History of Guatemala

Guatemala doesn’t really start until 1523. This year dates the time the spanish adventurer Pedro de Alvarado defeats the indigenous Maya and turns Guatemala into a Spanish colony. Due to earthquakes, the capital was never really made until 1776 at Guatemala City. From 1524 to 1821, Guatemala was the center of government for the captaincy general. It was an agricultural and pastoral area where Amerindian labor served a colonial landed aristocracy. The social life was dictated by the Roman Catholic’s religion & education. The appearance of spanish institutions invading on the village’s life & customs led to the production of a hybrid culture. The general gained independence from Spain in 1821. Some time after this event in 1824, Guatemala…

Plan of investigation/Identification and evaluation of sources The question that this investigation will focus on is “What were the causes of the Guatemalan Civil War?”, while also analyzing to what extent did each of these issues affect Guatemala and its outcome after the war as a whole. Although guatemala had many detailed points of conflict, This question is significant, in that it is necessary in understanding the fundamental detailed internal conflict that led to the eventual outcome…

In analysing the usefulness of these theories in explaining the case of Guatemala, history and socioeconomic contexts prior to and during the development process is worth observing. The United States’ political and economic interests on the Latin American region was officially expressed with the articulation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 (Gilderhus, 2008: 5). The doctrine mainly served as a declaration of political independence of the American Continent from European colonial powers, yet the…

presentation on Transnational Ruptures in a Time of Impunity. Dr. Nolin is an associate professor and chair at the University of Northern British Columbia. She is also a social geographer with two broad areas or research interest: migration studies and justice in Guatemala. Nolin has received various prestigious awards, most recent one being the 2007 UNBC Excellence in Teaching Award Recipient. She organized a trip to Guatemala with graduate students to document the violent development of…

Guatemala Guatemala is a Central American country south of Mexico, it is known for its steep volcanoes, ancient Mayan cities and vast rainforests. It is a national place of religion, culture and ethnology. Guatemala has a rich and distinctive culture from the many mixes of elements from Spain and the native Maya people. Their pre-columbian history, and many beauties of the land show a lot about their country. Guatemalan art is usually a mix of traditional styles with the Spanish and Catholic…

J. Alex Gutierrez Human Rights in Latin America October 19, 2015 Granito documentary Mayans Suffering Guatemala has gone through a lot of suffering in the past and it is still striving to recover. Pamela Yates, narrates about the struggles along with the help of others including Rigoberta Menchu. Granito is a documentary and more than that is a living testimony of the injustice that exists in our countries, in this case Guatemala. After watching the documentary of Granito how to capture a…

Nicaragua has a similar history but has had external foreign involvement that aided in the establishment of dictators and the political elite. Nicaragua gained its independence from Spain in 1821 and was subsumed into the first Mexican Empire until 1823. In 1823 Nicaragua joined the Federal Republic of Central America until it gained its sovereign independence in 1838. Previous to that time most of Nicaragua’s indigenous population was decimated except the Miskito Indians that later mixed with…

The Importance of Historical Memory Through Rigoberta Menchu’s testimony in I, Rigoberta Menchu, Menchu was able to shed light on many injustices, cultural traditions, and the overall daily life of a Mayan Indian in Guatemala. For the most part, Menchu gives readers an idea of what it was like to live in the Altiplano, a mountainous region in Guatemala, as well as the traditions many had to follow for their rite of passage. In doing so, Menchu gives readers context behind her decisions,…

Sanford provides an appreciated examination with her book Buried Secrets on the violence that overwhelmed Guatemala from the late 1970s through the 80s and in the early 90s. As a forensic anthropologist doing her work in Guatemala after the stir of the civil war, she unearthed many of the fatalities that the government would have preferred to have kept hidden from the world. Violence is something everyone would like to keep hidden despite how wrong it really is. Her work, includes numerous…

In contemporary Guatemala, many of those who identify as Mayan or have Mayan ancestry remain touched by the chaotic and bloody rule of General José Efraín Ríos Montt in the early 1980’s. His regime is noted to be the most violent in Guatemala’s already tumultuous history. The recent history of Guatemala included a relatively short democratic break, followed by multiple coups, dictatorships, and military-run governments. The cumulating rising tensions of the Mayan people equally endured the…