04 Sep 2021
While the town is very nice and well organized downtown, the most fascinating is the growth of authority for the Mayans. While most cities in the Yucatan are run by a few Spanish and many mestizos, some of the cities in Chiapas have growing power and authority by Mayans. The nearby Indigenous Villages are entirely run by Mayans under their traditional practices from the post-900 A.D. years after the royalty was overthrown. Several former Catholic churches are now run by the Mayans with a blend of Mayan and Christianity. Lovely weaving and other skills are now made and sold to visitors and create a money basis to strengthen the trading systems in the mixed stores. My experience in mestizo areas was mostly without much smiling by the Indigenous people but they were open and frequent in the exclusive Chiapas Mayan cities. Their towns expect visitor courtesy and the following of their reasonable rules. Remembering it is their town made us greatly enjoy another culture.