Jacinto Canek

Jacinto Canek, or Jacinto Uc de los Santos (c. 1731 in barrio de San Román, City of Campeche, New Spain – December 14, 1761 in Mérida, New Spain) was an 18th-century Maya revolutionary who fought against the Spanish in the Yucatán Peninsula of New Spain.

The Spanish conquest of Yucatán ended in the late 17th century, with the fall of the Itza people, the last group of Mayas able to resist the conquistadors. However, the Mayas continued armed revolt against the Spanish into the 18th century, and after an interruption, into the early 20th century under Mexican jurisdiction.

Lands owned in common by the Mayans were taken and given as land grants in the form of haciendas to either the Catholic Church or to Spanish noblemen, interfering with the means of subsistence of the Maya. The Maya population was forced to work as slave labor for the conquering Spanish, while all traces of their cultural world, particularly temples and writings, were systematically destroyed by the Spanish. The Itza kingdom was the last independent Maya state, submitting to the Spanish in Guatemala only in 1697.

Jacinto Canek was born during the 18th century, just over thirty years after the Yucatán Peninsula fell to complete Spanish political control, with the conquest of the Itzas. Canek was born Jacinto Uc, but apparently adopted Canek to show a relation to past kings of the Itzas with that name. He studied Latin and history in the Franciscan monastery Convento Grande in Mérida, but was expelled for his rebellious spirit. For a number of years he worked as a baker.

...
Wikipedia