Rigoberta Menchú and the Guatemalan Presidential Elections

This article on why Mayan, indigenous human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize and presidential candidate Rigoberta Menchú finished 6th out of 12 in the Guatemalan election (garnering 3% of the total vote) is fascinating. It gets into traditional political reasons why she fared relatively poorly (it was her first time running, she’s never been a candidate for anything before, etc). However, what’s of real worth in the article are the reasons for her low performance based on politics of identity, gender, and race.

Many people tend to assume that “Mayans” are one culture, one people, one language, unified in the way that the Incas or the Nahua (of which the Aztecs were but a part) were. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although Spaniards who tried to enter the Yucatan and Central America in the 16th and 17th centuries often described the Mayan “empire” (based, in part, on the massive constructions at places like Chichen Itza and Copan), they Mayans were never unified. They have remained, through the centuries, very loosely bound linguistically, and there hasn’t been the level of political unity and organization that could constitute an “empire”. This isn’t to say the Mayans have ever lacked political organizational skills – they simply weren’t a broad, unified group that covered lots of territory in a single ruling entity. This is pretty common knowledge to those who study Latin America, yet the broader misperception persists, despite the Mayans in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador having very different dialects and even languages, cultural practices, and political organzation and beliefs.

The article does a great job in making clear the diversity within the ethnically Mayan groups, whether it’s distinguishing the linguistic variations from one tribe to another; bringing up how gender norms and the patriarchal system in many Mayan communities, particularly among the elderly, may have worked against her; or discussing how Menchú is seen as an outsider despite being Mayan, simply because she has tended to be more involved in the international human rights movement, travelling often, than staying in Guatemala in her community.

I agree with the article’s assessment that, should she choose to run in 2011, she may have a better chance, simply because she’ll have more experience and knows better what she needs to do (though I find the article’s mentioning of the Mayan Calendar’s prediction for something amazing in 2012 to be a little….colonialist – in the sense of “ah, those indigenous traditions” – it’s not intentional perhaps, but if you’re going to mention some central aspect of their cultural beliefs, why include that one?). Still, it’s a good article that does a fine job dissecting why she may have only gotten 3% in a country that’s officially 40% indigenous.