Racism inherited from colonization
Racism is a historical and structural factor that is used to justify the economic, political and social inequalities that are prevalent in Guatemala, and from which the indigenous people in particular suffer. To understand why it persists, we must go back to the Conquista in 1524. Although the idea of race emerged between the 18th and 19th centuries, systems of power and oppression developed with colonization. When Spaniards - all men - migrated to the new "American" continent, they moved to exploit resources and occupy land. The absence of European women led them to cohabit with indigenous women, often by force. This is how miscegenation began, with the "whitening" of the population becoming a demonstration of the conquistadors' dominance. If rape was used as part of the process of invasion and servitude, miscegenation also arose from unions permitted by the crown. These were between the natives and the encomenderos, the men in charge of the encomiendas, the organizations set up by Spain to carry out the colonization. As a result, the first generation of criollos - their descendants - was born. Later on, they were the ones who would obtain the status ofencomendero.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and until Independence in 1821, the crown established a caste system based on the proportion of Spanish blood and its purity. This resulted in a hierarchical and aristocratic organization of social groups. The society was governed by the official classification and normalization of racism, which manifested itself in ethnic-racial prejudices, injustices and inequalities. For example, the privileges of Spaniards and their descendants gave them access to rights, positions of power, education and various economic activities.
History has left its mark. Today, although there are no longer any castes as such, the Whites, Ladinos and Mayans form three distinct groups, the former being the most advantaged and the latter the most disadvantaged. The Whites, often owners of large farms, concentrate a large part of Guatemala's economic and political power. The Ladinos, on the other hand, are essentially merchants, craftsmen or civil servants, while the Maya are still almost exclusively peasants and "small" merchants, confined to tasks requiring few qualifications, often rural, and - obviously - poorly paid. On the fringes of society, victims of social exclusion, 75% of them are affected by poverty, whereas it affects half as many other inhabitants of the country.
Difficult access to education
In a vicious circle, the social divide not only generates the lack of access to education, but also aggravates it. For example, 20.47 per cent of Guatemalans have never been to school. Far from being a coincidence, the department most affected - at 32.83 per cent - is Quiché, 89.17 per cent of which is Mayan. The next most affected department is Alta Verapaz (31.12 per cent), where indigenous people make up 92.95 per cent of the population. The situation is worrying and getting worse every year: in 2009, 96% of children were attending school, but by 2019 this had dropped to 78%. More broadly, nearly 40% of young people aged 4 to 29 have had to stop studying because of a lack of money and because they had to work. The reason: the need to pay, as 80% of high schools are private. As a result, only 13.26 per cent of Guatemalans have reached high school, 4.56 per cent have gone on to complete a bachelor's degree and 0.48 per cent have a master's or doctorate.
The last two percentages are 14.96% and 21.73%. These are the respective shares of illiterate men and women, which illustrate another problem: the discrimination of which indigenous women are particularly victims. While men who are born in rural communities can hope to obtain better living conditions by at least attending primary school and then working, women often do not have the chance to attend school and are confined to the role of girl and then wife. Nevertheless, a wind of freedom is blowing in some villages, especially in the field of handicrafts: the few women's cooperatives that have been set up there allow their members to gain financial autonomy. Actors in the tourism sector are also participating in their emancipation, by developing educational projects - following the example of the CA Travelers agency, in the vicinity of Antigua.
Gender equality undermined
Indigenous women are not the only ones to suffer from the system: Guatemala is a sexist country. If you're traveling alone, be prepared for street harassment - not unlike that experienced in France's big cities. It's also not uncommon for women to be absent from the public sphere, often forced to stay at home to look after the children and the household. Likewise, they have very little presence in the political sphere.
Unequal distribution of household tasks, discrimination in hiring, glass ceiling... In addition to "classic" gender inequalities, violence against women is a cause for concern in Guatemala: it is the most common crime committed in recent years. In 2020, with the traffic restrictions inherent in the Covid-19 health crisis, the number of feminicides reached 358 - compared with 102 in France. In other words, a woman died at the hands of a man almost every day for a year.
In 2008, Guatemala passed a law against feminicide, making it punishable by 25 to 50 years' imprisonment. Between then and 2022, 2,168 feminicides were recorded in the country. In addition, engaging in other forms of violence against women, notably physical and sexual, is now punishable by 5 to 12 years' imprisonment. Notable measures, not only because they established higher penalties, but also for the obligations they imposed on the state, such as taking survivors of domestic violence to dedicated shelters and collecting figures on violence against women. However, more than ten years after the law came into force, institutions rarely comply with it, and its application almost never leads to convictions.
The traditional family as the only model
Another worrying element is the public policy that came into force in July 2021 - and without the support of the civil society organizations that had taken part in the discussions. The "Protection of Family Life and Institutionalization", for which the Ministry of Education is responsible, is said to aim to foster conditions of equity and inclusion to build individual and collective life projects for the family, and to guarantee it access to services during the prenatal and early childhood stages. In reality, the strategies and implications of this policy are causing growing concern among journalists and human rights activists.
The cause: laws that are increasingly dangerous for women. Let's start with the approval of Bill No. 5272 on second reading by Congress in 2018. Presented by several evangelical leaders - thus belonging to a conservative movement where the traditional family is central, and which is gaining ground in Guatemala - as a popular initiative, the text criminalizes miscarriage, imposing prison sentences on women who suffer one. Similarly, it makes anyone who "promotes abortion or facilitates access to it" liable to imprisonment. The decree issued by the Congress of the Republic in March 2022 goes one step further, increasing prison sentences for women performing or requesting an abortion... A paradox, since it also prohibits schools from implementing sex education programs.
An oppressed LGBTQI+ community
The same public policy defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman, and describes "sexual diversity" as "incompatible with the biological and genetic aspects of the human being". The above-mentioned decree also declares homosexuals to be "minority groups in society, who convey currents of thought and practices incongruous with Christian morality". In other words, since it revolves around the traditional family model, the "protection of life and the institutionalization of the family" could not only impact the rights of single mothers, but also those of LGBTQI+ people, already non-existent in Guatemala.
Although homosexuality is not penalized, homophobia is particularly widespread and homosexual couples are not recognized, nor are same-sex families. Condemned by the Guatemalan Human Rights Prosecutor, the country stands out for its lack of public policies against discrimination against LGBTQI+ people. Their invisibilization is such that official statistics do not report any cases of violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet, according to the Observatoire des Droits Humains et des Violences pour l'Orientation Sexuelle et l'Identité de Genre, 29 members of the community were murdered between January and October 2021. These figures are surely far from reality.
