What is "cochuah"

Cochuah (also Kock Wah) (in the Mayan language: toponymic; K-: our + Och: food + Wah: bread. "Our food of bread"?) is the name of one of the sixteen Mayan provinces into which the central Yucatán Peninsula was divided at the time of the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.

After the destruction of Mayapán (1441-1461), great rivalry between the Mayas started, and led to the formation of 16 independent jurisdictions called kuchkabal (in Mayan: province or region). In each kuchkabal there was a halach uinik (in Mayan: "real man"; "man in control") who was the chief with the biggest military, judicial and political authority, and who lived in the main city, considered to be the capital of the jurisdiction.