Kaur, Kuldip. 2019. Reproducing Ladino Dominance: an Anthropological Study of a Guatemalan Ladino Town
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Kaur, Kuldip. 2019. Reproducing Ladino Dominance: An Anthropological Study of a Guatemalan Ladino Town. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26474/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] Reproducing Ladino Dominance: An Anthropological Study of a Guatemalan Town Kuldip Kaur Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Anthropology Goldsmiths University of London 2019 1 Declaration of Authorship I Kuldip Kaur hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: __Kuldip Kaur ______________________ Date: 4 October 2018 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my first supervisor, the late Professor Olivia Harris, to whom I owe much of the substance of this thesis. Had Olivia not suggested that I explore my fieldnotes on out-of-wedlock children, surnames and race, this thesis would not be what it is today. I only wish I had finished this thesis for her to read. I will forever be grateful to her for her support and interest in Guatemala’s ladinos. I’m just very sorry she never got to read the final product. I’m sorry I never did it in time. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Professor Victoria Goddard, and my “unofficial” supervisor, Professor James Dunkerley. If it were not for James’ support and friendship, I would never have finished this thesis. I will eternally be grateful to him, and forever in his debt. I am also extremely thankful to many others who no doubt had thought I had given up on this thesis years ago. In those early years when I was totally immersed in this thesis, many gave me their support and time. I would like to thank so many but those who deserve special thanks are: Gabriela Paz Bailey, José García Noval, Rachel Sieder, Jude Bloomfield, Laurence Allan, Karen Perkins, Into Goudsmit, Olga Alicia Paz, Supriya Thimmiah, Rabinder Minhas, Anita Bhardwaj, Mary Davis, my PhD buddies, Melania Calestani, Fabian Cataldo, Beckie Dixon, Elaine Bauer, Kate Cooper, Mary Smith, and my sisters, Kirpal and Jasvir Kaur. I dedicate this thesis to the people of Salamá. I am extremely grateful to so many who welcomed me into their homes and shared so much about their lives. One local historian said to me, “it will be your job to tell us who we are”. While I do not pretend to do that in this thesis, I hope Salamatecos can see the value in the description and analysis of the narratives and accounts about their identities they shared with me. 3 Abstract This thesis provides an ethnography of the non-indigenous, provincial middle class of Salamá, the capital of Baja Verapaz, Guatemala. It questions the prevalence of the ladino and Indian dichotomy that has characterised Guatemala’s ethnic relations for more than a hundred years. It explores the meaning of identity labels among members of three identity groups that constitute Salamá’s dominant social and economic sector – los pueblo/mestizos, ladinos puros, and a local elite, and discusses their identities. Firstly, it addresses Salamateco narratives about who they are in terms of origins and trajectory, exploring what the ethnic category of “ladino” meant to them. Second, it correlates their narratives with historical data to examine why specific events, processes and/or persons are invoked to the detriment of others. Third, it explores how their relationship with indigeneity, both with indigenous peoples around them as well as indigeneity within them, informs practice in relation to marriage, kinship and relatedness and interactions with domestic workers. A focus on narrative, history and practice not only allows for an appreciation of dichotomy – that is, on ladino/Indian relations – but also hierarchy and heterogeneity – namely relations between Salamateco ladinos themselves. This research seeks to contribute to a revitalised anthropological study of dominant groups and to a growing literature on Guatemala’s ladinos and on mestizaje in Latin America. The thesis contains six ethnographic chapters. Chapter two provides a historical account on the different economic trajectories of Salamá’s contemporary middle class and discusses their political affinities over the twentieth century. Chapters three and four attend to pueblos/mestizos, chapter five to los puros, chapter six to the town’s historical planter class, and relations of fluidity that characterise relations between “illegitimate” children and their legitimate kin. The final ethnographic chapter discusses relations between my informants and domestic workers. 4 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 9 Pre-fieldwork Interests ......................................................................................................... 13 The Thesis’ Key Themes ...................................................................................................... 21 Introducing Salamá ............................................................................................................... 26 Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 30 A Note on Terminology and the use of anonymity ......................................................... 31 Thesis Organisation .............................................................................................................. 32 Chapter One ................................................................................................................................ 34 Conceptual and Theoretical Considerations .......................................................................... 34 The Construction of “Ladino” as “Non-Indian” ............................................................. 34 “Unsettling” Guatemala’s Bi-polarity ................................................................................. 44 Salamá’s Ladinos.................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter Two ............................................................................................................................... 59 The Economic Trajectory and Political Affinities of Salamá’s Middle Class .................... 59 Salamá’s Historic Planter Society ........................................................................................ 60 From Artisans to Dependent Employees and/or Independent Employers ................ 73 Los ladinos puros: from Peasants to Agriculturalists and Tertiary Sector Employees .... 78 Anticommunism, Catholicism, Conservatism and Militarism ........................................ 83 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 98 Chapter Three: .......................................................................................................................... 100 Ladinos of the town/racially mixed ladinos: The Genuine and Authentic Salamatecos ..................................................................................................................................................... 100 The De-Indianisation of Salamá’s Population ................................................................ 102 Salamá’s “Original” Inhabitants ........................................................................................ 113 Salamá’s Colonial Population ............................................................................................ 116 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 121 5 Chapter Four ............................................................................................................................. 123 Symbolic Importance of Surnames........................................................................................ 123 Out-of-wedlock Births and the Law ................................................................................. 125 Markers of Shame/Markers of Pride ................................................................................ 130 Celso, Don Alejo and Debora ........................................................................................... 138 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 150 Chapter Five .............................................................................................................................. 152 The Pure Ladinos: The Real and Authentic Ladinos .......................................................... 152 Racialising “the south” ....................................................................................................... 155 Spatial Relatedness and Practices of Exclusion .............................................................