By Deborah Van Hoewyk

When you think of Mexico before the Spanish conquest (1521), what comes to mind? All those ruined pyramids? Confusion about who were the Aztecs, who were the Maya, who were the Incas? Maybe you think of Moctezuma, the Aztec (Mexica, to be more ethnically precise) the conquered ruler of Tenochtitlán, the seat of the Aztec empire in what is now Mexico City. Odds are, though, pre-Hispanic women didn’t leap to mind, much less women who ruled the pre-Hispanic world.

The Aztecs didn’t cohere as a political or geographical entity until fairly recently, starting in the late 1100s CE – Tenochtitlán was founded in 1325. They did, however, create a massive empire, subjugating most of the peoples of central Mexico. The Incan Empire arose just a little later, in the 1200s, in the area around Cuzco, Peru, and came to dominate northwestern South America. The Inca were conquered by Spanish forces led by Francisco Pizarro in 1532.

The Maya, on the other hand, date back to 7000-5000 BCE, and started to coalesce into a great civilization around 300 CE, eventually covering southeastern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. The Maya did not amass an empire, either; they were a federation of independent city states – large urban centers focused on religious activities surrounded by rural communities that supplied food and other resources. (Those cit-states did set about trying to conquer each other.)

Pre-Hispanic Women and Power

In 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City held a special exhibition, “Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas,” which presented objects from tombs and items of personal adornment. According to curator Joanne Pillsbury, “Had we organized this exhibition twenty-five years ago, we would have spoken primarily of the regalia of men. Over the course of single generation, thrilling discoveries have revealed the power and majesty of high-status women, deepening and enriching our understanding of ancient American history.”

We know that all three of the major pre-Hispanic groups had women in positions of power. Among the Aztecs and the Incas, they ruled as accompaniments to their husbands. The Aztecs required that a ruler have royal blood; a migratory, non-royal-blooded man could marry an Aztec princess to supply the qualifying royal genetics. The Incan king’s primary wife, the quoya (queen), ruled over all women.

The Maya were different. Of course, they had many queens who were the wives of ruling kings, but – even though rare – there were Mayan queens who wielded power on their own. In Mexico, there were a half a dozen or so, including three in Cobá, in Quintana Roo in the Yucatán; two in Palenque, in Chiapas; and one in Toniná, also in Chiapas. In addition, there were three female regents in different Mayan city states in Chiapas – regents ruled until their sons were old enough to ascend the throne, and depending on the age of that son, often served as the de facto ruler for years afterwards.

The Maya were different. Of course, they had many queens who were the wives of ruling kings, but – even though rare – there were Mayan queens who wielded power on their own. In Mexico, there were a half a dozen or so, including three in Cobá, in Quintana Roo in the Yucatán; two in Palenque, in Chiapas; and one in Toniná, also in Chiapas. In addition, there were three female regents in different Mayan city states in Chiapas – regents ruled until their sons were old enough to ascend the throne, and depending on the age of that son, often served as the de facto ruler for years afterwards.

Gender Relations among the Maya

Generations of archeologists, anthropologists, and historians have interpreted Mesoamerican life through the eyes of the Catholic Spanish conquistadors: a Euro-centric gender hierarchy, realized in the male superiority/female domesticity model. It wasn’t easy to even think that the Maya might have had independent queens, while clearly the Aztecs and Incas had only queen consorts, “help-meets” to the male kings, matching the Spanish model.

During the Classic Mesoamerican period (300-950 CE), particularly between 500-700, the Maya were started expanding their reach, usually through warfare. Alliances to control warring parties could be achieved through marriage, giving the bride who concluded the alliance power over the court. Times of war are times of social change, and women began to play more significant roles in upper-class life in general, participating in religious rituals and connecting with the supernatural.

A more fundamental force supporting women’s power was that “the Classic Maya concept of gender was based on a complementary, or balanced, relationship of masculine and feminine.” According to anthropologist Erika Anne Hewitt, now a Unitarian Universalist minister in Maine, and other anthropologists, Mayans thought of gender as “inclusive and reciprocal”; Mayan art seems to assume that the foundation of society is the female-male pair, which brings together different capabilities needed for life. The higher you go in the social scale, gender becomes “exchangeable” – males are shown with female traits and females take on male traits, depending on what their roles required. For kings and queens, this is reflected in the hieroglyphic inscriptions on tombs and monuments. In these inscriptions, identifiable people are mentioned with a string of “appellative phrases” – prescribed sequences of names and titles.

