Diego de Landa

Born in 1524 in Spain, he joined the Franciscan order and later traveled to Yucatán as a missionary. He worked among Maya communities during the first generation of Spanish colonial rule and eventually became bishop of Yucatán.

He is best known for the 1562 events at Maní, where he led an inquisition-style campaign against Maya religious practices and ordered the burning of sacred objects and codices. That destruction made him infamous, especially because so few pre-Columbian Maya books survived.

At the same time, his writings became an important source for later historians. His account of Yucatán preserved details about Maya customs, religion, and writing, even though some of his interpretations were incomplete or mistaken. He died in 1579.