CHIAPAS, MEXICO

CHIAPAS is Mexico's southernmost state.  It borders the Pacific Ocean in the south and Guatemala in the east.   The vegetation varies from tropical savanna to rain forest.  Most of the state's inhabitants are mestizos, but one third are pure Indians.  There are more than thirty Indian tribes, all speaking a different dialect, but they use Spanish to communicate between themselves.

Chiapas has little industry but is second only to Veracruz among Mexican states in value of agricultural output, producing more coffee, cacao and bananas than any other state.  The river Grijalva, flowing across the center of the state, generates more electricity at several huge dams than any other river in Mexico.  One third of this electricity is exported to Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.  It is inconceivable that in this electricity and water rich state, half the homes have neither electricity nor running water.  Rates of illiteracy and infant mortality are the highest in Mexico as well.

HISTORY: Chiapas has always been intimately connected with Guatemala. Pre-Hispanic civilizations flourished in what is now the Chiapas-Guatemala border, and for most of the Spanish colonial era Chiapas was governed from Guatemala.

During the classic Maya era (approximately 250 to 900 AD) the jungle-covered Chiapas gave rise to splendid Maya city-states, such as Palenque, Yaxchilán, Bonampak and Toniná.

Central Chiapas was brought under Spanish control by the 1528 expedition of Diego de Mazariegos, who defeated the dominant, warlike Chiapa people. The Spaniards, though, could never gain control over the scattered inhabitants of the Lacandón Jungle.

In 1821, newly independent Mexico annexed Spain's former Central American provinces (including Chiapas) but the United Provinces of Central America declared their independence when Mexican emperor Agustín de Iturbide was overthrown in 1823.

Since then, a succession of governors appointed by Mexico City, along with local landowners, have maintained an almost feudal control over the state.  Periodic uprisings and protests bore witness to bad government, but the world took little notice until January 1, 1994, when a group calling itself Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) briefly occupied San Cristóbal de las Casas and nearby towns by military force.  The Zapatistas, fighting for a fairer deal for indigenous peoples, won widespread support around and beyond Mexico, but no real concessions.  Nowadays, due to a tight Mexican army noose around their areas of strongest support in Chiapas, lack of Indian assistance and other harassments, they maintain a mainly political campaign for democratic change.  The truth is that, same as Che Guevara's revolutionary efforts in Africa and South America, Comandante Marco's upheaval has proved to be a total failure.

THE TRIP: Our son Allen and his girlfriend Aixa were working at a hospital in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital, about 32 miles from their house in San Cristóbal, but it takes more than an hour driving on this ever-climbing dangerous road which has 487 curves and many speed bumps.

San Cristóbal de las Casas is a typical colonial town, with adobe and red tile one-story houses.  Its 100,000 inhabitants enjoy a year-long mild climate at an elevation of 7,000 feet.

The tourists rewards come from rambling the narrow, stone streets, discovering its many fascinating and pretty nooks and corners, visiting the unusual nearby villages and absorbing the unique atmosphere and the romantic sound of marimbas always permeating the air. 

Most of the tourists come from France and Germany.  The hotel infrastructure in Chiapas may disappoint the American taste.  There are dozens of hotels in San Cristóbal, but none of the category of a Ramada or Holiday Inn, not even close to a Motel 6.  Dinner at any "good" restaurant may cost about $4.00.  We found only one excellent brand new steak house during our ten days there.

Shopping for hand-made embroidered blouses and dresses is very enticing.  Around the Santo Domingo Church there is a daily indigenous market, where they offer their merchandise at very reasonable prices.  These are all Tzotzil Indians that make a living with their artistic abilities.  The most sought out merchandise in San Cristóbal is the jewelry made of amber which was discovered just a few years ago in the mountains of Chiapas and now is an enormous business.  Prices are half of the Balkans amber that you can purchase in the States.

The most prominent of the small hills over which San Cristóbal undulates are the tree-covered Cerro de San Cristóbal, at the soutwest border of town, and the Cerro de Guadalupe, seven blocks east of the main plaza.  Both are reached by steps from Calle Allende, and they are crowned by churches.  The panoramic views from both points are fascinating.

It seems that wherever you go in San Cristobal (indeed in the whole state) you encounter more Indians than in any other place in Mexico. They are usually dressed on their typical multicolored garments and are very nice to you, although highly sensitive about letting you taking their photograph.  The old ladies, especially, cover their heads with their shawls as soon as they see a camera.  Young children even shoot their finger at you!

We took a side trip to the Cascadas de Montebello region, where there are about 40 lakes, although only a few are easily accessible.  The Laguna Esmeralda had the most beautiful green color and we took a ride on a raft made out of cork tree trunks.

