Por que estomos estamos? (Why are we the way we are?)

November 2

Por que estomos estamos? Exhibit, Guatemala City

Morning breakfast Cristian  took us to his favourite couple's daily eatery La Casa de los Melazas with beans, scrambled eggs and boiled plantain. From there we took a 30 minute walk to the interactive exhibit Exposcion Interactiva: Por que estomos estamos? (Why are we the way we are?) located beside rail road station museum. Collaborated with  Por una convivencia digna/ International Training Institute for Social Reconciliation and Centro de investigacianes negionales de mesoamerica, the original content was a research paper found to be so important the content needed to be shared. It is important to be shared in order to help locals open up about their trauma, and to understand how their history has continued with the outward prejudism and discrimination that has led to so much violence and segregation. 

"How do you feel when they tell you..." Uncovering the predjudices

Our guide  took us through the journey of  how outwardly Guatemalan social structures are visually discriminate based on appearance and dress. For example, from pigment of skin colour to clothing, a female dressed in more traditional clothing may not be permitted to enter a service or entertainment establishment on the basis on her appearance in assumption that she is just a maria, a domestic housewife, while in  one case in particular, she was highly educated.  If she was wearing more modern cloths at the time she may have been granted access.  Even though most of the population is 'native' Guatemalan, there continues to be a huge disparity control that has not faltered since the  500 years of Spanish conquistadors' divide and conquer. Our guide further explains how throughout history, the government and other forces have gained control and  power over groups through this empty racist and discriminatory justifications. That is why still today, if you are deemed indigenous you automatically earn less,  indigenous women even less, and black women even worse than that. Worst of all, this has not changed for decades, with only 4% access to health care.

Hop on the "chicken bus" and see the clash of classes

We further toured through the historical aspect of why we are who we are. Like so many other countries the effects of colonization and the drawing of political borders has destroyed past cultural cooperation and understanding. The process of colonization has also detrimentally effected the acceptance of diversity of Guatemalans. For there are over 23 distinct cultures and languages for centuries, but since Spanish was introduced, services on the other languages and cultures have been refused excluded in social serves as health care and education, and thus continuing to impoverish these groups. 

"Worldwide there are groups who suffer discrimination and racism", including Canadian First Nations

Furthermore, from the amount of censorship, Guatemalans only really have access to one narrative of official history. This, like it has for Canadians has dramatically affected our perceptions and prejudices of certain groups. In these cases the first nations and indigenous' narratives have been misinterpreted and misjudged by the ignorance of the past who called their ways of life savage. For the Spanish minority had created and enforced new laws separating and segregating groups of peoples into a vastly unequal hierarchy, and yet over 500 years later these laws and social segregation continues to go unchanged  and highly controlled, similar to the very reason there is still no fresh water  in the country because Coca-Cola controls their water industry. It has gotten to the point where native heritage has been treated so negatively  throughout history that when someone identifies as a Ladino expressing " I am Ladino because I am not indigenous".

"Where indigenous peoples lived when the Spanish arrived"

 The past most definitely continues to impact the present and future. Even from the original Missions that came to the country,  had the presumption that if you were darker skinned you were closer to Hell, which then led to the passing of the laws which did not allow the indigenous groups to own tools or weapons, land and other necessities of progressive life, leaving them vulnerable, underdevelopment, to helplessness. No wonder there have been so many guerilla groups and freedom fighters .

Seen during the Industrial Revolution,  the governments had pushed for more European overseas migrants so to blend the races to get a 'purer', 'whiter' race of peoples. 

"The colony left us a society which it values people by their origin and colour"

This all the while, passing laws and propaganda for the blacks and indigenous to work the migrants property, and giving them very little opportunity to fully develop their potential. And even since the Civil War (1960-1996), where the mass killings had taken place, their governments have limited the freedom of speech and social setting have not allowed them to talk about it; a part of contemporary history highly censored, that so many do not know about. From this lack of communication that revolves around the now embedded fear, distrust and corruption, today's circle of violence and abuse continues on beyond the '96 Peace Accord.

Second from the bottom: Castas people given the name translated "I don't understand you"

Indeed, the violence has not stopped. Femicide, the targeted murder of the female sex, is at its high. As it was and is practised in this strict patriarchal structure, Guatemalan women are placed in a protective sphere by the males of the families, but also within this repressive structure, women and their bodies are placed in the line of fire against male family members by perpetrators, continuing a cycle of abuse, gender-based violence and impunity (Sanford 2008: 71) . Testimonios of the majority of the violations towards women depict no regard for the suffering of their own bodies, instead their concern is for their fathers, spouses, and sons. Women have suffered similar oppression as men; the difference, according to Paredes (2006: 49), is that Maya and Ladino women are not owners of their bodies. Anthropologist Lévi-Strauss states that women are the community's “goods” and as such they are subject to use and changes. (Silva, 2007, 88). The violence against women has perpetuated from the  from the machismo gender role prevalent in Latin American; a male stereotype that is characterized or recognizable as a form of “male pride that combines courage…with an aggressive maleness that may also take the prestigious form of the successful pursuit of women, while other characteristics include drunkenness, individualness, and competitiveness (Hardin 2002: 2). In fact, these characteristics of machismo are traits or remnants left over by the Spanish, as a product of the conquest (Hardin 2002: 3). The Spanish were known throughout Europe to use sexual forms of violence as forms of terror against those they sought to intimidate and conquer. 

"Inequality is the desire to see a great world in which one cannot enter"

The coinciding ideas for women,  marianismo include those of feminine passivity and sexual purity, are which are taught through society to remain dependent, and holding these women vulnerable, and very limited to stand up for themselves, be paid equally, and treated equally in society. These traits continue to be seem and dominated around the world, and as long as it continues to be reinforced and perpetuated, you will continue to see such violence, rape and disrespect between men and women. The circle of violence continues through our pressures and acceptance of these gender specific roles, of which we are all held accountable.  I will leave you with some final reminders  our guide reminded the audience of how to address these problems as a society:  to start early/young, start questioning why and how we are who we are, and until you get answers, learn the history so you can better present yourself and your understanding. For we cannot gain peace as an individual until we can as a whole.