Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Etnicidad, estado y nación en Guatemala. vol. 1, 1808-1944, vol. 2, 1944-1985

2006; Duke University Press; Volume: 86; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-2005-034

1527-1900

Wayne M. Clegern,

Indigenous Cultures and History

This two-volume study of the politics of ethnicity in Guatemala since independence is ambitious and perhaps magnificent. At least 30 scholars contributed to it, with 10 of them listed on its covers. One of three projects launched by the Centro de Investiga-ciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (CIRMA) in 1997 and funded by major foundations (Ford, Rockefeller, National Endowment for the Humanities, UNESCO), these volumes examine Guatemalan history from the point of view of anthropology. Asking the question ¿Por qué estamos como estamos?, they look more deeply into the nature of ethnicity in Guatemala. They consider the historic structures that have shaped it and how those structures took form. The sophisticated theory behind their argument is presented compactly and clearly (1:25 – 33). The authors seek to contribute to a new Guatemala in which ethnicity is profoundly examined and transparent.Volume 1 reviews the process by which the recognized cultural diversity at the time of independence (indigenous, ladino/mestizo, African, criollo, and foreigner) was converted into a binary system: indigenous and nonindigenous. Over the course of more than a century, this process reflected local interests under the influence of theories of assimilation, segregation, and social Darwinism, as well as the writings of Herbert Spen-cer, Gustave Le Bon, and La Raza Cósmica of José Vasconcelos. Volume 2, beginning with the fall of the last liberal dictator, Jorge Ubico, in 1944, shows the continuing grip of the indigenous/nonindigenous binary of ethnic thought in Guatemala. It amounted to a prejudice that repeatedly defeated assimilation and continued the effective segregation of Indians. Thus, though laws were occasionally passed to bring equality to the indigenous population, their reality remained unequal.At the time of independence, both Guatemala and Mexico featured pan-American creole patriotism in their concepts of nationalism. In other regards, their conceptions diverged. Eventually Mexico repudiated the idea that the conquest brought civilization to the country, while Guatemala did not. Rather, Guatemala sought to revive the Spanish colonial concept of the two republics, which would allow the elite to segregate and manage the Indians as inferiors requiring tutelage. A key concept in all this was “ladino,” applied to mixed-blood individuals who took on European culture and who were thus presumptively improved. Anyone curious why the term ladino is favored over mestizo in Guatemala will find this work to be a casebook on the subject. It reviews the stratagems used by politicians and intellectuals in every period and constitution. For instance, during the nineteenth century, it was argued that indigenous labor was more needed for coffee production than for military service, and purported fear of a caste war like that in Mexico provided an argument for keeping Indians out of the army and out of elections. That changed in 1903, when Manuel Estrada Cabrera gained a startling reelection victory by organizing Indians through his “clubes liberales” [1:195]. They had been recruited increasingly for the army since 1898 — thus acquiring full citizenship and voting rights.The narrative form of the work is supported effectively by informational charts that neatly present data (intellectual positions, dates, percentages) referred to in the narrative. These charts will be very useful for scholars who need to be refreshed on the facts but do not have easy access to appropriate reference works for Guatemalan history. The charts are sufficient in volume 1 and quite numerous in volume 2. For example, the appendix to volume 1 contains four comparative charts: “Diversidad étnica, ciudadanía y nación en Guatemala en los discursos intellectuales”; “Génesis de los Partidos Conservador y Liberal del Estado de Guatemala 1820 – 1830”; “Diversidad Etnica, Ciudadanía y Nación en Guatemala en los discursos intelectuales 1820 – 1851”; and “Ciudadanía y segregación étnica en las Leyes de Guatemala 1810 – 1934.”This is a work on diversity and multiculturalism in the current meaning of those terms. It is meant to attack both the ethnic status quo and status quo ante in Guatemala, showing that Indians have always been segregated, frequently by policies that proclaimed assimilation. Inevitably, historians will wonder if the volumes exhibit excessive pre-sentism. That factor seems to be well handled, in tone and in choice of sources. The work can serve as an important reference work on ethnicity. Thus, it is difficult to understand why it does not have an index. If it is reprinted, one of those major foundations should be asked to fund one. The bibliography is excellent and the footnotes well placed.