Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

More than any Central American nation, Guatemala remains a country of indigenous as well as ladino ( mistiso ) protest and revolution, joining the ranks of Bolivia and Ecuador. In its struggle, the Mayan “nation” often contests an authoritarian or capitalist “state” and the interests it represents. As time progresses, the struggle assumes an increasingly nuanced character that integrates class and ethnicity. Guided by their commitment to a spirituality and culture centered on maize, in the sixteenth century the Guatemalan regional population stringently resisted the Spanish occupiers. The Maya's foundation document, the Popol Vuh, urged “that all arise, that all be called.” Although Tecún Umán , leader of the Quichés, was defeated near Quetzaltenango (the region's second largest city) in 1524, the neighboring Cakchiquels fought on for five years. Mayan resistance that characterized the Yucatan peninsula up through the nineteenth century also marked western Guatemala, despite that region holding the Spanish Captaincy General of the isthmus. As a countermeasure, the Spanish concentrated the Indians into separate towns, intended to facilitate agricultural labor and taxation. The division also reinforced the more than 20 differing Mayan language and subcultural systems. Nevertheless, notable rebellions periodically developed in the Verapaz provinces (1556, 1633), Tecpan Guatemala (1764), ... log in or subscribe to read full text