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Historical Background

Cozumel has a history that spans three epochs and three different cultures. During the time of the ancient Maya, the island was known as Ah-Cuzamil-Peten—Land of the Swallows. From 300 AD until the arrival of the Conquistadors in the 15th century, Cozumel was an important trade and religious center. Merchants came to buy the salt and honey produced on the island. The Maya considered salt and honey more valuable than gold. Historians believe the El Caracol ruin was built as an ancient lighthouse to guide these travelers safely ashore.

Cozumel was also the religious center for Ixchel (Lady Rainbow), the Maya goddess of fertility, pregnancy and childbirth. Ixchel is one of the most important gods in the Maya religious pantheon as she is the mother of all other gods and rules not only over life and death but the moon and bodies of water. Every woman in Mesoamerica was required, at least once in her life, to make a pilgrimage and place an offering on Ixchel's altar. Pilgrims departed the mainland from what is now Playa del Carmen and Tulum, making the treacherous channel crossing in open canoes. Today, the remains of Ixchel's altar and ceremonial center can be seen at the San Gervasio ruins.

The island was first discovered by Spanish conquistadors in 1518 when Juan de Grijalva who was blown off course on his way back from Cuba. Grijalva's present to the island can still be viewed in the Iglesia de San Miguel. He mentioned the island to Hernán Cortés, who arrived the next year in search of gold. Instead he found two shipwrecked Spaniards. Geronimo de Aguilar and Gonzales Guerrera had been living on the island with the Maya for over 15 years, first as slaves but finally as citizens of the community. Legend has it that de Aguilar was so happy to be rescued that he jumped from shore and started swimming towards the Cortès' ship when it was still 20 miles away. Guerrera chose to remain on the island with his Maya wife and family. Aguilar, bitter about his treatment by the Maya, helped the Conquistadors set up a military base on the island to wage war on them. Guerrera, in the other hand, died defending his adopted community. It is interesting to note that while de Aguilar is considered a hero in Spain, it is Guerrera who is revered in Mexico. His offspring, known as the Mestizo, are considered the founders of the Mexican race. By 1570 most of the Maya population were dead, murdered by the Conquistadors or killed off by disease. By 1600 Cozumel was abandoned.

By the early 17th century pirates had discovered Cozumel. The dashing Henry Morgan used the island as a stopover during his raids around the Caribbean between 1658 to 1688. Another legend on the island has Jean Lafitte, who caroused the waters near Cozumel between 1814 and 1821, hiding from his pursuers in the safe harbors of the Isla de La Pasion. Both pirates were responsible for sinking a number of cargo ships, some of which can still be seen in the briny depths just off the northern shore close to Punta Molas Faro (northern lighthouse). Cozumel remained uninhabited until 1847, when 20 families fleeing the Spanish backlash over the Maya rebellion during the War of the Castes settled on the island and founded El Cedral. Many of their descendants are still living on the island. Cozumel soon settled into a forgotten island community.

In the late 19th century a new candy put Cozumel back on the map. In 1880, a Mexican general, Antonio Lopez de Santa, imported a ton of chicle to the States after noticing the natives of Mexico and Central America chewing this gummy sap from the zapote tree. He gave it to Thomas Adams who tried to create rubber with it but instead came up with chewing gum. When Frank and Henry Fleer coated their gum with sugar and called it "Chiclets," chewing gum became the most popular candy in America and the demand for chicle reached an all time high. Men called chicleros were hired to find the zapote trees and process the sap into gum that was shipped to chewing gum factories in New York. Cozumel again became an important port, with ships stopping to pick up the chicle gathered from all over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize and Costa Rica.

When the Chicleros began clearing Cozumel's jungle, they discovered long forgotten ruins. Soon archaeologists began visiting the island to document the new discoveries. When the market for chicle crashed due to the invention of the airplane and synthetic chewing gum, Cozumel went back to being an almost deserted island. Its only export became copra - the dried kernels of coconuts that contain coconut oil. More on Cozumel's trade and shipping history can be seen at the navigational museum in the Punta Celarain Faro (lighthouse).

During World War II, the American military landed on the island and set up a submarine base and airfield. Unfortunately, in the process they dismantled most of the Maya ruins without realizing what they were destroying. In the 1950s Cozumel became a resort town for wealthy Yucatecans who came to the island to fish, sunbathe and escape the heat. A display in the Museo de la Isla de Cozumel outlines the history of the founding families and the very first luxury hotels.

In 1961, Jacques Costeau did a dive along the reefs and came away so impressed with what he saw that he introduced Cozumel to the world on his popular television show. In 1974, when Cancun was being built and Quintana Roo was finally a state of Mexico, rather than a territory, Cozumel became a popular dive destination. And after that — as they say — the rest is history.

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