The remote and traditional towns of Nebaj, Chajul and Cotzal
The Highlands, Guatemala
Located high up on the edge of the Cuchumatanes mountains is the Ixil Triangle, a landscape of steep hills, valleys and rivers. The three remote and traditional towns of Nabaj, Chajul and Cotzal are located here and share a language spoken nowhere else in the country.
This triangle of towns forms the core of the Ixil-speaking region, a massive highland area containing at least 120,000 inhabitants. This mountainous region is hard to reach and has proved notoriously difficult to control in the past although today the area has a relaxed atmosphere of highland Maya colour and customs.
Background
Before the arrival of the Spanish, Nebaj was a large settlement, producing large quantities of jade and possibly allied with the Mam capital, Zaculeu. The Spaniards finally managed to take Nebaj in 1530, but the town was burnt to the ground and the survivors enslaved as punishment for their resistance. In following years the land was repeatedly invaded by the Lacandon Maya from the north and swept by devastating epidemics.
After the coming of independence the Ixil were regarded as a source of cheap labour and It is estimated that between 1894 and 1930 six thousand labourers migrated annually to work on the coastal plantations.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, the area was hit by violence as it became the main area of operation for the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (the EGP). Since the 1996 peace accords, normality has returned to the area, as villagers have returned and rebuilt their homes and now all three towns in the Ixchel Triangle, Nebaj, Chajul and Cotzal have become thriving communities with their own weekly markets.