From their first encounters with the European conquerors the Maya showed their distrust of all things foreign and different. The colonial revolts against the Spanish rule and the intrusion of European Christian culture continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries and into the present. They have taken the form of socio-religious movements, colonial revolts, the 19th century Caste War, and the present pan-Maya movement for cultural independence. Historical experiences, in particular the Caste War, and people's collective memory of the liberated territory of the east Yucatan peninsula between 1847 and 1901, as well as the prophecies about the reinstatement of Maya independence, do not figure only in the contemporary Maya imaginarium and narrative, they are also materialised in the concrete symbols of the new religion - that of the "talking crosses". From their first encounters with the European conquerors the Maya showed their distrust of all things foreign and different. The colonial revolts against the Spanish rule and the intrusion of European Christian culture continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries and into the present. They have taken the form of socio-religious movements, colonial revolts, the 19th century Caste War, and the present pan-Maya movement for cultural independence. Historical experiences, in particular the Caste War, and people's collective memory of the liberated territory of the east Yucatan peninsula between 1847 and 1901, as well as the prophecies about the reinstatement of Maya independence, do not figure only in the contemporary Maya imaginarium and narrative, they are also materialised in the concrete symbols of the new religion - that of the "talking crosses".