Verapaz Statistics

Resumen

The Alta Verapaz of Guatemala is unique in Mesoamerica because of the lack of a violent hispanic conquest and subsequent encomendero exploitation (cf. Saint-Lu, 1968). The absence of such a conquest allows it to be used as a model against which one can test other theories of population decline and change in the Colonial period. The purpose of this paper is to provide data allowing those who wish to prepare these type of models using the Kekchi (Goban, Carcha, Chamelco, Lanquin, Cahabon), Pokom (Cahcoh, Cabasion, Tactic, Tamahu, Tucuru) and Choloid Maya communities of this area. It is based on, mostly, unpublished documents recently discovered by the author in the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain and elsewhere (cf. Table 1).