When it comes to religion, however, we see quite a different picture. The Maya were polytheists; they worshipped gods of the sun, moon, rain, and corn, among many other things. Their priests were assiduous observers of the stars. Their worship included the use of incense and images, self-mutilation, ritual bloodletting, and the practice of human sacrifice​—of prisoners, slaves, and children in particular.

The Arrival of the Spaniards

This was the complex civilization that the Spaniards found when they arrived in the early 16th century. The conquistadores, as the Spanish adventurers were called, had a twofold objective: the acquisition of new land and riches and the conversion of the Maya to Catholicism in order to free them from barbaric pagan practices. Did the Spanish conquest bring true freedom, religious or otherwise, to the Maya?

The Spaniards, including the clergy of the Catholic Church, seized the communal lands, which the Maya had used from time immemorial for their traditional slash-and-burn method of farming. This seizure resulted in great hardship and hostility. The colonists also took control of the cenotes, or deep sinkholes, that were practically the only source of water on the Yucatán Peninsula. Further hardship was caused when the church imposed a yearly head tax on the Maya​—12 1/2 realsa for each man and 9 for each woman—​in addition to the already burdensome state tax. The Spanish landowners exploited the situation by first paying the church tax for the Maya and then forcing them into peonage for what they owed, reducing them to little more than slaves.

The priests also charged for religious services, such as baptism, marriage, and burial. With the takeover of land, the head tax, and the fees, the church enriched itself at the expense of the Maya. The peasants were considered superstitious and ignorant by nature. Thus, the clergy and others in authority felt justified in whipping the Maya to enforce discipline and to rid them of superstition.

No True Freedom

Neither the introduction of Catholicism by the Spanish conquest nor the Caste War brought the Maya true freedom. Today, there remains a kind of syncretic, or fusion, religion that combines pre-Hispanic native customs with Roman Catholic traditions.

Speaking of the present-day Maya, the book The Mayas​—3000 Years of Civilization says: “The Mayas venerate their old gods of nature and their ancestors in fields, caves and mountains . . . and at the same time worship saints in church.” Thus, the god Quetzalcoatl, or Kukulcán, is equated with Jesus, and the moon goddess with the Virgin Mary. Furthermore, the worship of the sacred ceiba tree was replaced with the veneration of the cross, which the people still water as if it were a living tree. Instead of bearing representations of Jesus, crosses are decorated with ceiba blossoms.