Hunac Ceel
Hunac Ceel Cauich was a Maya general from Telchaquillo who conquered Chichen Itzá and founded the Cocom dynasty. While the rulers of Chichen Itzá were in part descendants of Toltec outsiders who might have been disliked for being foreign oppressors or the war a simple one of conquest, the Maya history attributes the cause of the war to the theft of a wife of a powerful ruler by a powerful lord.
According to the history, Hunac Ceel, also known as Cauich, unsuccessfully fought the Itzás, having been taken captive. Ah Mex K'uuk threw him into the sacred cenote of Chichén Itzá as a sacrifice to the gods. However, he survived an entire night in the water. He told a prophecy of the rain god Chaac about the year's coming harvest. He went on, under the sponsorship of Ah Mex K'uuk, to become lord of Mayapan, a city which, along with Chichen Itzá and Uxmal, ruled northern Yucatan.
Legacy
Hunac Ceel's actions upset not only the political balance of power in north Yucatan but the demographics of Chichen Itzá and the Lake Petén Itzá area, where the Itzá were still living at the time of European contact.The feature film Kings of the Sun begins with Hunac Ceel's forces attacking Chichen Itzá.
He is played by Leo Gordon.
In the year 2000, the Mexican folk dance and music group Hunac-Ceel was founded in San Luis Potosí.