In this first book-length treatment of Maya intellectuals in
national and community affairs in Guatemala, Kay Warren presents an
ethnographic account of Pan-Maya cultural activism through the
voices, writings, and actions of its participants. Challenging the
belief that indigenous movements emerge as isolated, politically
unified fronts, she shows that Pan-Mayanism reflects diverse local,
national, and international influences. She explores the movement's
attempts to interweave these varied strands into political programs
to promote human and cultural rights for Guatemala's indigenous
majority and also examines the movement's many domestic and foreign
critics.
The book focuses on the years of Guatemala's peace process
(1987--1996). After the previous ten years of national war and
state repression, the Maya movement reemerged into public view to
press for institutional reform in the schools and courts and for
the officialization of a "multicultural, ethnically plural, and
multilingual" national culture. In particular, Warren examines a
group of well-known Mayanist antiracism activists--among them,
Demetrio Cojt , Mart n Chacach, Enrique Sam Colop, Victor Montejo,
members of Oxlajuuj Keej Maya' Ajtz'iib', and grassroots
intellectuals in the community of San Andr s--to show what is at
stake for them personally and how they have worked to promote the
revitalization of Maya language and culture. Pan-Mayanism's critics
question its tactics, see it as threatening their own achievements,
or even as dangerously polarizing national society. This book
highlights the crucial role that Mayanist intellectuals have come
to play in charting paths to multicultural democracy in Guatemala
and in creating a new parallel middle class.
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