Preserving Mayan language and culture in Guatemala
For a formative part of my childhood, my family lived in the western highlands of Guatemala in Sipacapa, a municipality of about 15,000. My parents were working as linguists among the Sipacapense, helping to preserve the local language which had been passed down orally from generation to generation, but, like the 21 other Mayan languages in the country, was at risk of becoming obsolete.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Al Jazeera English's Living the Language show produced an episode about ongoing efforts to preserve Mayan languages and cultures in Guatemala, where the Maya still comprise more than half the population, but where Spanish is used almost exclusively in schools, business, media and government.
It's a fascinating look at what it means to be part of the majority population in a country long run by European-descended elites. "We can't sit around and complain," one Mayan leader says in the video. "We must act to save our language."
[Image credit: Pedro Cruz Sunu via changethelifechannel.blogspot.com]
MCC’s work in Guatemala
During my time in Lancaster I became friends with a number of great people working with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), an organization focused on “relief, development and peace in the name of Christ.” I've been so impressed with so much of the work they do around the world, and I'd encourage you to check them out.
While doing research in grad school I traveled back to Sipacapa, the town in the highlands of western Guatemala where our family had lived when I was a kid, to research the impact of a Canadian gold mining company and to interview community residents who were opposed to the mine. That research eventually turned into a PRISM cover story.
I couldn't have pulled it off without the help of fellow Eastern University alumnus Nate Howard, who has been working in that part of Guatemala with MCC for several years.
All that to say that when the latest issue of MCC's excellent magazine A Common Place arrived in the mail last week, I was thrilled to see them profiling the great work being done in western Guatemala with inspiring stories and, as always, fantastic photos from the very talented Melissa Engle. In case it takes a little while for your subscription to kick in (did I mention it's available free?), the content is available online as well. Here are some highlights:
- New opportunities without leaving home - as an alternative to the virtual necessity of migration to find work, MCC is helping those who stay find the opportunity to provide for their families through fish farms and other initiatives.
- First person: Juan Pablo Morales - I had lunch with Juan Pablo, a dedicated community leader who happens to be remarkably nice and smart. “With so many resources in Guatemala, it’s a shame there are so many people living in poverty,” he says.
- The popular banquet - listen to Juan Pablo sing a popular song from that region of Guatemala called “El Banquete Popular” or “The Popular Banquet” (lyrics available in both languages).
- Learning about mining justice - a profile of a student who spent time in the Guatemalan highlands and through that experience learned about the gold mine, owned and operated by a Canadian company. “I’m from Canada,” she says. “Why didn’t I know this was happening? Why didn’t I hear about this before?”
- A slideshow with audio commentary from Nate Howard is also coming soon, according to the site. [Update: here's the link to that slideshow]
I'd encourage you to check out the entire issue, to subscribe to the magazine while you're at it, and consider supporting this great work in what is, all biases aside, a very special corner of the world.
[Photo credit: due to resolution issues online, this is an Instagram I took of one of the photos printed in the magazine by Melissa Engle/MCC]
An update on gold and my old hometown
As you probably know, I've written in magazines (both at length, and a bit more briefly) and at various times on this blog about the gold mining operation taking place in the rural community of Guatemala where I grew up. In fact, I focused my grad school research on the issue, since I'm convinced it is hugely important and mostly overlooked. In a nutshell, a foreign mining giant is taking gold from a community that never gave it permission to begin in the first place. A few in the community do benefit, as does the company, its investors, and government officials with ties to the company's national subsidiary. Who loses? Everyone else in the community. It's obvious why if you read my earlier published work.
Today, Sipacapa -- my old hometown -- came up twice in my feed reader. The first was in connection with a community consultation on mining taking place nearby, one of hundreds such consultations that have taken place across the region (the first of which was held in Sipacapa in 2005), all resoundingly opposed to mining of any sort. The people in the rural highlands of Guatemala don't want these mines. In fact, as of last year, an estimated 600,000 Guatemalans had voted NO to mining in similar democratic community consultations made up of ordinary citizens, with very few voting in favor. It's not a fluke.
The other Sipacapa mention in my feed reader was from the mining company's newly released fourth quarter earnings report, which proudly boasts record earnings. Marlin, the mine near my old hometown, has been in the news because of the controversy it has caused, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (a body to which Guatemala is, in theory, legally bound) has called for suspension of operations because of its ongoing environmental and human rights abuses. But the company has been defiant, continuing its practices and assuring its investors that all is well, most notably in a section of the report with the heading, Commitment to Sustainable Prosperity Continues in Guatemala. The body of data and testimony, however, say that 'sustainable prosperity' is precisely the opposite of what the mine is doing for neighbors of the mine.
But the mine is quite profitable and investors, themselves increasingly prosperous, will be pleased with the report, I'm sure.
If you have investments, or if you're not sure what your money's tied up in through mutual funds, I ask you to please consider the people on the other end of the market equation. I'm sure there are investments in which everyone wins. With extractive industries, that's certainly not the case. And when all peaceful, democratic methods of opposition are systematically thwarted, what will those on the losing end of the equation do? I hope we won't need to find out.
[Photo credits: COPAE]
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