The Carretera Fronteriza passes near San Cristóbal and goes along the Mexico-Guatemala border.  It was built just a few years ago with several purposes in mind.  First, to be able to move Army troops and control the Zapatistas; second, to guard against the drug contraband and illegal immigration; and third, to make the attractive Mayan temples more accessible to tourists. 
Another side trip was to the village of San Juan Chamula, just 6 miles from San Cristóbal. It has a population of a little over 2,000, all of them Tzotzil Indians. This tribe is the largest of the Maya descendants -about 80,000 strong.  The village is the center of some unique religious practices.  A big sign at the entrance to town strictly forbids photography inside the village catholic church.   Chamulans revere St. John the Baptist above Christ, and his image occupies a more important place in the church.  Inside, the rows and rows of burning candles have caused the altar and ceiling to turn black with the smoke.  Curanderos (spiritual healers) may be rubbing patients' bodies with eggs.  The floor is totally covered with pine needles for this reason: if an evil spirit is exorcised by a curandero, anybody that is not standing over the pine-needle carpet might get the bad spirit.  Coca-Cola also occupies an important place in the Chamulan cosmography -it facilitates burping in church, which is considered to expel evil spirits and is encouraged by the priests.  The worshipers also drink posh, a hard liquor made from sugar cane (very similar to Bacardi rum).

After visiting Allen and Aixa's hospital in Tuxtla Gutierrez, we took a minibus to Chiapa de Corzo, about 15 minutes away.  This is the town where the famous and colorful Chiapaneca dresses are made, and there is a statue at the entrance of town advertising this fact.

The town has a charming big plaza with an elaborate castle-like brick fountain in Mudéjar-Gothic style, known as La Pila, said to resemble the crown of the Spanish monarch.

Two blocks from the plaza is the embarcadero (dock) where we took a motor boat to see the Cañón del Sumidero, a high canyon on the river Grijalva.  It looks very much like a Norweian fjord, with  almost vertical mountains left and right.  We also saw the highest peak on the left side of the river (about 3,000 feet high) from which the Indians hurled themselves by the hundreds -men, women and children- rather than to surrender to the Spanish conquerors and become slaves.

The road from San Cristobal to Palenque is, of course, along mountains.  Curves and speed bumpers galore.  It took us three hours to get to this, the most important and largest of the Mayan cities.

The 500 buildings are spread over 15 square kilometers, but only a relatively few, in a fairly compact central area, have been excavated.  You have to close your eyes and try to picture the gray moldy stone edifices as they would have been at the peak of Palenque power, painted bright red.  The forest around is home to toucans, ocelots and monkeys.  The most interesting building is the Palacio de las Inscripciones, which doesn't advertise its best secret.  Only a few people that know about it get a permit from the museum (about two km. away) to see the tomb of king Pakal.  Only recently it was discovered that the triangle-shape stone at the end of the hall was the door to the tomb.  The sarcophagus has a huge rock on top with an intricate relief design depicting the figure of the king and other members of his family.

Palenque is an unforgettable experience.  The admirable architecture of the many buildings in the middle of the jungle (where the vast majority of edifices are still buried) makes you wonder how these people could have built such an amazing community.  Nobody can explain how this powerful, intelligent, hard working race came to disappear all of a sudden.  All we can do now is watch in awe at the marvel that once was the Maya empire.

Bonampak, famous for its frescoes, is settled in the dense Lacandón rain forest, which hid from the outside world until 1946.  Bonampak (which means painted walls in Yucatecan Maya) is not as big as Palenque but holds something unique among the Mayan communities. One of the temples has three walls covered all around with murals of portraits of Indians, in full color.  Some of the frescoes are almost unintelligible now.  It is a crime indeed that these frescoes are not been taken care of (with A/C or plastic sheeting or any other method of preservation) for it won't be long before this remarkable expression of antique unique art completely disappears forever.

About one hour from Bonampak, we arrived at the town of Frontera Corozal, where we boarded a boat to take us through the Usumacinta River to the ruins of Yaxchilán.  The ride takes about one hour and you can see the country of Guatemala just a few meters away on the right side of the river.  Yaxchilán is settled in the middle of a delta in the river. It is also very impressive and the steps to get to the top of the main temple are high and arduous.  It is only recently that this Maya city has been open to the tourists as it was far away and the only way to get to it was by boat or hiking. 

On the road home we stopped at Agua Clara, a river that has the most appealing water color.  It boasts a high and long hanging bridge, which also looks very dangerous, as many of the wood planks are missing or broken.  From there, it was to another famous Chiapas spot, about half an hour away.  The magnificent waterfalls of Agua Azul.  The water is also blue-turquoise.

I hope that you enjoyed this journey to what is, probably, the most beautiful state of Mexico.