Exploring Colonial Mexico© MORE MAYA MISSIONS Exploring Colonial
Chiapas Ever since the January 1994 Zapatista uprising in
Chiapas, the attention of the world has been riveted on events
in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. After the 16th century
Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas took up their cause in
1545, the plight of the highland Maya of Chiapas has occupied
center stage in the history of this scenic but impoverished
region. During his brief term as the first bishop of Chiapas,
Las Casas encouraged the founding of Indian missions across the
area, many of which remain in use by the Maya to this day.
Forged in the artistic traditions of Islamic and Christian
Spain, these unique colonial buildings also drew on the heritage
of ancient Mexico and Guatemala, infused with the spirit of the
Maya. Our affordable guidebook sympathically describes these
missions, as well as the other notable Spanish colonial
monuments of this isolated region: city churches, Dominican
monasteries and convents, urban mansions