Diálogo

Volume 13 Number 1 Article 13

2010

Transnational Ties: Weaving Communities Between and Chicago

Susana S. Martínez

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Recommended Citation Martínez, Susana S. (2010) "Transnational Ties: Weaving Communities Between Guatemala and Chicago," Diálogo: Vol. 13 : No. 1 , Article 13. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo/vol13/iss1/13

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Latino Research at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in Diálogo by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Transnational Ties: Weaving Communities Between Guatemala and Chicago

Cover Page Footnote This article is from an earlier iteration of Diálogo which had the subtitle "A Bilingual Journal." The publication is now titled "Diálogo: An Interdisciplinary Studies Journal."

This article is available in Diálogo: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo/vol13/iss1/13 TRANSNATIONAL TIES: WEAVING COMMUN TIES BETWEEN GUATEMALA AND Chicago

IN MEMORY OF FAUSTO LEONEL OTZlN POYON, 32 YEARS OLD, HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER BRUTALLY KILLED IN CHIMALTENANGO, OCTOBER 2009 and RODOLFO GANDARA. Susana S. Martinez

DePaul University Vicenta Sepet weaving. Xetonox, Guatemala

Not surprisingly, contact with the indigenous population during summer visits with my mother’s side of the family was limited to Guatemala is a strikingly beautiful country with a complex touring the bygone splendor of archaeological sites such as history and a troubling present. If you believe in cataclysmic , Quirigua and or being served by their live in maids. predictions based on the Mayan calendar or subscribe to daily Perhaps that is why I felt overwhelmed by the testimony of Google alerts on Guatemala, you might be understandably hesitant Rigoberta Menchu in graduate school and wrote a dissertation on about visiting. Novertheless, I enthusiastically encourage you to this Latin American genre that denounces the history of inequity venture out and experience the rich cultural heritage of the Land and racism I was oblivious to as a child visiting Guatemala. of Eternal Spring for yourself. On my visits to Guatemala in later years I’d discuss Menchu’s I first traveled to Guatemala as a child because my mother is from account with my relatives but I was often surprised and Zacapa, an arid area in the eastern part of the country where disappointed by their negative reactions to this Maya activist and people have a reputation for being hot tempered. My mother Nobel Peace laureate. Their comments and racist jokes about her emigrated to Los Angeles when she was very young and met and annoyed me but I’d often voice my disapproval more strongly in married my Mexican father. Two of her sisters have lived in the pages of my journal than openly debate my loving hosts. I for decades and I always loved visiting my relatives struggled to understand why my family, like many other Ladinos there during summer vacations. I delighted in my extended of their socioeconomic standing reacted this way towards family’s warm hospitality and numerous stories, especially their indigenous peoples. Victoria Sanford explains the hostility this vivid accounts of growing up by the Motagua river and surviving way: “By asserting the political consciousness, self-expression, and the devastating 7.5 earthquake of February 1976. I enjoyed political action of Maya women, Menchu challenged official wandering around the central market stalls in downtown Zone 1 histories of Guatemala and romantic representations of Maya and taking boat rides on Lake Amatitlán during weekends at the women, which, each in distinct ways, negated the dynamic and family chalet just outside the capital. Later when my relatives varied political responses of Maya women to Guatemalan state abandoned Catholicism and became born again Pentecostals, I violence ... Rigoberta came to represent the antithesis of happily attended the raucous evangelical worship services filled stereotypes in the world community as silent, traditional, static, with heartfelt singing and dramatic testimonies of conversion and without politics, and without agency. Indeed, in I, Rigoberta and salvation. I also recall my family talking about la situación but it in her life, Rigoberta demanded recognition of Maya women as was only years later when I began to study Latin American more than pawns of political processes designed and led by others. literature and history that I came to understand that la situación Rigoberta obliged the world to recognize Maya women as agents of and la Violencia were code words for a bloody civil war that lasted their own history whose participation in political movements thirty six years, left 200,000 civilians dead and 50,000 people shaped those very movements regardless of their initial catalyst” missing (Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico 1999). Over the (2003: 51). My questions about Ladino identity and Maya ethnicity years, each visit to Guatemala has been more enlightening yet also led me to study the human rights abuses and politicized violence disconcerting as I acquired a better understanding of the that took place during the civil war. After the signing of the peace socioeconomic realities outside the protection of my family accords in 1996, the Truth Commission reports revealed the horror environment. that indigenous communities endured in the highlands and U.S. involvement in the atrocities. In March 1999 after the independent The reading group opened a space for dialogue where people with Historical Clarification Commission published its findings, diverse personal, political and professional ties to Guatemala President Bill Clinton issued a long overdue apology: “It is shared their experiences and opinions. For me personally it important that I state clearly that support for military forces or represented a shared space in which to reflect on my multiple roles intelligence units which engaged in violent and widespread of participant observer, teacher and socially engaged researcher. repression of the kind described in the report was wrong. And the This gathering of individuals who were critical of U.S. involvement must not repeat that mistake. We must and we will in Central America and deeply concerned about those on the instead continue to support the peace and reconciliation process in margins also voiced the danger of romanticizing the Maya or

