Protests And Riots - Blog Posts

After the Mayan Genocide

NO.1

 The disadvantages the Maya people face, during post-war Guatemala, are great. The issues of development and poverty in rural Mayan areas. They face a neo-liberal economy, where they are put into a situation where they have little to no power to control the conditions of their lives. The result is an acceptance of a condition where they cannot thrive. Guatemala, unfortunately, is a poor country where the poverty rate is 44-80%, because of unequal land and income distribution. A neo-liberal economy focuses mainly on the reduction of the government as a major employer, reduction of social safety nets, and the free market (laissez-faire) ideal. This will strengthen the economy by promoting business and bring money into the country through exporting.

    The supermarkets or groceries the Maya cater to influences what consumers desire, which can be personal desire, health, and making ends meet. But it is limited by what is available, giving ‘at least’ statements. ‘At least I can afford it; At least it is healthy’, etc. Those limit points are expressed, but they are rarely questioned or challenged. Mayan farmworkers grow broccoli independently, where you sometimes can get ripped off, you are asked to ‘hold product’, and sometimes you make ‘too much money.’ 15% of the broccoli is not purchased, so they take it back because it is a taboo, or (xajan) to waste food, but do not eat it. Non-traditional crops are grown in a non-traditional way, but all for a larger global market, for cash, not a substance or to cement social ties. There are also, health concerns as they use chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers. Most of the Mayan farmers understand the risks of exploration, cultural loss, and moral problems, such as the gossip you will receive from your neighbors, which is frowned upon. Most of the limit points here will be, ‘’At least we can still be farmers’, we can avoid wage labor or maquiladora work, we can still be family together, we can work the land and preserve some tradition, and we can grow our milpa as well as a cash crop.’’

NO.2

     Limit points are ‘at least’ statements that help us understand Mayan desires in a cultural setting, and that limit your desire or make your complacent to your position, and rely heavily on moral values. It is a balance between desires and capacity and helps us understand why the Mayan people would accept this work and helps us understand that their acceptance is not without hesitation. The limit points women most face is being hired by (Maquiladoras), or sweatshops that are owned by South Korean companies, are global divisions of labor that allow U.S cheap goods while U.S corporations to make money on designing and selling the goods, while South Korea benefits as a ‘middleman’. They import and export the pieces and assembled goods, all while under contract for U.S corporations.

    The maquiladoras will hire young female workers from rural areas under stressful and harsh working conditions, offer the workers pregnancy tests, give them limited time to talk to one another, and bathroom breaks, where often sexually assaulting them. Some at least statements or limit points will be at least it’s work and can make money; at least it’s not getting involved in gangs and prostitution; at least we are known for our good work, where we take pride in. By taking this work, and seeing their limit points, we can better understand how their culture works, as the escaping of gender roles, parental control, and access to free funds are something both American and Mayan young adults can sympathize with.

 NO. 3

The desires for better working conditions, higher pay, schools being built, and the helping of Mayan organizing in politics are present in every factory worker. A man names Alberto Simon isn’t against the factory per se, nor against capitalism or market economy but can see the benefits of factories going outside the community since the factory is less desirable than growing broccoli. A market economy might be seen as a competition between the people, so the Maya resist that while still engaging in a global competition. The situation of neo-liberal economies results in a situation of constant compromise, where they must accept a culture, who shuns them and gives them little power. Again, the limit points are put into an area where we see a value system, like hegemony.

Hegemony is ‘manufactures consent’, where a particular political ideology becomes embedded into a cultural model so as to seem natural, acceptable, and desired. It is the economic, social, cultural, and ideological influence and control by a dominant group over a subordinate group. One example of hegemony would be post-war violence. On June 10, 2002, thousands protested a new tax-reform measured $3000 to $45,000, so a march on municipal buildings and the mayors house took place. The protest was met by a phalanx of police unable to speak to anyone or negotiate, and when ‘someone’ throws a rock and breaks a window, the police responded with tear gas, and the protestors set the mayor’s house on fire. Protesting against political corruption, or any type of protest whether police brutality, gun reform, or abortion rights that somehow always ends with either violence or harsh criticism towards change, and is another unfortunate thing America shares with Guatemala.

NO. 4

  But hegemony also ‘’constrains in advance the kinds of objects that can and do appear within the horizon’’ [Butler 2000] But it happens between people, where it is negotiated, agreed upon, and accepted on the basis of limit points. It is more or less, symbolic violence, ‘the violence which is exercised upon a social agent within his/her social and economic landscape.’ During Post-War Guatemala, El General Rios Montt believed he was God’s choice to be President. Before the war was classified as an act of genocide, he returned as the presidential candidate and was supported by the Mayan people since he offered to pay them for civil patrol work. In 2003, there was a Rabinal campaign and he was sent packing. The Peace Accords of 1994 stopped the massacres, which ended the war, but ever since there has been a rise in crimes, kidnappings, and robberies. There have been drops in coffee prices and a resurgence of right-wing political activity.

A new tax-structure has been re-written, and a large collection of taxes is a part of the Peace Accords, where it is meant to improve accountability and transparency. And who is the local administrator? A Montt supporter. Large protests happen to challenge this, and it ends violently, where someone sets the mayor’s house on fire, shoots at him, and burns down the municipal building. The gangs also did this. Again, it is a symbolic form of an answer meant to shift the violence away from the ‘pueblo’, and a means to diffuse the violence so that no one takes responsibility. A ‘container’ for less personal forms of violence and social suffering. One limit point understood here is, ‘at least the gangs gave the mayor something to think about.’ The limit points are created and meant for people to accept less than desirable conditions. This is how hegemony works and can be accepted and registered, and by thinking that, ‘at least the mayor was willing to meet with us’, we preserve hegemony for the June 10th Riot. The meeting itself becomes the desire, not the outcome.