spaniards, and according to the chronicles of Bernal Diaz del Castillo , it was a league from the coast. The city was located on a small hill of sandstone, practically surrounded by water on three sides. On one side was, the river, and on the other two sides, swamps. It was in a region of extensive floodplains. Potonchán was the capital of the cacicazgo of Tabasco, and

3240-400: Was due to the separation that occurred among the Maya of Mayapan and the Chontal Maya. The latter formed Potonchán's kingdom, whose head was Tabscoob, who ruled under the name of chief or lord of Tabasco. The encounter between Juan de Grijalva and the Mayan chief Tabscoob occurred in Potonchán on June 8, 1518. For its internal government, having the same Mayan costumes and laws, they adopted

3300-482: Was fighting and he lost a shoe in the mud and came to land with one bare foot(...) and we were upon them on land crying to St. James and we made them retreat to a wall that was made of timber, until we breached it and came in to fight with them(...) we forced them through a road and there they turned to fight face-to-face and they fought very valiantly...." Alonso de Ávila arrived to the combat developing within Potonchán with his hundred men who went traveled by land, making

3360-427: Was in danger of dying out, but flourished in the 1980s after official preservation efforts. Environmental decline began with the draining of shallow lakes for pastureland when the raising of livestock was introduced. Land formerly used for cultivation was also used for grazing. More recently, Pemex has extensively polluted the waters of northern Tabasco and caused other ecologically-threatening changes such as altering

3420-444: Was one of two principal cities of the Chontal Maya, along with Itzamkanac , capital of the cacicazgo of Acalán . However, unlike Itzamkanac which was located in the midst of the jungle, Potonchán was a maritime port and fluvial, which allowed it to have an intense commercial exchange both with the towns of the Yucatán Peninsula and with those of the central High Plains. The Chontal Maya took full advantage of their environment, using

3480-408: Was spewing approximately six miles out to sea. And with that current we could not enter by said river, which we named the Grijalva River. We were being followed by more than two thousand Indians and they were making signs of war (...) This river flows from very high mountains, and this land seems to be the best upon which the sun shines; if it were to be more settled, it would serve well as a capital: it

3540-464: Was the first Christian mass in the continental territory of New Spain. Afterwards, Cortés sent Alonso de Ávila with one hundred soldiers out on the road leading to the village, while Cortés and the other group of soldiers went in the boats. There, on the shore, Cortés made a "requerimiento" (requisition) in front of a notary of the king named Diego de Godoy, to let them disembark, thus issuing the first notarial act in Mexico. The natives refused, telling

3600-405: Was very inhabited, the houses were made mostly of adobe . Potonchán counted on intense commercial activity, in fact, this was the predominant activity. Across the sea, Potonchán had an important river-based trade with towns like Guazacualco , Xicalango, Chakán Putum and Kaan Peech . It also had commercial ties to the Mayan provinces of Acalán and Mazatlán located in the jungles of what is today

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