2 - Violence in Organized Groups

Summary

The chapter gives a short description of Yucatán’s key social characteristics in the nineteenth century, allowing the reader to place subsequent chapters in their historical context. While the characterization of the Caste War by the elite as a racial struggle against progress is grossly misleading, it reflected the post-colonial nature of the Yucatecan society. The structure of the population in the region, its economy and hegemonic worldview were the product of three centuries of Spanish colonial rule in a relatively poor and isolated part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Colonial society was always more complex than the rigid dichotomy between conqueror and conquered or Spaniard and Indian (or Maya) permits. However, the persistence of colonial structures and the enduring importance of racist arguments in the elite discourse following Yucatán’s independence from Spain in 1821 are fundamental to understanding the conflicts that led to the outbreak of the Caste War and its interpretation by numerous contemporary observers as a racial fray.