Maya Heraldic Arms: The Merging of Spanish and Maya Visual Cultures in the Memorial Shield to the Massacre at Otzmal

Abstract

This article examines the sixteenth-century Maya coat of arms, the Memorial Shield to the Massacre at Otzmal. In analyzing the work, I consider it in the context of indigenous peoples’ efforts to gain social standing and honors during the first decades of Spanish colonial dominion in Yucatán. I suggest that the coat of arms, and the documents contextually related to its creation, offer a glimpse into the developing artistic and cultural practices in colonial Yucatán during the sixteenth century while providing insight into how the work’s creator, Gaspar Antonio Chi, understood and responded to the colonial world to which he was apart. As one of the few extant artistic works specifically related to expressing sixteenth-century Yucatec Maya social and political concerns, the Otzmal shield allows for considerations of how a Maya artist responded to the colonial encounter, through the adoption of European visual and cultural strategies in his efforts to secure and solidify his standing in the new political landscape of Yucatán.