Revue Magazine 2010-11 (November)

According to documents left by the Spanish missionary Bartolomé de las casas,
to kill a quetzal was a capital offense:
”In the province of Verapaz they punish by death they who killed the bird with
the rich plumes because it was not found in other places and these feathers
were of great value because they used them as money.”
Laguna in Sololá province, a town perched
above the sacred waters of Lake Atitlán.
Her ancestry includes both Mayan and
Spanish elements. From an early age she has
pursued an avid interest in studying nature
and bush medicine; we share an interest in
studying the quetzal in its natural habitat.
A CAPITAL OFFENSE
Although ornithologists have hailed the
quetzal as the most spectacular bird
in the Americas, few people, outside of
the natives who live in the highland forests
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of Central America, have ever seen the
emerald serpent bird.
The reason is simple: The cloud forest
habitats of the quetzal only remain in the
most remote and inaccessible regions where
the weather is unusually inclement. Also,
the bird has become increasingly rare and
surreptitious due to human depredation.
This is in sharp contrast to the way it
was before the conquest. According to
documents left by the Spanish missionary
Bartolomé de las Casas, to kill a quetzal was
a capital offense:
“In the province of Verapaz they punish