Rabinal is a small town located in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, at 15°6′0″ N 90°27′0″ W. It serves as the administrative seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. The municipality covers 504 km² and, in 2004, had a population of around 36,000. The local people are predominantly Achi Maya native Americans who speak the Quiché Maya language. Baja Verapaz is a department in Guatemala. ... The Maya people are a native American people of southern [[in this area at the start of the 21st century. ... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ... The Kiche , or Quiché in Spanish spelling, are a Native American people, part of the Maya ethnic group. ... The Mayan languages are a family of related languages spoken from South-Eastern Mexico through northern Central America as far south as Honduras. ...

History

• 1537: The settlement of Rabinal is founded by Bartolomé de Las Casas, during his expedition into the lands of the Maya.
• 1850s: Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, serving as Parish Priest, conducts some of the first ethnographic studies of the highland Maya and collects folk tales and documents making the first translations into European languages.
• 1982: Rabinal is the site of some of the bloodiest massacres in Guatemala's civil war, including those of Plan de Sánchez and Río Negro.

Events January 6 - Alessandro de Medici assassinated August 25 - The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, was formed. ... Bartolomé de Las Casas Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484 – July 17, 1566) was a 16th century Spanish priest, the first ordained in the New World and the first Bishop of Chiapas. ... The word Maya or maya can refer to: The Maya – a Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America the modern Maya people the pre-Columbian Maya civilization the Maya language Maya – a concept in Hindu/Vedic philosophy a state of misperception of reality the inherent force of... Events and Trends Technology Production of steel revolutionised by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Science Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward the theory of evolution... Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (8 September 1814 - 8 January 1874) was a Belgian ethnographer. ... Ethnology (greek ethnos: (non-greek, barbarian) people) is a genre of anthropological study, involving the systematic comparison of the folklore, beliefs and practices of different societies. ... 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Republic of Guatemala Guatemalas Plan de Sánchez massacre took place in the village of Plan de Sánchez, Rabinal municipality, department of Baja Verapaz, on 18 July 1982. ...

Culture

The town of Rabinal boasts a large, colonial-era baroque church. Alongside the church is a small municipal museum, with exhibits on the local culture (particularly native healing techniques) and a section dealing with the massacres of the 1980s. Various pre-Hispanic archaeological sites are also located in the surrounding hills.

The town's annual fiesta patronal takes place in late January each year and is famous for its dances, including one that recreates a legendary battle between the Achi and the K'iche Maya.

External links

• Rabinal Achi Community Museum
• The Massacres in Rabinal
• Rabinal - extensive photographic essay of the town and it's people