ABSTRACT
In 1592, a group of Spanish friars led by Bishop Diego de Landa gathered every sacred book that remained in Yucatan from the Classic and Postclassic Mayan civilization — a civilization that had flourished in Mexico and Central America for a thousand years. They declared the books works of the devil and placed them in a pile at the foot of a giant ceiba tree in the village of Mani, then set them on fire.