Ordinarily, a woman is identified with the glyph for a female, but for women who ruled independently, no such glyph appears in her appellation. Inscriptions for prominent women who were not independent queens applied the term na bate (warrior) “to accommodate their sharing of status or occupancy of roles that were traditionally masculine.” Moreover, in Mayan art that portrays high-status males conducting rituals, the men wear skirts; portraits of male rulers often included other feminine traits or symbols. It is possible to argue that, without this acceptance of gender fluidity, the Maya, like the Aztecs and Incas, might not have had queens.

The Queens of Cobá

Researchers from INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico’s national anthropology institute) have identified a dynasty, beginning c. 500 CE, of 14 rulers of the Mayan city-state Cobá – the dynasty lasted until almost 800 CE. The research was complicated, given the deteriorated state of the stonework throughout Cobá. Most of the information was gleaned from study of stelae, stone slabs that recorded important events and the rulers who oversaw them.

Ix Che’enal was a most probably the daughter of Yax Yopaat, king of Dzibanche, a nearby state to which Cobá was no doubt sent to Cobá to rule as Dzibanche desired. She held the high title of kaloomte, higher than the title of her husband, K’ahk Bahlam, and was queen for a short period; based on study of two stelae, she ruled from 565 to 574. At that point, she may have abdicated to her husband; in any event, he succeeded her.

Lady Yopaat is thought to have ruled c. 600-40 CE; she is called a “warrior queen” because she apparently strengthened Cobás position as a regional power, although whether that eliminated the subordination to Dzibanche is unclear.

Lady K’awiil Ajaw (also known as Ix Kʼawiil Ek) was born in 617 and ruled Cobá from 642-82; also a warrior queen, she attacked and subjugated the nearby city of Yaxuná. She promptly built a “white road” (sacbeob) connecting it with Cobá. The white road curves its way through the jungle, connecting the smaller settlements between Cobá and Yaxuná. She commissioned two stelae (#1, #5) in which she is standing atop and is surrounded by captives, a common configuration for stelae showing rulers. She is shown with 14 captives, more than any queen – and most kings as well. There are 5, perhaps a few more, stelae showing her, and she is shown wearing a belt from which hangs a jade net skirt and jade masks, a garment usually shown only on men.

The Queens of Palenque

Palenque flourished through the Early Classic and Classic periods of pre-Hispanic culture, from about 250-900 CE. It is an astonishing place to visit – tourists have been coming to Palenque since 1841, when John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, author and artist respectively, published Incidents of Travel, which covered Central America, Chiapas, and the Yucatán.

Yohl Ik’nal (also Lady Ol Nal) started her 22-year reign over Palenque in 583 CE, when she was 33. She was the daughter, or perhaps the sister of King Kan Bahlam I, who had died without an heir. Like Prince Philip of England, Yohl Ik’nal’s husband never became a king.

Under her rule, Palenque expanded as she built new complexes of buildings. She repelled invaders bent on subduing Palenque, and her reign was considered peaceful and prosperous.

Yohl Ik’nal had two children, a son and a daughter. When she died, she was succeeded by her son Aj Ne’ Yohl Mat, who was apparently an ineffective ruler, bringing on powerful attacks from Kalakmul – both he and his father were killed in 612, and the main temple of Palenque was destroyed,

Lady Muwaan Mat (aka Lady Sak K’uk’), Yohl Ik’nal’s daughter, became queen in 612, and ruled until her son, K’inich Janaab’ Pakal took the throne in 615, at the age of 12. Muwaan Mat (there is some debate as to whether she is the same person as Lady Sak K’uk’) had to lead Palenque through the chaotic aftermath of the Kalakmul attack, a task made more complicated by the destruction of the temple – religious rituals to ensure Palenque’s survival went on hiatus. Muwaan Mat’s son Pakal, however, ruled until his death in 683; he built the Temple of Inscriptions, ushering in a period of prosperity and progress for Palenque.

The Queen of Toniná

The latest of the Mexican Mayan queens was Lady K’awiil Yopaat, daughter of king K’inich Tuun Chapat, who died in 762; he was succeeded by “Ruler 7,” thought to be Lady K’awill Yopaat, who ruled from 762 until her death in 774. She was another warrior queen, making war on and defeating Palenque in 764.