A Brief History of San Marcos la Laguna
The oral tradition our forefathers of the present-day inhabitants of San Marcos la Laguna say they came from a called place PAKIP, close to the population of San Jerónimo in Patulul, and that they had that to abandon the town because of the wild animals that were abounding in the area. They add to the legend that they wandered about during three hundred years, looking for a good place to live. They tried living on the banks of lake of Atitlán, on hill of gold, land presently belonging to the village of Santiago Atitlán. Upon the being rejected they sought refuge on the other bank of the lake Patzununá's (San Pedro La Laguna) where the mayor contracted them to harvest corn.
The descendants of the emigrants of Pa kip, who spoke Kak´chi kel, joined with other labors that spoke the same language to form a new town, in a suitable place of Sololá. Giving birth to Jaibalito, an area not very adequate, in the ravine of Payan Chicol, at present time belonging to the jurisdiction of Atitlán, and part of the assignment of Sancho of Barahona, companion of Peter of Alvarado.
San Marcos was founded April 26, 1584 when the missionary, Father Juan Mendoza celebrated the first mass initially known as the town of San Marcos Pa kip. In 1707, in the book of matrimonies, was the first mention of the town now known today as San Marcos la Laguna.
It appears that San Marcos was amongst the towns that received it’s assignment in 1,623 by Peter Nuñez of Barahona, grandson of the conqueror Sancho of Barahona according to Francis Anthony Guzmán mentions in his work, “Recordación Florida”.
In the “Description Geographic-moral of the dioceses de Goathemala” the arch bishop Pedro Cortes Larraz of 170, mentioned that San Marcos is an annexed town, by the church of San Pedro La Laguna, with a population of 156 inhabitants.
The original location of San Marcos was in a ravine that leads into the lake, on numerous occasions the town of San Marcos was destroyed by the raging epoch rain. The first of those disasters was registered 1688, again in 1702, and 1724, as registered in the book of "parroquiales". After 1,702 Sololá's mayor tried to convince to the marqueños to change location to a more certain place, but they did not manage to find a more suitable place.
After the second disaster, the mayor of Sololá, John of Barreneche, obtained the permission of the “real audience” to transfer the marqueños elsewhere. In January of 1725, they settled in the place named Uacujil, and one year after proceeded to the land near Santa Cruz la Laguna.
After 1807, San Marcos counted on a well-constructed Catholic Church, but was destroyed after a few years, in 1827. San Pedro’s parish priest managed to construct a new church shortly after, in a colonial style adorned with sculptural altarpieces and pictures, which was destroyed after the earthquake of April 02, 1902.
In October of 1849, another flood affected the town, the one and only building remaining was the church that I had been constructed few years before. After this new disaster the people of San Marcos agreed definitively to look for a place free of flooding, and decided on the permanent location on the hills of Chirijuyú and Xenimabaj.
During the colonial period, San Marcos la Laguna belonged to Tecpán Atitlán, or Sololá. Around 1730, Atitlán formally moved it’s mayor's office to Sololá. The department of the Quiche was created in 1872. San Marcos appears entered as one of 21 municipalities that are under Sololá's jurisdiction. According to the 1994's poll in the national institute of statistics, San Marcos la Laguna has the category of Urban Town.
