Happy Independence Day Guatemala! – A Critique
By Sandra Xinico Batz (sxinicobatz@gmail.com)
Para la versión original en español
Schools, colleges, and institutions are all ready for Independence Day festivities. Many young people, girls and boys, have been asked to dress up in the “traditional attire” to march; it’s one of the two occasions throughout the year when it’s good and permissible to dress us as “little Indians,” because we are celebrating Guatemala, and in the name of independence, we say we are proud of our roots (and so, it is worth the sacrifice to look like an indigenous person for just a few hours.)
There won’t be a shortage of military haircuts at educational institutions (after all, we haven’t yet abolished militarism, including off our own heads). There they go, little boys and girls marching and imitating military bands. It seems as if school marching bands are they only thing that we can offer youth and children to keep themselves busy or feel part of something. The musical repertoire that the majority have performed in the last few years are songs from the Mexican banda genre in the style of “La Trakalosa de Monterrey” or “La Arrolladora Banda El Limón”, making sure to also wear all corresponding the paraphernalia.
The independence torches will inundate the country, hundreds of Guatemalans will run through the streets, motivated by patriotic nationalism represented in the fire of liberty, which they will carry to their municipalities and towns. These are days in which we sing the anthem to Guatemala and Central America (“five fingers forming one hand”), we pledge allegiance to the flag, and the country dresses up in blue and white. Vehicles will be sporting little Guatemalan flags, driven by energetic drivers who have no qualms about running over you as you walk at the pedestrian crossing.
This is your independence, Guatemala! This what it has all been about since it was signed: a simulation of liberty and autonomy. The country that claims to feel pride in itself every September 15th is a nation controlled by racism, dispossession, and inequality that has never stopped being a criollo nation and that still operates like a finca (hacienda). An enslaving country, without memory, where the corrupt are in power while the poorest work from sunup to sundown without rest. A country full of chapines who feel proud of their Spanish “ancestors” but are vociferous against foreign interference when convenient, that is, when their privileges and concentration of power are challenged. A country in constant crisis, which in the name of “life” promulgates death and hatred, and which allows its “citizens” to die of hunger and malnutrition.
A country that is not only dependent (economically and ideologically) on the North Americans and Europeans, but also on the manipulation of the rich (locals), Christian churches, and corporate mass media. A country that exterminates and impoverishes indigenous communities in the name of “progress,” one that calls Mayan women “Marías,” “indias,” and “inditas,” who every September 15th and December 12th will lend out their “rags” so that everyone else can dress up as “Guatemala.”
A country where one blames a volcano for all the misfortune it caused, where one can lose everything and three months later, “life goes on” living in a shelter.
Sandra Xinico Batz
Sandra is Kaqchikel, originally from Patzún, Chimaltenago. She was born on 1 Kab’an 10 Yaxk’in. She is a primary school teacher, anthropologist, and opinion columnist. At the Universidad de San Carlos of Guatemala, she was a student representative and advocate of university reform. In 2014, she received recognition as a proponent for Juventud Nacional (National Youth), awarded the Premio Guisella Paz y Paz y Jorge Rosal, granted by the Red por la Paz y Desarrollo de Guatemala (Network for Peace and Development of Guatemala). She is presently a member of the Red de Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible RCE-Guatemala (Education Network for Sustainable Development – Guatemala).