San José, El Petén

San Jose on the map of Guatemala

San José (old Mayathan or Itzá Name: Ixtutz, "place of the Macauba palm trees ") is a more than 2,000 inhabitants counting place in Guatemala. It is located in the department of Petén, and is the administrative seat of the Municipalities of San José, which covers 2252 km ² and over 4000 inhabitants.

Geography

The town of San Jose is located in the middle Peténs on the northwestern shore of Lake Petén Itzá to 130 m altitude. From Flores out of the city on the south shore of the lake capital of the department, San Andrés is accessed via a country road or by boat.

As with all municipios Peténs the main village is situated on the Peten Itza Lake or on a major traffic artery, while the administrative territory stretches far back in sparsely populated regions. In the case of San José, it includes an area of ​​land whose width is defined by the northern shore of the Petén Itzá lake. The length by the municipality extends between the lake in the south and the border with Mexico in the north. About 80 percent of this largely covered by tropical rain forest area are designated a Biosphere Reserve ( Reserva de la Maya Biosphere ) under protection.

The adjacent municipios are San Andrés in the west and Flores to the south and east. In the north of San José borders the Mexican state of Campeche.

History

The area around the lake has been inhabited since the 12th century by the Mayan people of the Itza, which before 1697 had an independent state with its capital Tayasal here. At the site of today's San José was the Itzá village Ixtutz. Several attempts conquest of the Spaniards failed because of the fierce resistance of the Itza. It was only on 13 May 1697 succeeded the Spanish conquistador Martín de Ursua General to take Tayasal. On the same day he founded the place Ixtutz with 200 new cases.

1852 Ixtutz was charged by the government in Guatemala City to the municipality and renamed in San Jose. Up to territorial reforms in 1962, the municipality comprised much larger parts of northern Peténs than today.

Population

The municipality of San José is one of the most sparsely populated areas of Guatemala. The Itza do today, only about a third of the total population, over 40 percent are Ladinos and the remaining quarter are immigrated from the south Kekchi. The Itza are concentrated in the capital, the rest of the population lives in the lakeside towns such as La Providencia, Playa Blanca, San Roman and Jobompiche. Other places such as Corozal and smaller rural settlements and hamlets are accessible only by gravel roads or dirt tracks.

The village of San José ( Ixtutz ) is also the last place to still listen to the Itza language. While in other villages, the language was not passed on to the children since the 1930s, began this process in more isolated San José a later date. According to the last census in Guatemala in 2002, 1983 people called the Itza, but gave hereof only 1094 Itza as a mother tongue. SIL International is for 1986 even only 12 fully competent speakers and 1991 a total of 60 mostly elderly, no longer fully competent speakers of all living in San Jose Peten.

Economy

The people in the municipality of San José live mainly from agriculture. About half of the working population, it operates in subsistence farming. Crops are mainly maize, beans and vegetables. In addition, even the craft, the service sector and tourism play a role.

Attractions

On the territory of the Municipalities of San José are many Mayan ruins. Noteworthy are the centers of El Zapote, La Muralla, Zacatal, Motul de San José and El Mirador and Nakbé, El Guiro, Bejucal, Chachaclum, San Pedro, Uxpetén, El Astillero, Piedra Blanca, El Quetzal, Jobompiche, Cerro Cahuí, Altamira, El Palmar and El Zotz.