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

Men forced to build a road, Ixil Province, Guatemala, 1983. Picture by Beatriz Manz.

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

On the road to the Ixil region, Guatemala, March 1983. (Photo courtesy of Beatriz Manz.)

“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.