Yucatecan Mayan refugees in the colonization of El Petén: vicissitudes of a border.

Abstract

Used as a refuge zone for the Maya who fled from colonization, the forest of El Pet.n served again as a haven for Maya population in the second half of the xix century, during the Caste War that took place in the Southeast of Mexico. Yucatan’s Maya fugitives, both rebeldes  and pacíficos , established towns along the Camino Real that connected El Pet.n with Yucatan. Guatemalan authorities saw these towns as agents of development for the isolated and unpopulated District of El Pet.n. This article analyzes the impact that this had on the Mexican and Guatemalan colonization projects, as well as on the complex negotiation to define the border, considering that each country was aiming to expand its territory and spread its idea of nation over the same frontier zone, full of natural resources.