Juan Pío Pérez Bermón (1798–1859) was a
Mexican intellectual, philologist, researcher of
Maya culture and mayor of the city of
Mérida from 1848 to 1853. Pío Pérez studied
Maya civilization
The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writin ...
in the
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...
. His most significant contributions to the field was his ''Dictionary of the Mayan Language'' and interpretations of various fragments of the
Chilam Balam
The Books of Chilam Balam () are handwritten, chiefly 17th and 18th-centuries Maya miscellanies, named after the small Yucatec towns where they were originally kept, and preserving important traditional knowledge in which indigenous Maya and ea ...
.
Life
Pío Pérez was born in 1798 and attended the . He was from a
Maya-speaking family although they were of
Spanish descent. He worked as an interpreter for the New Spanish government before the
Mexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence (, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire. It was not a single, coherent event, but local and regional ...
. Pío Pérez worked many government positions throughout his life, including as mayor of the city of
Mérida. He died in 1859.
Contributions
While working as an authority for the government in Maní, Pío Pérez encountered 16th century records in the town archive. These and other archival materials he encountered were used for his interpretation of the Mayan calendar system.
After translating and interpreting many materials, Pío Pérez passed them along to
John Lloyd Stephens
John Lloyd Stephens (November 28, 1805October 13, 1852) was an American explorer, writer, and diplomat. He was a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of Maya civilization throughout Middle America (Americas), Middle America and in the planning of th ...
. Stephens, an American explorer and travel writer, published sections of Pío Pérez's work in his ''Incidents of Travel in Yucatán'' from 1843.
Some collections of Pío Pérez's works are referred to as the “Codex Perez”
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pío Pérez, Juan
1798 births
1859 deaths
Mexican scholars
People from New Spain