Guatemala and the Maya

42,000 square miles, population 12 million, 40-60% indigenous
21 Mayan languages spoken
Indians-distinctive dress, language, milpa agriculture, syncretic religion

Tecpán and Patzún

located in Guatemala's western highlands
see the sattelite map
circa 7000' above sea-level
tierra fria
two seasons: rainy and dry

Tecpán
more progressive
along the pan-American highway
site of pre-contact Kaqchikel Empire; first Spanish capital in Guatemala
10,000 residents in the town proper: 70% Indian, 30% ladino
big Thursday market

Patzún
slightly larger town center (c. 13,000)
more conservative
about 90% Indian

Colonial period
exploitation and resistance
        Xpantzay lawsuit

1945-1954: the "Ten Years of Spring"
Juan Jose Arrivalo and Jacobo Arbenz
        UFCO (United Fruit Company, aka "el pulpo")
         founded in 1899
         owned Tropical Radio and Telegraph, the "great white fleet," and
                Central American Railways
         John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles
        1953, Arbenz appropriates 26,000 acres of UFCO land,
                UFCO cries foul
        1954 CIA-led coup

1960s guerilla movement in the east
1974-1978 General Kjell Laugerud García, elected under a widespread assumption of voter fraud--television and radio stations went off the air the night results were being tallied after reporting that Laugerud was trailing another army officer, Efraín Ríos Montt

1976  earthquake



1978-1981 General Romeo Lucas Garcia, who, with his brother Benedicto serving as defense secretary, stepped up the army's counterinsurgency campaign to all out war against guerrillas and villages suspected of collaborating with the insurgents
1978 massacre at Panzos, beginning of la violencia:

burial of the 34 killed at Panzos

1980 the Spanish embassy incident
1981-1982 General Efraín Ríos Montt, denied victory at the polls in 1974, seized power from Lucas Garcia in a palace coup and accelerated the war even further during his 18 months in power ; civil patrols, "frijoles y fusiles" (beans and guns)


1981: Tecpán's priest shot, then jail and town hall blown up:

army moves into town, clandestine graves:



1982-1986 General Oscar Mejía Víctores, who led a counter-coup against an increasingly megalomaniacal Ríos Montt and presided over the country's first truly free elections in 35 years
a death list

1991-1993 Jorge Serrano Elías, staged a short-lived "auto-coup"
2000- Alfonso Portillo, candidate from Ríos Montt's FRG party, is elected president

Key Development Indicators for Guatemala and the United States
                                                        Guatemala                                  United States
life expectancy at birth:                      64.4 years                                    76.8 years
literacy rate:                                      67%                                              >99%
access to potable water:                    68%                                              >99%
access to electricity:                          65%                                               >99%
telephone lines (per 1000 people):     41                                                  661
internet hosts (per 1000 people):       0.08                                               112.8

The case of Bishop Juan Gerardi, head of the Archbishop's Human Rights Office, who was killed by unknown men on April 26, 1998, just two days after he released his report Guatemala: Never Again that condemned the military's role in the violence.

The Guatemalan Historical Clarification Commission (the "Truth Commission") report Memory of Silence

the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Team

morbid humor:

Maya Worldviews
covenant between humans and gods
the notion of balance, physical and metaphysical
"hot" and "cold" illnesses
tuj or sweatbath
caves and rituals