who were the white men that visited the Mayans?

Question

it was before the spanish conquistador cortez,

Answer 1

I agree with the first answerer, but would add the following.

There are legends from all over South and Central America of such 'fair-skinned' 'Gods'. Known variously as the Veracocha, Kon Tiki more to the south, and in central parts as Quetzacotl.

These people brought many 'civilising' factors with them. They were credited with teaching the resident 'primitives' to desist from cannibalism, and to cultivate crops ands manage livestock. To order their societies and organise themselves for the betterment of all.

It is strange how consistent these stories are with the similar ones from the present day Middle East, where the arrival of the Neteru, in Egypt, the Sea People in Phoenicia ( now Lebanon ) and the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia. The slightly discredited story of the 'Aryan' invasion of India is also roughly concurrent.

As answerer 1. stated, it could be that these stories are consistent with a world recovering from some major, possibly global, calamity, and that these newcomers to various lands were indeed soem kind of remnant of a more highly advanced society, spreading out to try to help the rest of thye survivors of humanity to re-establish themselves.

Maybe ?

Answer 2

It wasn't the Mayans. The myth predates the Mayans by millenia. It was survivors of Atlantis who were found on the shores by their ancestors. Those survivors gave them many technological breakthroughs of the day.....they probably also brought the "melting rocks is verboten" idea...blaming smelting for their (Atlantean) technology...which led to it's destruction (in their eyes).