The City Through a Historian's Eyes

Photo by Andrea Gorma

The other day we were lucky enough to be given a tour of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, by local historian Patricio Ruiz. Although Chiapas has well over 3,000 years of recorded history, he made it both fascinating and approachable.  

The five hundred years that have passed since the conquest of Mexico have been brutal ones for most of the indigenous people in Chiapas. Before the Zapatista uprising in 1994 (for more information see the EZLN website in Spanish or here for English), many of them worked as slaves on large haciendas. The Spanish owned haciendas, much like plantations in the southern the part of  the United States, were large farms that relied on slave labor to work the land.  Company stores, operated by the owners of the haciendas, exploited the indigenous workers by inflating the prices of necessary items like food, clothing, and tools. This made the landowners a tidy profit and served to keep their laborers in perpetual debt, which oftentimes could not be paid off for generations.

Photo by Andrea Gorma

The indigenous people that lived and worked in urban areas, like San Cristóbal de las Casas, did not have it any easier. Prior to the 1994, they were expected to step down from the sidewalks into the street to give people of European-descent the right of way. During our tour, we passed many women proudly wearing the textiles Chiapas is so famous for. Beautifully woven and embroidered in vibrant colors, their dress conveys a lot of information about their identity; for example, the village they’re from, their status within the community, and most of all, pride in their heritage. Patricio told us that before 1994 these women would never have worn their traditional clothing into the city. It’s difficult to believe that only sixteen years ago, these women would have hidden their identity behind a plain ol’ t-shirt.

            
            Although, since the arrival of the Spanish, the indigenous people have been subordinated and oppressed, their presence is seen all over the center of the city. The Spaniards tried to create buildings in the latest Spanish style, but the result is a blending of Spanish and indigenous design. Because indigenous artisans built them, they resemble the embroidered cloth that they wore more than the ornate Baroque buildings the Spanish had in mind.

Photo by Andrea Gorman

Pictured here is the cathedral of San Cristobal de las Casas, located in the central plaza. The indigenous artisans who built it only saw drawn pictures of the Spanish Baroque style architecture they had been instructed to recreate, so they drew from what they knew. As Patricio pointed out, the front of the cathedral resembles indigenous embroidery more than European finery.

Above one of the oldest homes in town sit two lions, but they look more docile than the fierce guardians the homeowners had probably imagined. Here again, you can see that the artisans used as a model animals that they were familiar with like dogs.

San Cristóbal may be a colonial city, but Patricio helped us to see the indigenous influences that have been present since it’s founding.