Writing the Indigenous: Contemporary Mayan Literature in Chiapas, Mexico and Palestinian Literature in Israel

Writing the Indigenous: Contemporary Mayan Literature in Chiapas, Mexico and Palestinian Literature in Israel Amal Eqeiq A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Cynthia Steele, Co-Chair Terri Lynn DeYoung, Co-Chair Monika Kaup Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Comparative Literature © Copyright 2013 Amal Eqeiq University of Washington Abstract Writing the Indigenous: Contemporary Mayan Literature in Chiapas, Mexico and Palestinian Literature in Israel Amal Eqeiq Chairs of Supervisory Committee: Professor Cynthia Steele, Department of Comparative Literature Associate Professor Terri Lynn DeYoung, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization This dissertation examines contemporary Mayan literature in Chiapas, Mexico (1983- 2010) and Palestinian literature in Israel (1976-2010). It performs an understudied comparison between the literary traditions of two indigenous minorities emerging from the Global South and the Fourth World. This comparison is situated within the historical context of the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica in 1519-1524 and the establishment of Israel in 1948 as a Jewish state. Both events have created a rupture in Mayan and Palestinian histories and geographies, respectively, thus leading to the minoritization of these indigenous peoples. I study the literature of these indigenous minorities within the context of a geography of destruction, and simultaneously, continuous dispossession and a history of “rebirth.” The overlapping histories of colonialism and nationalism, land struggle, as well as second-class citizenship, which manifests in exclusion, discrimination, racism and oppression of Mayans and Palestinians in the states of Mexico and Israel, respectively, are the grounds for comparison. While keeping in mind their different histories of minoritization and negotiation of indigenous citizenship in a socio- political reality of internal colonialism, this study seeks to understand how the literatures of these distinct groups articulate narratives and notions of indigeneity, difference, resistance, borders, hybridity, internal colonialism and contact zones, in order to identify the elements that inform the development of indigenous minority literature as ‘alternative texts’. Finally, this dissertation aims at contributing to the project of New Comparative Literature and World Literature. This conversation addresses an infrastructural problem and contribute to the project of New Comparative Literature, by creating a South-South dialogue between Middle Eastern and Latin American literatures, and thus foster communication among the immense heterogeneity of the subaltern cultures of the world. This dialogue also challenges the periphery-center binary that dominates paradigms of canonization in World Literature. To my parents, Table of Contents Acknowledgments i Prologue iv Introduction 1 Chapter I: Literary Histories and Genealogies: Roots and Routes of Minoritization 34 Chapter II: Anthropology, Folklore and Literature: Paths to Indigenous Cultural 74 Memory Chapter III: Tales from Fantastic Lands: Indigeneity, Ethnicity, Nationalism and 127 The Supernatural in Mayan and Palestinian Literature Chapter IV: She Dwells on The Border: Indigenous Women Writing 167 Conclusions 237 Works Consulted 256 Acknowledgments First of all, I wish to mention with deep gratitude my committee members who, in addition to reading and helping me with various drafts of this dissertation, are my mentors. I am thankful to Professor Cynthia Steele for teaching me about committed scholarship and rigorous research standards. She has always sustained my passion for indigenous studies, feminism, and keen interest in the peoples and cultures of Mexico and Latin America. I am also deeply grateful for Professor Terri DeYoung for her kind support, ongoing encouragement, constant reminders about the importance of textual studies and close reading, and the ethical significance of studying and teaching classical and modern Arabic history and culture in the US. I was also fortunate to work with Professor Monika Kaup, who has taught me not to fear theory. Professor Kaup has been instrumental in helping me conceptualize the theoretical apparatus of this dissertation. From her, I learned to think critically without falling into the trap of discursive moves, or thinking in paradigms that are “trendy, but not true.” I also wish to acknowledge Professor Michelle Habell-Pallan for reminding me to take care of myself, and for teaching me about the significane of embracing critical intimacy in academic research and scholarship. All shortcomings in this dissertation are mine. Special thanks to the graduate student advisers and