Guatemala is a beautiful, fertile land which previously encompassed the territories of Belize and Chiapas, Mexico. It is home to mountains, rivers, volcanoes and lakes such as Lake Atitlan, and myriad ethnicities such as the Garifunas, Xinkas, Ladinos as well as 22 different Mayan groups. The Mayans are famous for building pyramids such as Tikal, Kumarkaj and Iximche. I am from the K´iche´ Mayan people.
Chiul is an oppressed and marginalised indigenous K´iche´ village. Chiul means “on the edge of the ravine”, but in reality it is adorned by lush mountains. Its people are very lovely; my grandfather and I call its women “warriors of peace”. Yet we indigenous people suffered a holocaust, a holocaust which has left us buried beneath fear, injustice and hunger. And ever since that holocaust, Chiul´s glorious mountains have become deserts, its rivers, lakes and streams polluted, and every beautiful child and woman exists in a waking state of coma in which their vital signs are slowly diminishing. It has become a heaven for the oppressors - and for the ninety-five per cent who live without freedom or food or water or space or education or home or justice, a hell.
"In 1996, following 36 years of genocide in which over 200,000 indigenous people were murdered, the Guatemalan Peace Accords were signed. Yet the war continues. Today, my people are besieged by a psychological war, one of the deadliest wars in existence whose primary weapon is the virus that is programming and poverty. Children are programmed to accept poverty, to accept slavery, to accept a life devoid of freedom, education or justice. This virus eats away at them like a cancer until they believe that they were born for this. And the bullets in this war are that false democracy that is preached today which has nothing to do with equality and justice, and everything to do with oppression, injustice and racism. For the indigenous people and the overlooked and oppressed peoples of the world, this “demigod-acy” has been a stone around our necks that pulls us down to the depths of a sea of poverty, injustice and slavery.
My precious Chiul has been turned into a place where survival is a challenge because the government, corporations and public institutions don´t respect life. A place where human rights are millions of light years from the indigenous and the poor, and peace even further away. A place where racism has become the norm. Not even the tiniest drop of human rights is respected in Guatemala.
In my precious Chiul, our traditional indigenous way of life has been destroyed, our lands confiscated. Even today, the majority of indigenous people can´t read or write and don´t speak Spanish, governed by laws they don´t understand. And if an indigenous person opens her eyes and uses them, in the name of “democracy” they will make her close them again. I say this out of experience. There have been numerous attempts made on my life.
I am sharing this with you as an indigenous K´iche´ Mayan man who survived this holocaust, a holocaust which today the government denies ever happened.
However, the difficulties I survived, together with my beloved family, have been transformed into a column for my dream. I´m the fifth child of parents who, together with my brothers and me, had to make huge sacrifices and perform inhumane labour just to obtain a piece of bread for our table. There are different levels of poverty. In developed countries, there is need and there is strife and there is inequality and there is injustice. Yet the level of poverty that I´m describing here is an inhumane daily struggle for survival that my people and many people in the world suffer. Even animals in their natural, undisturbed habitat have food. Yet today they, too, are losing their home and their fight for survival.
My precious Chiul has been turned into a place where survival is a challenge because the government, corporations and public institutions don´t respect life. A place where human rights are millions of light years from the indigenous and the poor, and peace even further away. A place where racism has become the norm. Not even the tiniest drop of human rights is respected in Guatemala.
In my precious Chiul, our traditional indigenous way of life has been destroyed, our lands confiscated. Even today, the majority of indigenous people can´t read or write and don´t speak Spanish, governed by laws they don´t understand. And if an indigenous person opens her eyes and uses them, in the name of “democracy” they will make her close them again. I say this out of experience. There have been numerous attempts made on my life.
I am sharing this with you as an indigenous K´iche´ Mayan man who survived this holocaust, a holocaust which today the government denies ever happened.
However, the difficulties I survived, together with my beloved family, have been transformed into a column for my dream. I´m the fifth child of parents who, together with my brothers and me, had to make huge sacrifices and perform inhumane labour just to obtain a piece of bread for our table. There are different levels of poverty. In developed countries, there is need and there is strife and there is inequality and there is injustice. Yet the level of poverty that I´m describing here is an inhumane daily struggle for survival that my people and many people in the world suffer. Even animals in their natural, undisturbed habitat have food. Yet today they, too, are losing their home and their fight for survival.
