Old resentments, new conditions: ladinos, indigenous people and the state of Guatemala, 1838-1871

Abstract

The reaction of the Indian towns of Los Altos de Guatemala to the social politicts of the conservative regime of Rafael carrera, particularly during the decade of the eighteenth fifties, provides ground to establish that the policies carried out continued the previous liberal politics of including the Indians in the civic life of the Republic by means of carrying out public works. Such works included the creation of schools and promoted a discourse of "progress", but exercised a constant and irritating fiscal pressure and threatened the internal hierarchy of the Indian towns. Indian resistance became stronger and stronger, and led to friction and violence, as well as the appearance of mesianic Indian figures who appear to underscore the desire to restore the autonomy which was being lost: It was the autonomy and not conflict for the land itself, which constituted the key problem in the communities. Within an atmosphere marked by ancient resentments but reinforced by new frictions, ...