Annals of the Cakchiquels
Also known as: Anales de los Cakchiqueles, Memorial de Sololá, Annals of the Kaqchikel
A Kaqchikel Maya chronicle recording origins, migrations, dynastic successions, and the upheavals surrounding the Spanish conquest in the Guatemalan highlands. Compiled by indigenous nobles, it blends genealogy, sacred geography, and eyewitness testimony.
Description
The Annals of the Cakchiquels (Anales de los Cakchiqueles), also known as the Memorial de Sololá, is a post-conquest Kaqchikel Maya record that preserves pre-Hispanic origins and the political history of the highland Maya through the early colonial period. Written in the Kaqchikel language using Latin script by members of the Xajil lineage, the text compiles genealogies, alliances, ritualized warfare, and sacred topographies around Iximché and neighboring polities. It offers an indigenous perspective on the arrival of Spaniards led by Pedro de Alvarado, detailing shifting alliances, famine and disease, baptisms, and the capture of local lords. Part chronicle and part memory book, it arranges episodes as terse entries keyed to rulers and places rather than as a continuous narrative, preserving the voice and priorities of Kaqchikel authors.
Historiography
Surviving in colonial-era manuscripts copied from Kaqchikel-language originals, the text reflects multiple redactional layers by members of the Xajil family and later continuators. Early twentieth-century scholars produced Spanish and English translations that standardized the title and orthography. Editorial debates concern segmentation of episodes, identification of toponyms, and correlation with Spanish archives. The work has informed ethnohistorical reconstructions of highland Maya sociopolitics and the chronology of early conquest campaigns.
Date Notes
Composed by Kaqchikel nobles after the Spanish conquest; draws on earlier oral lineages and annals; continued by later hands.
Symbols
Major Characters
- Francisco Hernández Arana Xajilá
- Francisco Díaz
- Ajpop
- Xajil lineage
Myths
- Origins and Lineages of the Kaqchikel
- Founding of Iximché
- Wars with the K’iche’
- Spanish Conquest and Conversion
Facts
- Written in the Kaqchikel (Maya) language using Latin script.
- Compiled by nobles of the Xajil lineage in Sololá after the conquest.
- Covers pre-Hispanic origins through early colonial decades.
- Documents the founding and political centrality of Iximché.
- Provides an indigenous account of Pedro de Alvarado’s campaigns.
- Uses genealogies and toponyms to structure historical memory.
- Reflects alternating alliance and conflict with the Spaniards.
- Records famine, epidemics, and tribute disruptions during conquest.
- Preserves sacred geography linking mountains, lakes, and shrines.
- A key ethnohistorical source for highland Guatemala.