ABSTRACT
A series of circumstances has worked to make the Tojolabal (Mayan) Indians of Chiapas, Mexico, relatively unknown both to the Mexican political structure and to scholarship. Their Spanish-speaking countrymen have disenfranchised them to a degree, which if not unusual in the history of treatment of indigenous populations by colonizing peoples, still is greater than one generally finds elsewhere in Chiapas. Similarly, the Tojolabales have not received the scholarly attention that neighboring groups have enjoyed or endured. To understand the past anonymity of the Tojolabal people and to appreciate the environment in which their language persists at present, one needs to examine some of these considerations.
