ABSTRACT
This essay was first published in Spanish in 1989, and, later in the same year, in English. It was initially presented at a conference entitled “Biographies and Confessions of Indians in the Americas” held in Seville in 1987. Of all the essays in this volume, this one reflects the transition in my self-image as a scholar more than any other—so much so that I did not feel inclined to publish the same version in Spain and in the U.S. The Spanish version contained a structural analysis that sought to place the tragic protagonist of this piece in an ancient tradition of Maya heroes and historical reckoning, the template of which is laid out in chapter 6 of this volume. For the English version, I lacked the scholarly courage to mobilize these deep historical links, for I felt that “continuity arguments,” binding the Maya past and present, were fought with so many sources of inferential error that presenting them as such would render me as “dated.” So, I opted to edit the Spanish version to publish it in English as a much more present-oriented historical analysis (that is, focusing more on modern social history), thinking thereby to cast myself as a serious social historian rather than a romantic Mayanist.
