<em>Construction of the “future past”: A consideration on the production and traslado (copy) of the colonial maya land titles.</em>

Abstract

The creation of Títulos de tierras began in the gobernación of Yucatan in the 16th century. In 1557, Don Francisco de Montejo Xiu, the halach uinic of the cúuchcabal de Maní, wanted to register its jurisdiction as a political entity under the Spanish regime and ordered the drafting of a document known today as the Título de tierras de Maní. Throughout the colonial period, this title was consulted several times, and the Cabildos also took traslados (i.e., copies), to use as part of their own land titles in order to defend their disputed lands. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to carry out a comparative analysis of the four known versions or texts of this Título and try to reflect on the meaning of noticeable differences in content to elucidate the intention of the Mayan scribes. In fact, this characteristic is understood, on the one hand, as an amendment or modification made by the scribes who tried to adapt the text to the specific needs of that time and, on the other, as a reflection of different acts to construct the very local “present” from the Título of 1557, on which the common “past” is based.