{"id":153,"date":"2024-05-15T13:25:24","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T17:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/?p=153"},"modified":"2024-05-21T10:27:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T14:27:14","slug":"tuesday-5-31-first-encounters-with-the-yucatan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/2024\/05\/15\/tuesday-5-31-first-encounters-with-the-yucatan\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday, 5\/21: First Encounters with the Yucat\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For our first group discussion on Tuesday, we’ll reflect on your impressions of M\u00e9rida in relation to three historical “first encounters” with the region and its peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diego de Landa, Relaci\u00f3n de las cosas de Yucat\u00e1n<\/em> (ca. 1566)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diego de Landa (1542-1579) was the first bishop of the Yucat\u00e1n. In the 1562 auto-da-f\u00e9 at Mani, Landa authorized the burning of thousands of Maya codices and “idols” (religious objects). During his journey back to Spain in 1566, he produced his own exploration of Maya religion, society, and language\u2014effectively replacing the archive he burned with an archive of his own making. The Relaci\u00f3n<\/em> was lost for centuries, resurfacing in a composite form in the 19th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you read this excerpt from Landa’s Relaci\u00f3n<\/em>, ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1)<\/strong> How did the Yucat\u00e1n get its name, according to Landa?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2)<\/strong> What two factors separate the “more civilized” Maya from the “less civilized” Maya in Section V?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3)<\/strong> What does Landa want to suggest with the claim that the Maya are descended from ancient seafaring Jews?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpt from Landa<\/b><\/mark><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

John Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucat\u00e1n<\/span> (1843)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. author John Lloyd Stephens and his traveling partner, the English illustrator Frederick Catherwood, made several trips to Latin America in the mid-19th century. Their travelogues were popular and helped spark interest in Mayan monumental architecture — which they claimed to “discover” even though indigenous farmers and mestizo<\/em> landowners had known about the ruins for a long time before Stephens and Catherwood arrived. In this except from Incidents of Travel in the Yucat\u00e1n<\/em>, Stephens describes his first night in M\u00e9rida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you read the passage from Stephens, ask yourself the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1)<\/strong> What adjectives does Stephens use to describe the citizens of M\u00e9rida? (Look especially at the weird similes on p. 17) What do those adjectives reveal about his attitude towards the people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2)<\/strong> When you were describing M\u00e9rida to your friends and family back home, you probably used your own adjectives. What were they? How are they different from the words Stephens used?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3)<\/strong> In general, how does Stephens view M\u00e9rida and its residents? How does he class them into different groups, and what does his language imply about his attitudes towards those different groups? (Think about the gamblers on p. 22 and the destitute Mayan on p. 24.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4)<\/strong> Why does Stephens call M\u00e9rida “a modern Babel”? How do we code other cultures through our own cultural lenses and vocabulary, and what does that do to our view of other cultures? (Think about this re: Landa’s bizarre claim about who the Maya descended from the ancient Hebrews, too…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpt-from-Stephens<\/mark><\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

LA Times Magazine: Yucat\u00e1n, Today and Yesterday (1956)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our last “first impression,” flip through this Los Angeles Times Magazine<\/em> write-up on the Yucat\u00e1n. It’s a sales piece, intended to drive up tourism to the region, so read it as such and ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1)<\/strong> How does the piece try to appeal to wealthy Americans who might visit the Yucat\u00e1n? How is Mexico discussed among college students today? (What do people associate with Mexico — what do they think about doing when they come here to visit — why do they choose to come here?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) <\/strong>How are the present-day indigenous people discussed in the piece? Where do they appear, and what are they doing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3)<\/strong> Head to YouTube or Google and search for any of the many articles about M\u00e9rida as an ex-pats heaven\/tourist’s dream. How are the ways we talk about M\u00e9rida as a vacation destination similar? How are they different?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4)<\/strong> Research, briefly, the effects of gentrification (driven by tourism) on the Yucat\u00e1n. What are rents like now as opposed to three years ago? Property prices? How doe pieces like the LA Times Magazine<\/em> piece serve to ready the way for gentrification? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LA TImes Magazine Article<\/mark><\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For our first group discussion on Tuesday, we’ll reflect on your impressions of M\u00e9rida in relation to three historical “first …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15580,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-readings","has-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15580"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/mxpassport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}