Guatemala.” Menchú's testimony and the hundreds of other first limiting oneself to an attraction towards difference represented in person accounts challenge the reader and visitor to listen actively the intricately woven huipiles and cortes worn by Mayan women. to their lived experience and confront the terror with thoughtful reflection.1 Fortunately the opportunity to delve deeper into the issues of representation and commodification arose when I was invited to Since joining the faculty at DePaul, I’ve been fortunate to teach participate in the tenth anniversary journey to Guatemala with courses on Latin American testimonies and Central American Maya Works, a non profit fair trade organization that creates a literature. The themes of gendered and politicized violence marketplace for an array of products (January 27-February 5, abound in this body of literature, as does the call for social justice 2006). I was asked to translate and lead reflections for the group. and standing in solidarity with the poor that is central to the We visited the communities of the artisans, entered their homes to university’s Catholic and Vincentian mission. After receiving a hear their stories, visited the schools where their daughters receive research fellowship from the Center for Latino Research I traveled scholarships, and listened to the impact that selling their weavings to Guatemala in 2005 for academic reasons. I knew that in order to through Maya Works has had on their lives and the economic research visual and textual representations of the Maya I’d have to development of their families. Of all the experiences we had on venture out of my family’s gated community. I spent a few days this journey, two particular moments stand out for me even after reuniting with my relatives and then began my trek to what I all these years. The first was standing in front of the cemetery to considered “the real Guatemala.” My first stop was the colonial witness the mural in San Juan Comalapa and listening to the city of Antigua. This city, just a quick ride from the capital, has detailed, insightful views of the human rights attorney Fausto become a “must see” for tourists because of its picturesque ruins, Otzin. I took copious notes of his explanation of Maya cobblestone streets lined with trendy shops and bars and well cosmovision and the belief that everything is sacred. He stocked bookstores - quite a comfortable way to get a glimpse of highlighted that Abuela Ixchel interweaves our lives while “reality.” As authentically Guatemalan as I felt in my heart, I relied explaining the weaving process on backstrap looms, stressing that on my Lonely Planet guidebook like all the other tourists and there weaving is part of life and that every community has a backpacked around the villages surrounding Lake Atitlan, hiked up unique traje with original designs and colors. Clearly these designs the Pacaya volcano, and visited Momostenango, , have been changing over time as artisans are dependent on what is Quetzaltenango and other sites for three weeks. My breakaway most marketable. The images of the mural, however, caution the from the family was accepted with warnings to be careful and call viewer not to essentialize the Maya by seeing only the colorful home with a cell phone that they provided. This research trip tipica clothing for sale - we must also face the history of violence marked my privilege given that I had a U.S. passport and