VIVAS VALDÉS, VEUDI (2023). NOTES AND RESEARCH – CHRONICLER AND HISTORIAN OF COZUMEL. INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY THE DIRECTORATE OF TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF COZUMEL.
Known as “Monument to the Mestizaje”, it presents the figure of the Spanish conqueror Gonzalo de Aroca with his wife Zacil-Ha (daughter of Nachancan, cacique of Chactemal) and their children, for being the first family with children of Spanish and Mayan known as the parents of the mestizaje of our country.
He is known as “Gonzalo The Warrior” (Gonzalo Guerrero), since he obtained the position of “nacom”, that is to say, officer of the Mayan army that faced the first advances of Francisco de Montejo “El Adelantado” in the conquest of Yucatan.
Gonzalo Guerrero and Gerónimo de Aguilar were the last survivors of the group of shipwrecked sailors who, in 1511, landed on the eastern coasts of the Yucatán peninsula.
They had been shipwrecked in the lower Las Culebras in Jamaica, in the unfortunate voyage of Juan de Valdivia who sailed from Santa Maria La Antigua del Darien to Hispaniola, embarking the ship Santa Lucia, only saving 11 Spaniards in a small cache that landed on the coasts of Yucatan, falling prisoners of the Mayas for 8 years until the arrival of Hernan Cortez who rescued Geronimo de Aguilar and used him as an interpreter in the conquest.
