Abstract

ITURRIAGA, José N.. Champotón or Potonchán? From Geographical to Historical Error. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2023, n.65, pp.243-263.  Epub June 26, 2023. ISSN 0185-2620.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24485004e.2023.65.77818.

From the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries, many historians have mistaken Champotón (in Campeche) for Potonchán (in Tabasco). This is no small issue, as it is not a matter of a mere toponymical or syllabic error, for it involves the mixing-up of two places where diametrically opposed events took place. The article shows how an error from the most famous of chroniclers, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, dragged with it tenths of generations of historians, from Oviedo, Torquemada, Herrera, Argensola, Cogolludo, Solís, Prescott, and Orozco y Berra, to Cunninghame, Ramírez Cabañas, Gurría Lacroix, José Luis Martínez, Juan Miralles and Christian Duverger, among many others.

Keywords : Champotón; Potonchán; Centla; Mala Pelea; Bernal Díaz.