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Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 10/1/2004 11:12:07 PM
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Catalina
Posts: 429
Joined: 8/23/2004
From: KC, MO
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Thought some of you might be interested in the following article: 
Reuters Features
Mexican Mayans Worship Elusive, Speaking Cross
Wed Sep 29, 2004,11:20 AM ET
By Catherine Bremer
FELIPE CARRILLO PUERTO, Mexico (Reuters) - In a land of pyramids and jungle temples, one of Mexico's most curious and elusive artifacts is an old wooden cross said to have spoken to Mayan Indians and roused them to rebellion.
Indians come regularly to the dusty Mexican town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto on the southern Yucatan peninsula to worship at a flower-adorned shrine to the Speaking Cross that helped their ancestors resist oppressive masters descended from European settlers for half a century.
Barefoot out of respect, the caretaker of the shrine lights a row of candles and looks up fondly at the rough-hewn cross, dressed in a pale blue Mayan huipil, or smock.
"This is what saved us. This is the original cross. And this is where it spoke," says Florecio Chuk, stretching his wizened Mayan features into a proud grin.
Mayan rebels fighting the Mexican army in the so-called caste war during the mid-1800s revered a wooden cross that gave them battle orders at secret meetings in a church, historians say.
The worst of the fighting was from 1848 to 1855 but the Maya, tired of having their territory seized by landowners of European descent, managed to cling to autonomy until 1902 in the last large indigenous rebellion in the Americas.
Even today thousands of Mayan peasants live off the land in the Yucatan, growing maize -- a world away from the beach resorts of nearby Cancun, which throb with foreign tourists.
The cross told the Maya rebels "resist the enemy and have no fear" and said their machetes could withstand enemy bullets, according to Nelson Reed, author of a book on the caste war.
Residents of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, about 185 miles south of Cancun, say the cross was lost then rediscovered a few years ago, some 150 years after their fleeing ancestors left it in a sinkhole here in the sweltering tropical forest of Quintana Roo state, southeastern Mexico.
Such is the pull of the legend that other nearby villages also claim to have the cross -- and they say it still talks.
CROSS SEES WORLD ENDING
Deep in the jungle, at the tiny straw-hut Maya community of Tixcacal Guardia, village elders fiercely guard what they swear is the authentic cross and will let no outsider near it.
"It's here. But it's forbidden to see it if you are not a believer," said villager Cayetano Catzin in halting Spanish.
"It's a miraculous God. Tradition does not let just anybody view it," he said, blocking the door of a tiny church as locals looked on warily, sipping atole, a creamy maize drink.
Historians say there are shrines to the cross throughout the Yucatan. Locals disagree on which cross is the original but most believe in the legend.
"It's a serious belief," said anthropologist Allan Burns, who spent a year in Tixcacal Guardia, about 30 miles northwest of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, and was still only allowed a glimpse of a box said to contain the cross's remains.
"They guard it very seriously. In the past the Mexican army wanted to destroy it as it was a symbol of the insurrection," said Burns, a professor at the University of Florida.
"It's like a Christian relic, like the Turin shroud. It has emotional and theological value and it still communicates today. They don't haul it out and have it give proclamations but when I go there they tell me what it has been saying."
In recent declarations, Burns said, the cross has told the Mayans their land is theirs and that they should respect one another -- but also warned the end of the world is coming.
CROSS TRIGGERS HOLY WAR
Locals say that in 1849 a Maya deserter from the Mexican army then fighting the United States fled to what is now Felipe Carrillo Puerto and carved a cross into a mahogany tree by a sinkhole, to mark his new home.
Locals thought the carved cross was a sign from God.
Spotting an opportunity to get the Maya to rally together and fight their white and mestizo oppressors, the ex-soldier, Jose Maria Barrera, enlisted a shaman called Manuel Nahuat to stand behind the tree and use ventriloquism to make it speak.
"It said: Do not leave here because others will invade and it will all be over," said shrine caretaker Chuk. "It was a ventriloquist making it speak, but people had a lot of faith back then so they believed it was the cross."