dollars to depicted in bright colors and acknowledge their struggle for travel around freely and comfortably on my own. While I didn’t survival. In a similar vein, the devastation we witnessed in Panabaj see it then, I was clearly the “other” in terms of privilege and in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan also spoke volumes. This was power. My outsider status and academic credentials served me the site of one of the most deadly mudslides that left perhaps as well when conducting interviews with museums curators, textile many as 1300 dead and has since been declared a national vendors and local authors. graveyard. As a group we walked through what had once been a thriving community and felt that we were on sacred ground. It Upon returning home to Chicago, the fellowship further supported was moving to see the outpouring of donations from Maya Works my research by providing a space for the newly created Guatemala volunteers and friends all over the country and witness how the Now Reading Group. Each month I’d gather with a group of organization was standing in solidarity with the artisans by Maya Works volunteers, community members from Casa Guatemala providing for families in need. and DePaul students to discuss current events and literature about Guatemala. This was an interactive space where it was safe to raise The unique life-stories I heard from the artisans and the North challenging questions about the stark inequalities of the country American volunteers became the lens through which I reexamined while learning from the local community, sharing resources and my privilege and conflicted feelings towards Ladinos and the growing in awareness. We attended the photographic exhibit Our structural inequality of the global marketplace. While I felt more Culture is Our Resistance: Repression, Refuge, and Healing in in tune with the politics of solidarity of the tour group than with Guatemala by Jonathan Moller, viewed the feature film “El silencio de traditional upper class Ladino views, I was also an outsider in this Neto” by Guatemalan director Luis Argueta and discussed setting and when I served on the board of directors as a native documentaries. We read I Rigoberta Menchu an Indian Woman in Spanish speaker and only person of color. Yet it was precisely my Guatemala, Beatriz Manz’s Paradise in Ashes, and Francisco cultural and linguistic connections to Guatemala that granted me Goldman’s novel The Long Night of White Chickens. We were joined authority and authenticity in these groups. Similarly, the access I by guest speakers such as Julie Coyne who runs Education and Hope, gained into the homes of the artisans was granted to me because an after school program in Quetzaltenango, Olegario Velasquez, a of my connection to Maya Works. This experience of being Mayan linguist and Board Member of Casa Guatemala, and Lie. simultaneously an insider and outsider serves as a reminder that Mario Morales, an attorney and representative of the National our social locations of marginalization and privilege are constantly Indigenous and Campesino Organization in Guatemala (CONIC). shifting in relation to others. Perhaps my family’s stereotypical view s bothered m e precisely than ourselves but w hile the because I was repeating the sam e tourist industry publicizes behavior of benefiting from a G uatem ala’s volcanoes, ancient privilege that I accepted blindly. pyram ids, and colorful villages

