Truth, Lies, and Consequences

I have a confession to make. Only in recent years did I understand that Mayans are still living in the Americas. I thought they died away from the Spanish conquest. Here in Guatemala, and in the former areas of Guatemalan land, Belize, Chiapas, Mexico, and Quintana Roo, Mexico (where Cancun and Cozumel have been built up for Western tourists), Mayan nations are very much alive.

In Guatemala, there are 24 Mayan nations, each with its own unique language. The ladinos and the government powers, along with our own government, tried to wipe them out back in the 80s, but they survived. They are the underclass of society here, the people of color, the former slaves.

I have a lot, a whole world of a lot to learn, don´t I? For instance, our government said that the guerilla of Guatemala´s 36 year armed rebellion were communists. That is a completely constructed lie. The guerilla were mostly indigenous people, Mayans, struggling for civil rights, using the ideology of freedom and democracy. But, because their autonomy and human rights would endanger our government´s control over the capitalist interests of our country, the label of communism was quite convenient for controlling popular sentiment, including Reagan´s defeat of the Democrats, and the long decades of truly evil and covert military tactics.

Anyone recall Iran-Contra, Oliver North, drugs for guns, arms for hostages? El Salvador was the main victim in that scandal, but it is very similar to the story here in Guatemala. A pervasive McCarthyism, built and strengthened with great intentionality, continues this lie to this very day. I think maybe I am not alone in this miseducation about my neighbors in Central America. I am a product of an organized educational system that taught me what it wanted me to know, not necessarily the truth and the whole truth, so help me Tecún Umán.