Loltun Cave and Mani

Maya Instrument

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Loltun Cave and Mani (above picture is of me banging on a part of the cave that then makes an echo)

After my disappointment with the last cave we went to at Oxkintok I was not excited to go to Loltun Cave even though I knew of much of its legitimacy from the lectures which have included findings found in the cave. However, the hokeyness of the cave obviously attempting to attract Tourists made me uncomfortable. I feel like now we know enough information to be able to discern much of the time when we are being lied to (or exaggerated to I suppose) in order to be impressed as many tourists are. For example, the guide explained that the Mayans used the cave as protection (likely) but that they defeated the Spanish in the Caste war stationed out of this cave or something along those lines. Now, a normal tourist may have been impressed with that statement however immediately I saw everyone in the group start fidgeting and looking at each other because we knew the Spanish won the Caste war, not the Mayans. Sure, the only difference in that sentence to make it believable would be to add the word at this site (as in the Mayans defeated the Spanish here, but not overall), however we still caught onto it and it still made me uncomfortable. An interesting part of the cave for me was seeing the holtuns which formed from the constant drip of water through the caves leaky limestone. These holtuns caught the water and supplied Mayans (or earlier peoples) with water to drink.  This cave did have one remarkable resemblance to the hokey cave at Oxkintok; both had hands “drawn” on the surface high up on the cave. These hands were supposedly offers to Xibalba and were made by blowing resin from a plant through a straw. Even though my Spanish isn’t great, I am pretty sure that immediately before going to see the hands I heard our guide talking to Hugo and asking him which place he should take us to the hands or somewhere else. Hugo replied the hands because there is more evidence it is real, and they know what they are talking about (speaking of our class). Although it is possible I misunderstood, I am almost positive I did not and after hearing that statement my trust in caves completely went away. I just do not like them as much as I like the archeological sites. They hold more value to me and show me a much more obvious connection between the lives of people over 1,000 years ago and the things that were important on them. Things in caves could have been planted, looted etc, however no one can build a Mayan temple pyramid in their backyard and pretend it has been there since 1,000 A.D.

After Loltun cave we went to a town called Mani. Mani was similar to many of the towns we have visited because in the middle of the main plaza there was a huge church which was constructed when the Friars came to Mexico.

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This church was different however because it was the site of an auto de fe where they burned all of the Mayan codices (besides the 4 we still have). The friars ended up in Mani after they attempted to set up a convent in Oxkutzcob (we were just there, it is right outside of Kiuic) and the Mayans revolted. The friars assumed that everyone (all the Mayans) who were subjugated were happy about it and wanted to be Catholic. However, of course this was not true and when the Friars found out of the Mayans discontent all of the fighting began again. In 1562 Bishop Landa (one of the Friars) brought all the Mayan idols, pottery, wood, masks and books in front of this church at Mani and burned them all. While Landa did get in some trouble, it was nothing compared to the devastation he brought to the Mayan people. As someone learning about the Mayan civilization it makes me very mad to know that an entire civilizations history written in their codices has been destroyed and we will never know what they say. The unjust treatment of the Mayans was not surprising at all to me because we have done it ourselves in the United States; it is just much less talked about. Before going to Maní I did not make the connections between Mayans and the Native Americans of the United States, and now that I have it makes me feel even worse. The Native Americans just happen to not have temple pyramids which can withstand 1,000 years; therefore I suppose they are more easily forgotten.