The Resilience of the Mayan People

In the Western Highlands of Guatemala, the Quiche’ people sustain their culture in dress, food, and language. The k’iche’ language is spoken by over one million people in Guatemala making it the largest indigenous group and spoken language of the twenty-three indigenous populations. The Mayan people make up the largest indigenous group in the Americas with roughly six million people identifying as one of the twenty-three Mayan groups. Today, five million Mayans reside in Guatemala, and the largest group is the nation of Quiche’.

The Quiche’ nation was made famous in the 1980’s by the story of Rigoberta Menchú – a Nobel Peace Prize winner and indigenous land rights activist. Her story of the treatment of indigenous peoples during the thirty-six year Guatemalan Civil War brought the Mayan people and the preservation of their culture to the attention of a global audience. Her testimonial along with other cultural artifacts in film – Hombres Armados, El Norte, and Ixcanul – and text – Popol Vuh, Chilam Balam, and Balún Canán – work together to create a picture of indigenous expression. Juxtaposed in Spanish and indigenous languages, the story of indigenous resilience shifts slightly, but through these cultural artifacts, the indigenous voice – in both the mother and colonial tongue – and language sustain the tradition, history, and expression of the Mayan people.