Indigenous Mayans: A Mission Trip To Guatemala

Today is time to say goodbye! You will be imbued with a typical mystic of who drowned in the depths of an ancient culture and lived a unique experience, surrounded of a beautiful nature. Don’t be scared, it’s normal! The Route of the Maya leaves deep scars and certainly you will miss a lot this journey in the coming months.

Ever since I was a kid I remember going to my grandparents’ house. I went there ever other summer vacation. The climate was a big reason of why I enjoyed visiting Guatemala. The tropical weather made it sunny most of time. I liked the pleasant feeling of the sunrays hitting my skin. But at the same time the weather was very indecisive, in a blink of an eye the clods came rolling in and the downpour of rain began. The rain came down fast and hard, the sound of it hitting was like that of soldiers marching in unison. The intensity of the rain made it feel like if you were standing under a waterfall.

The Guatemalan Genocide: a mass genocide of the indigenous Mayans which took place from 1960 to 1996, however it was not very popular internationally. Just for originating from the Mayan ethnicity, the indigenous Mayans were targeted by the Guatemalan army and government to be exterminated. Their homes were razed, and many were systematically executed in large masses. Children and infants were killed using brutal methods by the Guatemalan army. The indigenous Mayans were subjected to brutal and harsh treatment from the Guatemalan army and government during the Guatemalan Genocide; being hunted to be killed in the most brutal ways, and being treated as if they were not human at all.

Over 200,000 Mayans in Guatemala were murdered in the civil war that took place between 1960 and 1996 in guatemala. In the past, Guatemala was the center of the Maya kingdom, and to this day most of its citizens identify as Mayan. The mayan genocide was a very horrible thing to happen to this people, because of how many lives were lost also how unfair this people were treated and killed in their own home land. I will try to compare both topics the best way i can and show you how tragic this was.

The third article will report on the research results of three planned seasons of fieldwork (either Spring/Summer or Fall 2018, 2019, and 2020) at the late Pleistocene paleontological site Chivacabe, Huehuetenango, Guatemala (Western Highlands), and will place it in the larger context of Paleoamerican activity within Middle America. In the 80s, non-prismatic obsidian artifacts, including a lanceolate fluted point (Figure…), were found at the site but without archaeological control. Interestingly, one of the obsidian items is a very small piece of green Pachuca obsidian from Central Mexico (Figure…). Although not from a known context, the possibility that early Paleoamerican occupants at the site had access to Central Mexican obsidian is

What better way to take advantage of summer than by going on a mission trip to Guatemala. A mission trip to Guatemala satisfies the soul in a way no other trip could. In Guatemala there is a captivating orphanage called "Casa Shalom" meaning House of Peace. This orphanage is located in the heart of San Lukas, Guatemala and once one arrives they will see this is an establishment truly touched by the hand of God. This orphanage's mission is to meet every spiritual and physical need of children who were not treated with the best conditions one should have growing up. Spending one week in this delightful environment of love and peace will leave all constantly wanting more time to remain in the orphanage. The deep relationships one establishes

Some traditions from hundreds of years ago still stand today. Discoveries from the past shaped the current and future generations. The past generations have given us their wisdom and knowledge to help us make our way through life. Past cultures such as the Maya, Aztecs, and Incas shaped our knowledge and way of thinking an incredible amount. The innovations from these past societies have created the world we know today.

I am going to be telling you about three different tribes. Maya, Aztec, and Inca. I have some information about all of them. I mostly have information about the Aztec, but I will explain most of what they do in their life. I do have information about all of the tribes. There is not that much that they have in common, but there should be enough where they seem similar in a way.

The latter part of this course, we read Kristen Weld’s book Paper Cadavers. This book captured the importance of the discovery of the Guatemalan archives. An intense amount of work was put into recovering approximately 80 million documents from the government after decades of internal warfare. This reconstruction of public memory was extremely important for those involved in recovering and sifting through the documents, the families and friends who lost people during the civil war, to Guatemala and the discovery also held significance international (Weld). A few years later in March of 2008 files were seized by the Colombian Armed Forced during a raid. These archives belonged to the insurgent group called The Revolutionary Armed Forced of Colombia People’s Army or FARC. The files belonged personally to “Raul Reyes” (a leader of FARC) who was killed during the raid along with 24 other insurgent members (Walser). This led to some controversy about the files later on. The Colombian Armed Forces handed over the archives to Interpol, so they could be decoded and analyzed. These two sets of documents are different discoveries of public memory that impacted lives as public memory was reconstructed. They exposed human rights violations through their (re)discovery and release to the public.

The poor of Guaymas relied on this clinic for some of life’s essentials, and this clinic was willing and enthusiastic to help them. This relationship inspired me to learn more about Guaymas’s healthcare system and its willingness to assist the poor, leading me to volunteer in a free EMS service and a public hospital during future trips to my father’s hometown.

The Guatemalan Civil War spanned over 36 years starting in 1960 when left wing guerrilla groups started fighting Guatemala’s military government forces, and ended in 1996 after the singing of the peace accords (REF 1,2) The decades of war left behind a legacy of brutality with 200,000 estimated casualties, 83% of these were the Mayan (ref 5, 7) who today occupy around 40% of the total population of Guatemala (REF1).

Tradition is a very significant lifestyle to most people and their families. Traditions are generally the beliefs of one whom teaches their child to live and act one way so that they can do the same with their own. Tradition lives on and on. The life style of a Mayan child was that of the abnormal. All children had to have their foreheads unnaturally flattened while their nose and ears were pierced. The Mayan people were very fond of these things. In their culture, squint eye was said to be a beauty mark (source). To get this look, mothers would take pellets of wax and put it between their child’s eyes. This is what gave off the squint eye look for their daughters. As for males, having facial hair was not normal (source). To keep their sons

Throughout the semester, we have delved deep into the many aspects of archeology. Submerged in the world of archeology, we have seen it evolve to the point where it could help us investigate a site even as complex as Copan. The ultimate question leading to the sites complexity: why did Copan collapse? The considered categories, the monuments, people, bones, botany and houses of the ancient Mayan Civilization, will aid in the investigation- turning questions into answers and theories into facts. Using different types of archeological practices including bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology, forensic archaeology, taphonomy as well as others, Copan itself will illustrate a story that has long been locked away.

Thank you for the birthday wishes! Also, thank you for letting me know that I did not include why I want to go to Guatemala. I would like to go to Guatemala for several reasons. First of all, I would like to experience the Guatemalan culture and daily life. I am interested to see how this experience would help me grow as a person and as a Christian. I have never had the opportunity to serve in a developing country and I am excited to see how Christ would transform the lives around me as I have been transformed. I believe that this trip would be very beneficial for me to learn the Spanish language with more depth. If I were accepted to go on this trip, I would hope to gain a lot of knowledge about the language and culture. I would

I immersed myself in the community, I lived with families in straw-thatched and mud-brick homes, learned bits of the Mayan language and culture and participated in different programs offered by the foundation “La Ciudad de la Alegría.” In some of these programs, I shared stories with the community’s elders and performed facial and physical therapies with HIV/AIDS affected persons. These soon became the most enriching aspects of my missionary year.