the administrative staff at the Department of Comparative Literature: Professor Leroy Searle and Yuko Mera have been a vital source of tremendous help, valuable advice, and constant support. Thank you for picking me up, when I fell down. Tamara Cooper and Marcia Feinstein-Tobey always welcomed me into their offices with a generous smile. Second, the completion of this degree would not have been possible without the generous funding of the Department of Comparative Literature, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, the Middle East Center, The Simpson Center for the Humanities, The Modern Languages Quarterly Travel Award, and the Chester Fritz Scholarship for International Study, all at the University of Washington. I would also like to thank the Arabic Language Academy in Haifa, Israel/Palestine, for a grant to study Palestinian literature, and the Association of American University Women for an International Dissertation Fellowship that made it possible for me to take time off from teaching to focus on writing. I would also like to acknowledge the Al-Qasemi Academy of Arabic Language and Literature in Al-Qasemi College in Baqa Al-Gharbiya, Israel/Palestine for moral support during my writing and the sharing of their academic resources. Third, I am thankful for the Palestinian writers who shared their work and insight with me: alm n t r, ahd b hadrah, ays n sad , im. Grateful acknowledgment is also due the Mayan writers and artists in Chiapas who believed in this project and shared their personal stories and valuable input about literature, politics, aesthetics and history. I hope that this dissertation does justice to the incredible work that they have been doing since the 1980s to further contemporary Mayan literature in Chiapas and beyond. Of special mention here are FOMMA, Sna Jtz’ibajom and CELALI. I also thank Carlota Duarte, Ambar Past, and Jesús Morales Bermúdez for taking the time to meet me in San Cristóbal to provide a better understanding of the contemporary history of Mayan literary and cultural production in Chiapas. Carlota Duarte and Ambar Past also provided valuable input through their electronic correspondence. i Moreover, I would like to emphasize that it takes a village to write a dissertation. In my case, I have been fortunate to be surrounded with the love and support of various intellectual communities, families and friends. My dissertation village is scattered around the world. In Seattle, I benefited from the intellectual camaraderie of my colleagues in the Department of Comparative Literature, especially Jacinthe Assaad, Nobuko Yamasaki, Nathaniel Greenberg, Sima Daad, Cuate Mexica, Will Arighi, Juan Pablo DiCesare, Tavid Mulder, Andrea Schmidt, Virginia Agostinelli, Milan Vidakovic and Lin Chen. I was fortunate to be a member of different research clusters and graduate student interest groups on campus that were co-sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities: Performing the Gap, Dangerous Subjects, and Indigenous Encounters. I thank my colleagues in these groups for their critiques, support, and intellectual contributions: Raj Chetty, Anjali Vats, Brian Gutierrez, Marisa Duarte, Miranda Berlade- Lewis, and Professor Tony Lucero. In Eugene, where I completed a Master in Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon in 2006, I benefited from the intellectual mentorship of Professors Analisa Taylor, Stephanie Wood, Carlos Aguirre, Linda Kintz, David Vasquez, and Pedro Caro. This dissertation continues some of the conversations that I had with them about borderlands, Chicano/a Studies, Mexican and Latin American literatures. In Eugene, I have also been blessed with the intellectual companionship and sisterhood of Lillian Darwin-Lópe . I am very grateful to Lillian’s intelligent comments. Her cheerful presence and commitment to justice have inspired me since our first meeting in a Comparative Literature theory course in Fall 2004. Very special thanks to my inspirational cohort of feminist scholars, activists, and sisters: Alaa Yousef, Yasmine Bouagga, Lillian Abou-Tabickh, Dima Ayoub, Therese Saliba, Hasnah Toran, Rana Barakat, Jen Marlowe, Wendy Call, Sarah Guthu, Hala Dillsi, Sohaira Siddiqui, Adile Aslan, Asun López-Varela, Heba Baloum, Samar Gbara, Yumna Shehadeh, Khadija Al Rafeea, Nadia Massarweh, Enas Haj Yehya, Zakiya Asali, Safa Hamed, Helen Qasem, Lenna Odeh, Gretchen Grad, Rhoda Kanaaneh, Isis Nusair, Nada Elia, Nancy Cruz Dávila, Mercy Verdugo, and Adela (Munira) Bonilia Vidal. Despite the fact that most of them do not live in Seattle, they always offered moral support, wisdom, and sisterhood regardless of the time difference. I was also lucky to be pampered by three gracious mothers in Eugene, Camano Island, and Washington D.C. Jeanne Henriksen,

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