TheItza are a Maya ethnic group descendants of theChanes from theChontal region ofTabasco from where they made a historic migration arriving atBacalar and northern Yucatán during the 10th century, then they arrived atChampotón and finally in the 15th century they settled aroundLake Petén Itzá where they remained independent until 1697. During the Spanish colonial era and later by the Guatemalan government, the Itza were victims of repressive policies that accelerated the extinction of the Itza culture and language, leading to the loss of much of their ethnic identity.^[2]

They are one of the smallest Maya groups and have the lowest population; the few Itza descendants are settled in the town ofSan José, north of Lake Petén Itzá in the department ofPetén, Guatemala, and are considered highly acculturated to mestizo society, with only 36 elderly people remaining as native speakers of the language.^[3]

According to the census of 2002, there are 1,983 ethnic Itza,^[4] who retain some aspects of their indigenous culture. However, theItza language is now almost extinct. Data taken from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) suggest there were only twelve fluent Itza speakers left in 1986 and 60 non-fluent speakers in 1991.^[5] According to a census of 2002, there were still 1094 speakers.^[6] However the number of speakers has decreased to only 36 native and fluent speakers, all of them elder people. The Mayan worditza means 'enchanted waters' and may have been adopted from the name of the lake itself.^[7]

The Itza were descended from theAh Itzá Yucatecan Maya lineage; historically they were an importantMesoamerican people who dominated the Yucatán peninsula in thePost-classic period. The Itza may have originated from theClassic Period city ofMotul de San José near lakePeten Itza inGuatemala, migrating to Yucatán during the Maya collapse at the end of the Classic Period.^[8] From their capital atChichén Itzá, Mexico they established a trade empire reaching as far south asNaco inHonduras.Chichen Itza means 'at the mouth of the well of the Itza' in the Itza language.

The books ofChilam Balam recount the history of the Itza and the demise of their empire at the hands of a band of MexicanizedPutún Maya led by the mercenary kingHunac Ceel, founder of the Cocom dynasty ofMayapan. Hunac Ceel fought the Itzas but was taken captive and was to be sacrificed by being thrown into thecenote of Chichén Itzá. However, he survived the attempted sacrifice, and having spent a night in the water he was able to relate a prophecy of the rain godChac about the year's coming harvest. Once lord of Mayapan, he orchestrated, aided by sorcery, the destruction of Chichén Itzá.

While part of the story of Hunac Ceel seem to be more mythical than historical, it is generally accepted that the Itza of Chichén Itzá were the eventual losers in a power struggle between the three Yucatecan lineages of theCocom, theXiu and the Itzá, all claiming heritage from theToltecs. And around 1331 archeological remains attest that Chichén Itzá and other Itza dominated sites, for example Isla Cerritos, were abandoned. The fall of these sites was contemporary with a gradual incursion of MexicanizedPutún Maya fromTabasco and centralMexico, and it seems that these were indeed the people who caused the fall of the original Itza state.

The Itza then left or were expelled from theYucatán region and returned south to thePetén Basin region to build the cityNojpetén as their capital.Noj peten means "great island" in Itza'.^[9] The early Spanish accounts referred to it as Tayasal, derived from the Nahuatltah itza ("place of the Itzá").^[10]

The Itza' were at the height of their territorial expansion when Cortes arrived on the coastal cities ofChakán Putum andPotonchán in 1519. The Itza' empire covered 230,000 square kilometers, organised into 4 main kingdoms, all of which were subordinate to the Itza':

• Northern (Cobox)
• Western (Chontal)
• Eastern (Mopan andYalain)
• Southern (Q'eqchi')

The Nahua princessMalintzin (La Malinche / Doña Marina) and 6 other women were given to Cortes at the end of the Battle of Cuintla as a peace act by theKan Ek' Paxbolon Nachan.

In 1523, after the fall of the Aztecs,Hernán Cortés led an expedition to what is now Honduras. While in the territory of the Itza' Empire, he executed the last Aztec emperor,Cuauhtémoc, for conspiring to kill him. He later visited Nojpetén with an army of Spaniards and 600Chontal Maya on his way to Honduras in 1523 and he celebratedmass with theKan Ek' of the Itza'.

The Itza' were the last Maya kingdom to remain independent of the Spanish, and some Spanish priests peacefully visited and preached to the last Itza king as late as 1696. On March 13, 1697, the Itza kingdom finally submitted to Spanish rule, represented by a force led byMartín de Ursua, governor of Yucatán. The northern lowland Petén region includes families that can be traced back to pre-colonial Itza. Although the Itza language is near extinction, Itza agro-forestry practices, including use of dietary and medicinal plants, may still tell much about how pre-colonial Itza managed the Maya lowlands.^[11]

In the 1930s, the use and teaching of the Itza language as well as the traditional clothing was banned in the department of Petén as part of the repressive policies of the Guatemalan government led by PresidentJorge Ubico Castañeda for thecultural assimilation of indigenous people to the Guatemalan Ladino culture, causing the loss of the language, ethnic and other cultural elements in subsequent generations.^[12]

• Chichen Itza
• Itza language
• Kukulkan
• Morzillo

• Drew, David (1999)The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.ISBN 0-297-81699-3
• Reina, Ruben E. (Fall 1966)."A Peninsula That May Have Been an Island: Tayasal, Peten, Guatemala"(PDF).Expedition.9 (1). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.ISSN 0014-4738. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2023-05-17. Retrieved2013-02-01.
• Rice, Prudence M. (2009a). "The Kowoj in Geopolitical-Ritual Perspective". In Rice, Prudence M.; Rice, Don S. (eds.).The Kowoj: identity, migration, and geopolitics in late postclassic Petén, Guatemala. Boulder, Colorado, US:University Press of Colorado. pp. 21–54.ISBN 978-0-87081-930-8.OCLC 225875268.
• Schele & Matthews (1999)The Code of Kings: The language of seven sacred Maya temples and tombs, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, New York.ISBN 978-0-684-85209-6.
• Sharer, Robert J. (1994).The Ancient Maya. Stanford University Press.ISBN 0-8047-2130-0.
• Weaver, Muriel Porter (1993).The Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors: Archaeology of Mesoamerica (3rd ed.). San Diego: Academic Press.ISBN 0-01-263999-0.

• Itza
• Indigenous peoples in Guatemala
• Maya peoples of Guatemala
• Mesoamerican cultures
• Maya Postclassic Period
• Maya Contact Period
• History of the Yucatán Peninsula
• Petén Department

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Short description matches Wikidata
• "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation