Don Juan Cortes (gen. 14)

Decimocuarta generación del linaje Kaweq. En su traducción española el lingüista k'iche' Sam Colop (2008: 215) escribe el nombre del líder con la diacrítica, Cortés, pero en su edición en k'iche', el mismo autor escribe "Cortes". Por lo tanto aquí usamos el nombre tal como Colop lo escribe en k'iche'. Don Juan Cortes es, con don Juan de Rojas, el hijo de Tekum y Tepepul, los líderes k'iche' que fueron torturados y ejecutados por Pedro de Alvarado en la invasión española.

Fourteenth generation of the Kaweq lineage, who ruled with don Juan de Rojas, as the sons of Tekum and Tepepul, the K'iche' leaders who were tortured and ultimately executed by Pedro de Alvarado in the Spanish invasion of Guatemala. Anthropologist Allen J. Christenson (2007: 298n863) glosses his history in an extensive footnote, explaining that don Juan Cortés "was recognized by the Spaniards as the Ah Pop of the Reception House. Juan Cortés petitioned the Spanish crown to restore the rights and privileges of lordship that the ancient Quiché lords had enjoyed prior to the Conquest. Accompanied by a Dominican priest, he sailed to Spain in 1557 to press his claim before King Philip II (Carrasco 1967). Unfortunately his ship was attacked by French pirates who seized his documents, which may have included Precolumbian painted codices. He was nevertheless granted audiences before high officials in Spain. Ultimately, Franciscans who opposed the efforts of the Dominicans in favor of the Quiché lords succeeded in opposing these claims on the grounds that it would foster further revolts by the Indians. Spanish authorities in Guatemala also urged caution in granting too much authority to the old Quiché nobility. In a letter to the Spanish crown written in 1552 by Alonso López Cerrato, Governor of Guatemala, the ancient Quiché lords wielded tremendous religious as well as political power over their subjects and could prove dangerous if they were to rebel, 'because anciently they revered [them] as gods, and if this persists, the lords could raise the land easily' (Carmack 1973, 379)."