Remotivated after a failed 1847 uprising, the rebels took up arms again, naming their base Chan Santa Cruz (Small Sacred Cross) and calling themselves "Cruzob" or people of the cross.
When government soldiers chopped down his tree, Barrera carved three new crosses that carried on the messages.
Chan Santa Cruz finally fell to the government in 1902 but Maya customs live on in the town, renamed Felipe Carrillo Puerto in 1936 after a governor who fought for Mayan rights.
"Whether the cross still exists is a mystery," said David Yah Balem, Felipe Carrillo Puerto's resident Maya expert. "But the faith in it exists. It will always be a symbol of our race."
Cata 
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RE: Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 10/2/2004 12:39:32 PM
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Toni In Cincy
Posts: 309
Joined: 8/22/2004
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Gracias Catalina, that is still on my wish list. So many places ...so little time!!
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RE: Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 10/3/2004 9:38:57 PM
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Normando
Posts: 141
Joined: 8/19/2004
From: Wyoming/utah/Majahual
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Thanks Cata.
You know this is my kind of "Lots of Meat and information" article.
I was aware of the role F. C. P. played in the Caste war as the outpost of the Mexican Government faction, and also have read about this Talking Cross, but learned a great deal from this excellent article. Thanks again.
I have spent nights in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, as a jumping off point for adventures in the Sa'an Kian and elsewhere, but wasn't even aware of this shrine and an actual cross. Have had some great adventures in this strategically located town but no crosses. Can't wait to get through there again to check it out further..
Normando
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RE: Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 10/3/2004 10:36:25 PM
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Bombero
Posts: 104
Joined: 9/26/2004
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Catalina: Sitting here at the firehouse and real enjoyed your story. So much more to the Yucatan than beer and beaches. Thanks, Bombero
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RE: Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 10/4/2004 1:05:14 AM
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Aida
Posts: 158
Joined: 8/12/2004
From: between Dallas & Fort Worth
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Thanks Catalina. This is the most in-depth article I have read on the subject. I have been through FCP on my way to Xcalak several times and I find this piece of history to be very interesting.
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RE: Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 10/4/2004 8:34:18 AM
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OK
Posts: 2839
Joined: 7/30/2004
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We stopped in FCP twice looking for the shrine.
Both times, locals sent us to the church that USED TO have the crosses. It was turned into a prison after the Caste War, and then became a church again much later, and it still is. We also heard that there were original crosses in a village south of FCP, between FCP and Bacalar, due east (I forgot the name).
If you hear more on the exact location of this shrine, please let us know.
OK
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RE: Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 10/4/2004 9:02:42 AM
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Billiam
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Joined: 8/12/2004
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FCP is a great place to stop. It has the genuine Mayan feel to it unlike the northern beach cities. On the subject of history, during the Caste War, Mexico also was claiming the area of Belize which was also claimed by the British. In 1901 the Mexican Govmnt. recognized the British claim to the area and in return the British agreed to stop supplying arms and munitions to the Mayan. Cut off from their source of materiel, they Mayan were defeated.
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RE: Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 10/4/2004 11:52:20 PM
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petra
Posts: 37
Joined: 9/17/2004
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We stopped at FCP to see the shrine last year...they really do make you take your shoes off to go inside. Its hard to find...not well marked, but a group of local students took us to it. It was an interesting experience. People here seem a little more reserved than other places we've been to. Neat town.
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RE: Felipe Carrillo Puerto - Reuters' Article - 11/3/2004 5:47:21 PM
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Guest
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Boy Cata, sure glad I found this excellent article hiding away on page 11.
Glad to get away from the politics most are talking about today.
I hope other viewers are going back a few pages to see what information they can find about the place they are going to visit. On the way here I found some excellent threads with a ton of information on most of the current topics/questions of today.
I would love to go to Chetumal when I am there to see the excellent museum and thanks to this article I now plan on stopping at "Felipe Carrillo Pauerto" also
Thanks again Cata for all the great information threads you post.
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