Surviving Conquest: The Maya of Guatemala in Historical Perspective

Abstract

Little by little heavy shadows and black night enveloped our fathers and grandfathers and us also, oh, my sons …!All of us were thus. We were born to die!The Annals of the Cakchiquels (ca. 1550–1600)The Maya of Guatemala are today, as they have been in the past, a dominated and beleaguered group. Few have expressed this enduring reality more poignantly than the late Oliver La Farge. Commenting forty years ago on why Kanjobal Indians take to drink, La Farge observed that “while these people undoubtedly suffer from drunkenness, one would hesitate to remove the bottle from them until the entire pattern of their lives is changed. They are an introverted people, consumed by internal fires which they cannot or dare not express, eternally chafing under the yoke of conquest, and never for a moment forgetting that they are a conquered people.”

Restorative validity and healing through inquiry: A visual ethnographic case study in Guatemala

“…As this case study seeks to understand the transformative and restorative nature of inquiry, our methodological approach is taken as the site of analysis. To further frame this discussion in a culturally sustaining practice that engages the Maya Cosmovision, findings are discussed through three cultural elements important to the Kaqchikel: land, community, and an attachment to place (Lovell, 1988). Within each of these sub‐sections, we layer our conceptual framework of restorative validity (Dazzo, 2022) to demonstrate how three research orientations—relationships; justice; and liberation—were considered and practiced, allowing us to explore the restorative potential for inquiry.…”

“…We not only approach systems theory from an academic perspective but framed within the Maya Cosmovision, much like FAFG has done with its forensic anthropology work (Peccerelli & Henderson, 2021). As we review our findings, we ground descriptions of our work in a culturally sustaining way, according to the prominent Maya cultural elements of “land, community, and an attachment to place” (Lovell, 1988, p. 27).…”