in search of providence 1)guatemala: history and context (today) 2)violence and memory, emotion, and...
TRANSCRIPT
In Search of Providence
1) Guatemala: History and Context (today)2) Violence and Memory, Emotion, and
Fieldwork (11/17 and 11/19)3) Race and Ethnicity (11/24 and 12/1)4) Transnational Migration (12/3 and 12/8)
Mayans
• First evidence of humans, 12,000 BCE; hunters and gatherers
• Maize production by 3500 BCE
• Monumental architecture by 1400 BCE (pyramids, causeways)
• Height of Mayan regional empires (250-900 CE): city-states ; abandoned in 900 CE due to drought? overpopulation?
Tikal, 200-900 CE
Conquest by Spain, 16th century
• introduction of Catholicism
• Introduction of Spanish language
• the impoverishment and forced labor of Mayans
• movement of Mayans into the highlands to escape conquest/control Santa Cruz del Quiché
Post-independence (1821-)
• Export-oriented agriculture (coffee, sugar, cotton): forced labor of Mayans, expropriation of land
• New investment from abroad: United Fruit Company (1898-1920) exporting bananas to US and Europe; link to dictator President Cabrera
• Preservation of Ladino (mestizo) hierarchy over Mayans
Loading bananas onto railcars, Honduras, 1920s
Political Turmoil and Civil War• 1944: dictator Castaneda forced to resign over strikes over
brutal conditions of plantation workers• New leadership (Arévalo and Árbenz Guzmán) promised
better workers’ rights and land reform, abolition of forced labor; landowners furious
• 1954: Árbenz Guzmán overturned in military coup d’état orchestrated by CIA worried about spread of Communism in Western Hemisphere; land reform overturned
• 1960s: rigged elections and dictatorships with paramilitary groups; guerrillas in Mexico; US Special Forces helped train military
• 1978-1984: guerrillas move into Guatemala; brutal counterinsurgency
Paratroopers in a Catholic Church building, Nebaj, Guatemala, March 1983. (Photo courtesy of Beatriz Manz.)
A civil patrol (Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil, PAC), Ixil region, Guatemala, March 1983. (Photo courtesy of Beatriz Manz.)
Effects of Civil War and Political Turmoil, 1960-1986
• 200,000 killed or “disappeared”
• 440 Indian villages burned to the ground
• 1 million internally displaced
• 125,000 children orphaned• Migration to Mexico and
US
“A firm and lasting peace”• Human rights violations continued after the end of the
war• 1996: Peace Accords negotiated by UN, with intense
brokerage by Spain and Norway. Guerrilla fighters disbanded and given land.
• 1998: Bishop Gerardi assassinated after his report on human rights abuses published
• The report found that 93% of the human rights violations made by paramilitaries; 200,000 deaths over 36 years: Mayans accounted for 83% of the victims.
• Very few legal cases brought against individuals (p. 94). Army refused to cooperate in investigations unless individuals involved in massacres were not identified (p. 207).
• 1999: President Clinton said that the US was wrong to have provided support for the Guatemalan military when it was engaged in such brutality against civilians.
Guatemala Today• 14 million people: Ladino 59%, Mayan 41%• Languages: Spanish and 23 officially recognized Amerindian
languages (more than 44 in use in Guatemala)• A poor country: More than half of the population is below the
national poverty line, and 13% of the population lives in extreme poverty. Poverty among indigenous groups averages 73%, with 22% of the indigenous population living in extreme poverty (Foxen argues it is higher). Nearly one-half of Guatemala's children under age five are chronically malnourished, one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world.
• Distribution of income remains highly unequal: the richest 20% of the population account for more than 51% of Guatemala's overall consumption (11th in income inequality in the world, GINI coefficient: 50).
• Xinxuc: 7,000 residents, 70% in poverty
Immigration and US Foreign Involvement
• Saskia Sassen (sociologist at Columbia): there is a connection between US foreign involvement (both foreign investment and political alliances) and immigration flows. Interventions cause political turmoil; capital investment causes internal migration and social turmoil by developing export agriculture or industries (factories).
• Her examples are Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea.• 1947-1989: Cold War for the US and USSR; “hot” war
elsewhere. Cold War conducted by proxy.• The Caribbean, Southeast and East Asia, and Central America
are good examples of this phenomenon; other countries less so.