María Uicab
María Uicab was a priestess and Maya leader, born in Yucatán in the 19th century. She flourished during the Caste War of Yucatán.[1] She was also known by the nicknames Patron Saint and Queen of Tulum.[1] It seems that her original name could have been María Petrona Uicab[2] and that she was married three times, first in 1860.[2]
She was influential in the Cruzoob religious movement.[3] A charismatic woman, she had a skill for making her followers obey her. She did this by appealing to their superstitions.[4] In a temple in the city of Tulum, she supposedly interpreted "the voices of three crosses." The crosses stood upon an altar, and Uicab claimed to be able to interpret their commands.[4][5] After 1875, her name stopped appearing in written sources; it seems that by that time, she had died.[6] Even so, the end of her life is a mystery. One possibility is that she was assassinated by her own followers in the Cruzoob movement; another is that she died of old age.[7]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Rosado Rosado & Santana Rivas 2008, p. 113.
- ^ a b Rosado Rosado & Santana Rivas 2008, p. 129.
- ^ Rosado Rosado & Santana Rivas 2008, p. 130.
- ^ a b Rugeley 2001, p. 90.
- ^ Rosado Rosado & Santana Rivas 2008, p. 118-119.
- ^ Villalobos González 2006, p. 243.
- ^ Rosado Rosado & Santana Rivas 2008, p. 137.
Bibliography[edit]
- Rosado Rosado, Georgina; Santana Rivas, Landy (2008). "María Uicab: reina, sacerdotisa y jefa militar de los mayas rebeldes de Yucatán (1863-1875)" [María Uicab: queen, priestess, and military leader of the Maya rebels of Yucatán (1863-1875)]. Mesoamérica (in Spanish). 29 (50). ISSN 0252-9963.
- Rugeley, Terry (2001). Maya Wars: Ethnographic Accounts from Nineteenth-century Yucatán. Google Books: University of Oklahoma. ISBN 9780806133553.
- Villalobos González, Martha Herminia (2006). El bosque sitiado: asaltos armados, concesiones forestales y estrategias de resistencia durante la Guerra de Castas (in Spanish). Google Books: Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social. ISBN 9789707017627.