«Esas son leyendas». A Rhizome Approach to the Representation of Indigeneity in Guatemalan Cinema

• In Event: ¿Un cine interrogante?: Film, hegemonic cultural discourse and visions of (making and remaking of) indigeneity

Abstract

Considered the first Guatemalan film El Sombrerón (1950) directed by Guillermo Andreu Corzo tells the story of the mythical long-mustache male who wears the large sombrero that names him. The story is mostly narrated by the town priest and is filled with characters like Ciriaco, Macario, and others who are framed as indigenous: the males wear white clothes and hay hats, while the women don dresses instead of the traditional corte and güipil (skirt and shirt), largely resembling the stereotypes of the indigenous-campesino in Mexican cinema of the time period. Fifty-five years later, the film Ixcanul (2015) directed by Jairo Bustamante made waves with its verisimilar representation of indigenous life with its inclusion of a Mayan language, actors, and actresses. Have representations of indigeneity changed in this time period? I approach a set of Guatemalan films where indigenous characters appear mobilizing Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the rhizome. According to them, “any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be” (Deleuze and Guattari 7). Connecting representations of indigeneity across different time periods, cultural objects, etc. allows the tracing of representations of how indigeneity has been portrayed whether it is misrepresented, underrepresented or absent?

Author

• Arno J Argueta, California State University, Bakersfield