Tzutujil

The Tz'utujil are a Maya people of the Guatemalan highlands, holding the southern shore of Lake Atitlán and cacao-growing lowlands in Suchitepéquez. According to the Popol Vuh their ancestors came from the mythic city of Tollan around the dawn of the thirteenth century, and they built their capital Chiaa on the hill of Chuitinamit, ruled by a lord bearing the title Ahtz'iquinahay.

In the fifteenth century the K'iche' king K'iq'ab crushed their attempts to expand westward. Pedro de Alvarado invaded in 1523 with Kaqchikel allies and defeated them near Panajachel in 1524; the Ahtz'iquinahay, baptized Pedro, submitted and founded the new town of Santiago Atitlán.

Franciscans moved the people down from the old hill capital and set up cofradías from 1533, while introduced diseases and gold mining cut the population from some 72,000 in 1520 to little more than 5,000 by 1550.