Just a few Reflections

I immensely enjoyed the reading for this week. I liked the detail it provided into Guatemalan life as well as the clear explanations and even pictures presented to try and immerse the reader in Mayan culture and tradition. Like Rachel, I found myself admiring many aspects of the Guatemalan way of life, and through visiting other countries have asked myself the same question as she: Who is better off? Fully modernized, work obsessed Americans, or smaller, simpler communities and people? Although it seems like the easy way out, in my opinion this question cannot be answered. There are good and bad things about both cultures and instead of focusing on who does it better, I believe that it would be more beneficial to recognize and appreciate that we can learn something from each other.

For me, this was the traditional approach to marriage. To make something clear: I am not saying that I would like to have my parents arrange my marriage or have my family be bribed by gifts without me even present. However, I do think there is something Americans could learn from the part where “elders impart their views on marriage and entreat the couple to live up to their expectations” (16). In response the “youths are expected to critically review their lives” (16). I have never heard of anything like this before but when I read about how the elderly try and make a couple think about why they want to be married and what kind of commitment they should expect, I thought it was a clever idea. In the United States, where over fifty percent of couples get divorced, I believe this period of analysis and critique of our lives is lost before getting married. I feel that sometimes couples rush into a marriage without fully understanding what it entails. If however, we took into consideration the emphasis Mayans place on listening to the elderly about marriage before they actually agree to it, maybe not as many children would find themselves living with only one parent.

Just as we can learn from the Mayans however, they too could probably learn something from the United States. Like Alexandria and Emily suggested, modernization could be a key aspect to bridging the gap of inequality and helping reduce poverty in Guatemala. Development is obviously a sensitive subject however, and just like our discussions in class have not really led us to a clear cut answer, it is interesting to consider the best way to help Guatemala modernize.

Another part of the reading that jumped out at me was the discussion of ladinos and how they seemingly look down on the indigenous people for not having “pure blood”. I agree with Karen completely in that the ladinos are being so hypocritical considering they are the ones with immigrant heritage. Another related point in this section was how the Guatemalan government uses the country’s Maya heritage to set them apart on a global level. As the author so nicely states, the activists for Mayan preservation “see this as the worst sort of hypocrisy: racists promoting stereotypical images to the world to enrich themselves by maintaining a system of oppression of Maya peoples” (30). I too find this very disturbing, seeing as they are trying to publicize their country for reasons that they secretly oppress. Indeed it is interesting to consider what the world would think if they fully understood this hypocrisy.