The impacts of colonialism have plagued the indigenous populations of Guatemala since first contact with the Spanish in 1524. This essay attempts to argue that the widespread inequalities present between indigenous and non-indigenous Guatemalans, and the chronic discrimination against indigenous peoples in contemporary Guatemala can be directly attributed to the long-lasting legacies of Spanish colonialism. Most accounts of the history of Guatemala commence with the Spanish conquest of the 16th century, and disregard the highly complex and established indigenous cultures in the region prior to said conquest. Thus, this essay will start by detailing specifically, the dominant and vast Mayan Civilisation, which thrived in Guatemala pre-Spanish colonialism. Upon the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in Guatemala, a social hierarchy was imposed placing the indigenous people at the bottom, which has led to the chronic structural racism imbedded in Guatemalan society today. Furthermore, the drastic economic disparities observable between the indigenous and non-indigenous populations of the country have their roots in Guatemala’s colonial history. Finally, colonialism has perhaps had the most severe effect on indigenous women, who suffer extreme inequality and discrimination in the highly patriarchal society of Guatemala.
Indigenous cultures and populations in Guatemala pre-Spanish colonisation
It is important to understand the powerful civilisations that existed in Guatemala pre-Spanish colonisation, in order to grasp the full extent to which the Spanish conquest and occupation adversely impacted, and continues to impact the indigenous population. Prior to the Spanish invasion starting in 1524, the territory now known as Guatemala contained a variety of competing Mesoamerican kingdoms, most of which were Maya. The Ancient Mayan Civilisation was highly developed intellectually, and also possessed a complex collection of philosophies, political systems and forms of knowledge production (Salazar 2012, p. 27). Furthermore, Mayans had a dynamic worldview shaped by their knowledge of science, astrology and the arts (Salazar 2012, p. 27). Consequently, rather than being the primitive and uncivilised peoples “only fit to toil and obey” (Watanabe 1995, p. 30), that the Spanish perceived them to be upon arrival in 1524, the Mayans actually possessed a highly sophisticated and holistic culture. The Spanish perception of the Mayans as unsophisticated and barbaric was engendered by the lack of modern European technology they possessed, and their pre-Christian, animist religious beliefs that were incomprehensible to Spanish conquistadors. Furthermore, the Ancient Mayan system of beliefs surrounding gender placed a particular emphasis on equality, demonstrated by the fact that the feminine principle Alom was as central and important as the masculine principle K’ajolom, as they comprised opposite but interdependent forces (Salazar 2012, p. 27). This highlights the advanced nature of the Mayan worldview, in which both genders were considered equally vital to civilisation. Despite the importance of knowledge and arts to Ancient Mayan culture, the prevailing view amongst Spanish conquerors that Mayan civilisation was intrinsically inferior to European civilisation led to the past and present exploitation of the indigenous people of Guatemala.
Structural racism as a product of colonialism in Guatemala
Systemic and everyday racism in Guatemala is deeply imbedded in the national culture and social structure. This is largely due to the aforementioned perception that has persisted amongst European mestizo Guatemalans since colonialism, that indigenous Guatemalans are inherently inferior and thus subordinate. This presiding belief amongst Guatemala’s mestizo ruling elite has directly fostered the structural inequalities observable in society today. According to the last population census (2002), 41% of Guatemalans identify as indigenous, with 99.5% of those self-identifying as part of the socio-linguistic community of the Maya people, however, this majority population has been forced to occupy the bottom rung of the class ladder, which is inextricably linked to race and genealogy (Smith 1995 p 733). The Guatemalan elite still consider themselves white in race and European in culture, and attempt to maintain their ‘racial purity’ and legitimacy as the predominant power holders by maintaining their cultural and marital ties with the western part of the world (Smith 1995, p. 734). Occupying the middle rung of the Guatemalan class ladder are Ladinos, who are uniquely defined in Guatemala by their European cultural norms, but mixed lineage which place them below the ‘purely European’ elite class (Smith 1995, p. 734). For poorer Ladinos, it is the repudiation of anything remotely Mayan that ensures that they are not considered part of the lowly indigenous social class themselves. In a Guatemalan society in which those of European descent enjoy access to benefits such as a full education, skilled employment and cultural legitimacy, it seems indigenous people must reject their native culture and language if they are to experience even a small amount of the same privileges (Watanabe 1995, p, 31). Language is one structural method that has been utilised by the European Guatemalan elite in order to maintain superiority over the indigenous peoples since colonisation in 1524 (Helmberger 2006, p. 69). The forcible teaching of Spanish to Mayans was implemented as part of the process of castellanización, in an attempt to make Mayans productive workers of the crown, and separate them from their cultural identities (Helmberger 2006, p. 69). As a legacy of colonialism, linguistic racism is intrinsic in contemporary Guatemala, and is imposed on the indigenous population due to the fact that most activities, such as going to court, hospital and school function exclusively in Spanish; consequently, an inability to speak Spanish which is common amongst indigenous people, becomes a method of racial oppression and societal alienation (Salazar 2012, p. 82). The institution of racial superiority by Spanish colonisers has directly fostered the neglect and subjugation of the Mayan people, which is supported by the societal structure of modern Guatemala.