This journey helped m e to honestly - local organizations w ith ties question m y assum ptions in to G uatem ala strive to situate dialogue w ith others and to w ork this beauty w ithin a m ore on m aintaining ties w hen I’d prefer com plex socioeconom ic context to w alk away. w here indigenous people and

Ladinos struggle to survive, and

The stories of pain and courage fair trade and solidarity can that I heard in the com m unities of have a very real im pact on the artisans not only brought m y people’s lives. readings to life but taught m e that a fair trade organization such as N ow that I’ve com pleted m y

M aya W orks creates a m arketplace term and stepped off the for handicraft products w hile Xetonox weavers. Guatemala M aya W orks b o ard I’m n o t sure providing an opportunity for m uch m ore than econom ic exchange. w hen m y next visit to G uatem ala will be. But I look forw ard to

To really have a lasting im pact this relationship m ust also exchange spending tim e w ith m y extended fam ily and reflecting on all the know ledge and critical insight tow ards the conditions that led to changes w e’ve w itnessed over the years. Fortunately for now our the econom ic inequality in the first place. O therw ise we risk just lives are interconnected thanks to our friendship on Facebook. purchasing products and rom anticizing the w eavers w ithout fully recognizing their ow n agency or learning about the greater political and socioeconom ic context. M aya W orks’ m otto of Interw eaving NOTES 1 Based on the CEH report of 1999, Julie Stew art states, "D espite Lives, D iscovering O ne W orld helps us to see the w eavers as m others, the state's best efforts to blam e insurgent forces for the violence w idow s and leaders that gain self-esteem through their w ork w hile that engulfed rural G uatem ala in the 1980s, testim onies and em phasizing the im portance of com m unity. That is w hy it is forensic evidence have since proved that the G uatem alan m ilitary im portant to tread carefully in this transnational relationship so as and param ilitary forces w ere responsible for approxim ately 93% not to perpetrate the “othering” process. of civilian deaths"(231).

BIBLIOGRAPHY This lesson was delivered to m y doorstep w hen a group of artisans Broder, John M. "Clinton Offers his A pologies to G uatem ala." New cam e to represent their com m unities in Chicago for the second York Times, M arch 11, 1999. phase of the tenth anniversary celebration in Septem ber 2006.

N ow the U.S. A m ericans had the privilege of hosting the artisans in Com m ission for Historical Clarification (CEH). G uatem ala: M em ory of silence: conclusions and recom m endations. G uatem ala City: our hom es and sharing our stories and lifestyles w ith them , as they U nited N ations. had shared w ith us just m onths earlier. The socioeconom ic inequalities that separate us w ere apparent w hen we visited the Sanford, Victoria. B uried Secrets: Truth and H um an Rights in Chicago lakefront, the Lincoln Park Zoo and a w elcom ing G uatem ala. New York: Palgrave M acm illan, 2003. reception at the D ePaul cam pus. The anniversary celebration Stew art, Julie. "A M easure of Justice: The Rabinal H um an Rights didn’t attem pt to gloss over our differences; instead w e w ere M ovem ent in Post-W ar G uatem ala." Q ualitative Sociology 31 challenged to ask hard questions, risk digging deeper and search for (2008): 231-250. m eaning in com m unity because the pow er of reflection lies in looking inside and outside ourselves. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Felix M asud Piloto and

M y connection to M aya W orks m ediated m y experience and M aria Isabel O choa for their continuous support and to K athleen M orkert and Sarah Cunningham for w elcom ing m e so warm ly to understanding of G uatem ala. It introduced m e to a part of the M a y a W o r k s . country and people that I hadn’t encountered in a fam ily setting.

This understanding has enriched m y teaching and research, and the insight I’ve gained from the artisans has challenged m e to w ork on SUSANA S. MARTÍNEZ, an A ssociate Professor for the D epartm ent deepening m y local and transnational ties. As disquieting as it of M odern Languages at DePaul University. She has led a service learning trip to and has published articles on the m ight be to uncover our privilege in relation to others or to feel Paraguayan author A ugusto Roa Bastos, travel narratives to disem pow ered in certain relationships, these spaces of G uatem ala, the ethnographic m em oir by Cuban Am erican w riter contradictions can be so enriching, particularly in a transnational Ruth Behar, reality television, and crim e novels. Her articles have context w hen we have a com m unity in w hich to unpack our beliefs. appeared in C iberletras: Journal of Literary Criticism and Culture,

G iven the current global econom ic crisis and increasing levels of Brújula: Revista interdisciplinaria sobre estudios latinoam ericanos. M eridians, Studies in Latin A m erican Popular Culture, and the inequality and violence in G uatem ala, we m ight be understandably Journal of Interdisciplinary Fem inist Thought. apprehensive about leaving our com fort zone. W hether we find C o n t a c t : sm artine@ depaul.edu ourselves abroad or at hom e, we have m uch to gain by reflecting on our m ultiple roles, engaging in difficult conversations and PHOTOS (m odified) taken by Susana S. M artinez. confronting contentious issues. N ot shying away from m atters of difference w hile w orking to create safe spaces w here all are w illing to take risks is part of the deeper learning process that we can all benefit from . W e all w ant to feel connected to som ething larger