Guatemala: Settler Colonial Relations, Displacement and Survival

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

From an interdisciplinary and transborder framework, this panel explores the ways the ongoing legacies of settler colonial relations in Guatemala shape the lives of Mayas living in that nation and the diaspora. The first paper invites us to consider how settler colonial relations are reinforced both at home and abroad by complicating the collective historical memory of the Guatemalan Democratic Spring and the ways it failed to recognize Maya territorial rights. The three papers that follow further the discussion by considering how these ongoing legacies have continued to forcefully displace Mayas from their territories to the United States. These papers particularly highlight the varied survival strategies employed in the diaspora by Maya migrants as well as their children.

Sub Track

• Latin America and the Pacific Rim

Session Organizer

• Alicia Ivonne Estrada, California State University/Northridge

Chair

• Julie A Gibbings, University of Manitoba

Individual Presentations

• Guatemalan anti-colonial struggle in Palestine: contradictions of Guatemala’s Democratic Spring - Kevin A Gould, Concordia University

• YouTubing Maya Rock: B’itzma Sobrevivencia’s Aural Memory of Survival - Alicia Ivonne Estrada, California State University/Northridge

• Disparate Pathways of the Guatemalan Diaspora: Second Generation K’iche’ Maya Youth - Patricia Foxen, UnidosUS

• Dying to Belong: Counter-narratives of US Central American Patriotism, Inclusion, and Corporeality - Yajaira M Padilla, University of Arkansas/Fayetteville