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The Blood of Guatemala
A History of Race and Nation
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eBook - PDF
The Blood of Guatemala
A History of Race and Nation
About this book
Over the latter half of the twentieth century, the Guatemalan state slaughtered more than two hundred thousand of its citizens. In the wake of this violence, a vibrant pan-Mayan movement has emerged, one that is challenging Ladino (non-indigenous) notions of citizenship and national identity. In The Blood of Guatemala Greg Grandin locates the origins of this ethnic resurgence within the social processes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century state formation rather than in the ruins of the national project of recent decades.
Focusing on Mayan elites in the community of Quetzaltenango, Grandin shows how their efforts to maintain authority over the indigenous population and secure political power in relation to non-Indians played a crucial role in the formation of the Guatemalan nation. To explore the close connection between nationalism, state power, ethnic identity, and political violence, Grandin draws on sources as diverse as photographs, public rituals, oral testimony, literature, and a collection of previously untapped documents written during the nineteenth century. He explains how the cultural anxiety brought about by Guatemala's transition to coffee capitalism during this period led Mayan patriarchs to develop understandings of race and nation that were contrary to Ladino notions of assimilation and progress. This alternative national vision, however, could not take hold in a country plagued by class and ethnic divisions. In the years prior to the 1954 coup, class conflict became impossible to contain as the elites violently opposed land claims made by indigenous peasants.
This "history of power" reconsiders the way scholars understand the history of Guatemala and will be relevant to those studying nation building and indigenous communities across Latin America.
Focusing on Mayan elites in the community of Quetzaltenango, Grandin shows how their efforts to maintain authority over the indigenous population and secure political power in relation to non-Indians played a crucial role in the formation of the Guatemalan nation. To explore the close connection between nationalism, state power, ethnic identity, and political violence, Grandin draws on sources as diverse as photographs, public rituals, oral testimony, literature, and a collection of previously untapped documents written during the nineteenth century. He explains how the cultural anxiety brought about by Guatemala's transition to coffee capitalism during this period led Mayan patriarchs to develop understandings of race and nation that were contrary to Ladino notions of assimilation and progress. This alternative national vision, however, could not take hold in a country plagued by class and ethnic divisions. In the years prior to the 1954 coup, class conflict became impossible to contain as the elites violently opposed land claims made by indigenous peasants.
This "history of power" reconsiders the way scholars understand the history of Guatemala and will be relevant to those studying nation building and indigenous communities across Latin America.
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Yes, you can access The Blood of Guatemala by Greg Grandin, Walter D. Mignolo, Sonia Saldívar-Hull, Irene Silverblatt, Walter D. Mignolo,Sonia Saldívar-Hull,Irene Silverblatt in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Latin American & Caribbean History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Publisher
Duke University Press BooksYear
2000Print ISBN
9780822324959, 9780822324584eBook ISBN
978082238033730
The
Blood
of
Guatemala
5.
Plaza
of
Quetzaltenango,
1875.
Photograph
by
Eadweard
Muybridge,
courtesy
of
the
Boston
Athenaeum.
centered
around
weekly
or
twice-weekly
village
market
days
and,
like
the
larger
wholesale
trade,
took
advantage
of
the
Catholic
liturgical
calendar
to
trade
during
fairs
and
fiestas.
At
the
beginning
of
the
nineteenth
century,
visitors
to
the
city
gushed
at
what
was
described
as
the
most
bustling
plaza
second
to
Guatemala
City,
stocked
with
a
variety
of
goods
reflecting
the
ecological
diversity
of
western
Guatemala.
≤≠
From
the
Pa-
cific
lowlands,
Indians
brought
fish,
citrus,
cacao,
salt,
cotton,
cattle,
panela
(residue
produced
from
the
milling
of
cane),
and
sugar.
Corn,
which
on
the
coast
had
two
annual
growing
cycles,
supplemented
the
highlands’
single
harvest.
K’iche ’s
from
the
town
of
Zunil,
which
strad-
dled
the
coast
and
the
highlands,
traded
cotton,
sugar
products,
and
citrus
in
exchange
for
wheat
and
livestock.
Communities
populating
the
Quet-
zaltenango
and
Totonicapán
valleys
traded
pigs,
poultry,
wheat,
corn,
vegetables,
beans,
and
fruits.
Northwest
of
the
valley,
Mam
communities
raised
livestock
and
traded
corn
and
limestone
(used
in
the
making
of
cornmeal
for
tortillas
and
tamales,
as
well
as
in
construction).
Cantel,
with
its
large
reserves
of
pine
and
fertile
soil
traded
wood
for
fuel,
Table of contents
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Searching for the Living among the Dead
- Prelude: A World Put Right, 31 March 1840
- 1. The Greatest Indian City in the World: Caste, Gender, and Politics, 1750–1821
- 2. Defending the Pueblo: Popular Protests and Elite Politics, 1786–1826
- 3. A Pestilent Nationalism: The 1837 Cholera Epidemic Reconsidered
- 4. A House with Two Masters: Carrera and the Restored Republic of Indians
- 5. Principales to Patrones, Macehuales to Mozos: Land, Labor, and the Commodification of Community
- 6. Regenerating the Race: Race, Class, and the Nationalization of Ethnicity
- 7. Time and Space among the Maya: Mayan Modernism and the Transformation of the City
- 8. The Blood of Guatemalans: Class Struggle and the Death of K’iche ’ Nationalism
- Conclusions: The Limits of Nation, 1954–1999
- Epilogue: The Living among the Dead
- Appendix 1 Names and Places
- Appendix 2 Glossary
- Notes
- Works cited
- Index