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The History of Cozumel
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off Cozumel and replaced them with an image of the
the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Penin- Virgin Mary, the native inhabitants of the island
sula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the continued to help the Spanish re-supply their
Yucatán Channel. Cozumel is located on the north- ships with food and water so they could continue
ern edge of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. This their voyages. As many as 10,000 Maya lived on
largest of Mexico’s islands located in the Carib- the island then, but in 1520, infected crew mem-
bean, has grown into a leading dive and vacation bers of the Pánfilo Narváez expedition brought the
destination. The Maya are believed to have first smallpox contagion to the island and by 1570 only
settled Cozumel by the early part of the 1st millen- 186 men and 172 women were left alive on Coz-
nium AD. The island was sacred to Ix Chel, the one umel. In the ensuing years Cozumel was often the
of the Mayan Gods, and the temples here were a target of attacks by pirates. The history and facts
place of pilgrimage. Pilgrims came to Cozumel to of how this once deserted island came back to life
offer sacrifices to the temples of the various Gods and is now home to over 90,000 permanent resi-
here, frequently human sacrifices. dents and the mass of tourists that visit the island
every year is interesting. During his exile in 1869,
The first Spanish expedition to visit Cozumel Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana (the
was led by Juan de Grijalva in 1518; in the Mexican general who defeated the Texians at the
following year Hernán Cortés stopped by the Alamo) convinced Thomas Adams of New York to
island on his way to Veracruz. The Grijalva and develop a product utilizing chicle, a gum of the
Cortés expeditions were both received peacefully sapodilla tree found in the Yucatan. Adams added
by the Maya of Cozumel, unlike the expeditions’ flavoring to chicle and came up with chicle based
experiences on other parts of the mainland. Even chewing gum. The product immediately caught
after Cortés destroyed some of the Maya idols on on with the American consumer.