Economic inequalities in contemporary Guatemala as a product of colonialism
The perception of the Mayan people as being subordinate to those of European descent, shaped by colonialism, has directly caused the economic inequalities plaguing contemporary Guatemala. According to Watanabe (1995, p. 31), the diminished status of the Mayan people to “subhuman Indians” allows the European elite to rationalise and justify their exploitation of Mayans as a source of cheap labour, thus maximising the profitability of coffee plantations and other forms of agricultural production on which Guatemala is economically dependent. The imposition of monopoly capitalism and gross disparity in the ownership of Guatemalan resources by the European elite is evidenced by the statistic that 72% of agricultural land in the country is owned by an estimated 2% of the population (Krznaric 2006, p. 114). The discrepancy in the possession of land, and the exploitation of the Mayan proletariat by the European bourgeois is a remnant of the Spanish conquest, whereby the indigenous population was displaced from its land and made to work in systems of forced labour under the repartimiento and encomienda (Lovell 1983, p. 127). Though forced labour was abolished in the mid-twentieth century, the repercussions of severe income inequality, below-subsistence wage growth for most agricultural labourers and extreme disparities in land ownership are still very much observable (Krznaric 2006, p. 117). A primary example of Mayan land exploitation in Guatemala came as a result of the activities of the United Fruit Company. When the United Fruit Company began to operate in Guatemala in the early-20th century, they were given access to a vast amount of traditionally Mayan agricultural land by the government. This culminated in 42% of Guatemalan land being controlled by the United Fruit Company under mestizo President Jorge Ubico, at the severe detriment of the mostly Mayan Guatemalan peasantry, whose sole income and livelihood came from agriculture and labour (LaFeber 1997, p. 158). Consequently, the Mayan population were displaced from land that was traditionally theirs, and forced to work under exploitative working conditions in order to survive. Unlike other Latin American countries such as Peru, Guatemala has been unable to sustain any significant redistributive land reform programmes. Therefore, Guatemala’s rural poor are mostly powerless to enter the agricultural export economy as independent producers, and thus have to remain as wage-labourers or subsistence farmers (Krznaric 2006, p. 117). Poverty as a result of inequalities in land and wealth distribution, as well as lack of access to employment, continue to disadvantage the indigenous people the most in comparison to the entire population. According to statistics by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 66.8% of the total number of Guatemalans in extreme poverty are indigenous and 33.2% are not. In summation, the effects of colonialism and its impact on the economic wellbeing of the Mayan population continues to be felt today.
Manifestation of patriarchy: post-colonial experiences of Mayan women
The imposition of colonialism has undoubtedly underprivileged Mayan women the most acutely in Guatemalan society. Smith (1995, p. 723) highlights one reason for this as being that it is the Mayan women who are responsible for embodying the cultural symbols of their ethnic identity, whether this be language, behaviour or distinctive clothing. Thus, Mayan women are the most visible and obvious manifestation of indigenous culture, and are most easily identifiable as contrasting to the dominant mestizo culture and genealogy. In Guatemala, indigenous women are readily recognised by their colourful huipiles (blouses) and their propensity to exclusively speak in their native Mayan dialect. In contrast, men are not so easily discernible from non-Mayans (Smith 1995, p. 723). Due to the fact that Mayan women are the most noticeable aspect of the Mayan race, and because of their biological ability to pass on Mayan genealogy via reproduction, they have been a primary target of ethnic cleansing and the alteration of the Guatemalan demography. For example, upon the inception of colonialism, the mestizo population quickly grew as a consequence of widespread concubinage between European men and indigenous women, typically established by the enactment of force by the Europeans (Stolcke 1991, pp. 26-27). While this had an extensive impact on Mayan lineage and cultural inheritance, European men were able to maintain their ‘racial purity’ through marriages to women of their own race and class, whose offspring became their legitimate heirs, and the heirs to the Guatemalan elite class (Smith 1995, p. 731). The implementation of patriarchy within Guatemalan society, largely fostered by these colonial actions, has resulted in many of the existing inequalities experienced by women today. Rather than being equal in spiritual and societal importance, as they were considered in the Ancient Mayan worldview, women are the primary symbol of indigenous primitivism amongst the European elite (Salazar 2012 p. 67). According to statistics by the UN and World Bank, indigenous women in Guatemala are more likely to be poor, sick, illiterate and sufferers of domestic abuse. While gender-based violence reached a peak during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-96), the colonial legacy of the objectification of women’s bodies has led to contemporary Guatemala still being among the countries with the highest rate of violent deaths amongst women, many of which are indigenous (UN Women). Furthermore, the political representation of indigenous women is extremely disproportionate, with only 3 indigenous women elected to Congress at the last election in 2011, accounting for 1.9% of the total candidates (UN Women). Statistics such as these highlight the prevalence of patriarchal power still existent in Guatemala. It is apparent then, that the targeting of Mayan women by Spanish colonisers for being the reproducers and visual representatives of the Mayan culture, has led to the intensified racism and discrimination they suffer in modern Guatemalan society.
This essay has argued that the Mayan population of Guatemala have been extremely disadvantaged due to the legacies of Spanish colonialism, which have been the catalyst of the disparate experiences of the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in contemporary society. Regardless of the complexity of Ancient Mayan Civilisation, the transcendent perception amongst Spanish colonisers of the Mayan people as being inferior has been the major influence on the discrimination of Guatemala’s indigenous peoples. As identified in this essay, said discrimination can be observed in three key dimensions of modern Guatemalan society. Firstly, racism as a result of the structural class system and linguistic dominance of Spanish, which has delegitimised the Mayan culture. Secondly, the vast inequalities in the possession of land, and the effects of past systems of forced labour on the economic participation and standing of the Mayan people in Guatemala. Finally, the particularly severe discrimination experienced by Mayan women as the predominant representatives and reproducers of the Mayan race.