Today I decided to look into Guatemala's history. I spent the first half of the day looking into everything up until 1954, and the second half on everything since then. Why 1954? Well, that's when the United States decided that Guatemala's democracy wasn't what the U.S. wanted from a Central American democracy, and staged a coup and installed a dictator instead. But we'll get to that.
People have been in Guatemala since as early as 12,000 BC, and there's evidence that people have lived in the highlands region (where we're going) since 6,500 BC. Guatemala, like southern Mexico, was inhabited by the Maya until the collapse of the civilization in around 1500 CE. The Maya are still a prevalent group today - about 40% of the population is indigenous. Up near Quetzaltenango, the specific group of Mayan descendants are the K'iche'. Vanderbilt (the school I'm happy to say I'll be attending next year) actually offers K'iche' as a foreign language! So, I'm very excited at the idea that I can experience the culture in person, then learn more about it in a classroom setting.
Anyway, on to colonial times! Essentially, the Spanish invaded and ruined everything. This is nothing new. But, what's kind of interesting, is that the conquistadors actually made strategic alliances with certain indigenous nations to overpower stronger, more threatening nations (like the K'iche'). And then they turned on the nations they had made alliances with. Guatemala was called the Captaincy-general of Guatemala, and, at the time, included the modern-day nations of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and part of the southern tip of Mexico.
In 1821, the Captiancy-general of Guatemala declared independence from Spain, and Spain, who was no longer a global superpower, just kind of let that slide. Things went downhill from there - there was infighting, a large state known as the Federal Republic of Central America (with it's capital city in Guatemala City), a small civil war, a secessionist movement in Quetzaltenango that formed the free state of Los Altos, the fall of Los Altos, the eventual formation of a republic. Guatemala became Guatemala in 1847.
The Guatemalan Revolution occurred from 1944 - 1954. During this period, Guatemala had it's first fully free and open election. The revolutionaries, inspired in large part by FDR and the New Deal, sought to make Guatemala a "liberal capitalist" society - while capitalism would prevail, new lawmakers drew on socialist elements to create something akin to what would be LBJ's Great Society: Christian Socialism.
The U.S. heard the word "socialism", immediately jumped to "communism", and overthrew the new government. It was the height of McCarthyism, and the general consensus among American government officials was that it was better to rob people of basic civil liberties and to abandon American democratic ideals than allow a communist government to exist. So Eisenhower (Truman had wanted to, but hadn't built up popular support - his plans were leaked to public and America wasn't seeing that much red yet) installed a dictator that would remain in power until 1966. Oh, it wasn't really a dictatorship. The guy did win an election. He won with 99% of the vote, in fact. I'm sure that had nothing to do with the fact that all other political parties were banned from participating.
Apart from the U.S.'s containment policy, there was a major foreign interest in Guatemala that the U.S. felt it needed to protect from socialism, and that was bananas. Well it wasn't solely bananas. It was the United Fruit Company, which produced many varieties of fruits, but mainly bananas. Yep. We smothered democracy in Guatemala for bananas.
After that, Guatemala struggled to keep that democracy alive, and tended to fail. From around 1970-1996, there was a military state, with a lot of atrocities committed by the military against the indigenous populations, to the point that Jimmy Carter finally withdrew U.S. military support (and then Reagan gave it back and lowkey began to back those people aiming for indigenous genocide, so) and Spain cut off all diplomatic ties with Guatemala. This turbulent period of time was known the Guatemalan Civil War, and the combatants were the military government and civilian guerrilla groups. The war ended in 1996 when the UN helped the two groups make a peace treaty.
Things have really improved since then. People involved in the atrocities are facing legal consequences, Bill Clinton apologized for the U.S.'s role in all of it, the economy has grown, and there have been truly democratic elections ever since. Jimmy Moralez is the current president, and he used to be a comedian; that's a long way from being a general in charge of a military state.
It was a lot to take in, but I'm really glad I've learned so much about Guatemala's history. Understanding a country's past is a great way to understand it's present.
I'm so glad you are learning about the history of Guatemala, Kit. Such an interesting place, and so different from America. It will very useful when you are finally in-country!
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