Mayans, missionaries, evidence and truth: the polemics of native resettlement in sixteenth-century Guatemala

Molding maize: the shaping of a crop diversity landscape in the western highlands of Guatemala

“…It is difficult to know in what degree these resettlements were disruptive for the native population, especially because congregacio´n was the topic of a fierce debate between the religious orders at the time of its implementation. 27 However, it is clear that the Indians tended to resist congregacio´n and often repopulated the countryside. 28 Colonial domination did not invariably lead to 'closed' indigenous communities.…”

The Americas before and after 1492: An Introduction to Current Geographical Research

“…A study of Nahuatl (Aztec) toponyms in the area northwest of Puebla suggests that many, if not most, of these place names are "new," i.e., younger than the mid-1500s (Dyckerhoff 1984). For a detailed analysis of the process of congregacion in Guatemala, see Lovell (1990).…”

‘The first duties of persons living in a civilized community’: the Maya, the Church, and the colonial state in southern Belize

“…clouds our vision, it deludes and distorts.. Few Indians ever recorded how they felt about being converted to Christianity or being moved from one place to another.. There were, however, a number of clergymen who observed and debated the complex business of congregacio´n, missionaries whose job it was to get Indian families down from the mountains and resettled in towns built around a Catholic church.. 67 Even with important differences between 16th-century Guatemala and 19th-century British Honduras, Lovell's description aptly characterizes the latter. For as we have seen, the Church fathers (Tenk and Hopkins) could not convince the colonial state to respond exactly as they wished.…”