Mam

The Mam are a Maya people of the western Guatemalan highlands and the Soconusco coast of Chiapas, speaking Mam. Their Postclassic kingdom was centered on fortified Zaculeu, occupied since the Early Classic around the third century.

From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries the K'iche' kingdom of Q'umarkaj conquered the Mam piecemeal; the Popol Vuh dates these campaigns to 1425–1470 under king K'iq'ab. Zaculeu became a K'iche' subject city governed by a noble lineage of the conquerors while many Mam commoners stayed on their land. In 1525 Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras besieged Zaculeu for months, until its last ruler Kayb'il B'alam surrendered to starvation and the Mam lands passed under Spanish rule.