I was going to write about an indigenous community outside of Guatemala, but I just finished Naomi Klein’s excellent book, The Shock Doctrine, and the systematic destruction indigenous people’s way of life is still fresh in my mind. While I don’t have the book in front of me, I do have this handy link from PBS that covers the same basic information. I recommend picking up a copy of Klein’s book, if you get the chance. Also, watch the excellent documentary, Voice of a Mountain. You can watch the entire thing, for free, here.
Guatemala wasn’t always a country in ruins, where indigenous Mayans lived in poverty and were denied basic rights such as affordable education. Guatemala was once an egalitarian society where, under the rule of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, farmers were granted equal access to land, those who worked the land were guaranteed a living wage, and social services were readily available to all citizens.
Unfortunately, the years of peace and prosperity that characterized Guzman’s leadership of the people were not to last. When Guzman threatened to nationalize the US-owned United Fruit Company, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), saw this as a sign that the Guatemalan government was shifting toward Communism. In 1954, the CIA, using the very army that it had helped to train, overthrew the Guzman government and plunged the country into the deadliest civil war in Central American history.
The war took its harshest toll on Guatemala’s indigenous population. Over 400 indigenous villages were wiped from existence. So-called “civil defense patrols” committed unspeakable atrocities. In addition to those who were murdered outright, at least 40,000 Guatemalans “disappeared” – a polite way of saying they were abducted, tortured, and left to die in the mountains.
It is a testament to the courage of indigenous Guatemalans that they still comprise 60% of the country’s population. However, while their numbers are strong, their quality of life is anything but. As those of you who are familiar with Roots & Wings International’s work may already know, most indigenous Guatemalans subsist on just $1 a day. Think about that for a second. That’s the same price as a Double Cheeseburger at McDonald’s. A typical indigenous Guatemalan family of, say, four people survives on the same amount of money a “starving” college student might spend on a quick lunch.
Even worse, the country’s “tiny European elite” controls most of the land. It’s a cruel irony. A country once thought communist for dividing land equally among its people is now more democratic because a select few control nearly 70% of the farmable land. Guatemala’s indigenous people are further intrenched in poverty due to their lack of quality education. The state only provides for a child’s education through the sixth grade. After that, a family must pay to send their child to a private institution, a near impossibility for the average indigenous family.
Hopefully, by now, you can see the importance of the work Roots & Wings International is doing in Guatemala. We’re giving indigenous children a chance to dig their way out of the hole that nearly 60 years of civil war has put them in. RWI scholars in our program plan to graduate from college, return to their communities, and help future generations escape a life of poverty. That’s a great thing.
