The Guatemalan Genocide Of The Indigenous Mayans

​Many of the cultures that we have today have evolved from past events. Such as language it was something that became known throughout the years. Some of the languages that came from that were English, Spanish, German, and Latin to name a few. These languages were derived more past civilizations. One important civilization that is known for having great success is the Mayan civilization. The Mayan civilization is known for many things like they fully developed written language, art, architecture, math and some other factors. Historians have said that they don’t know an exact date of when this civilization rose up but they do mention that it flourished for about 2000 years. Although staring in 250 AD it is said that it was the start of their high point and it continued until the arrival of the Spanish in 1524. The Maya area covers southern Mexico and northwestern Central America. According to Sharer the area is divided into three regions: the Pacific coastal plain to the south, the highlands in the center, and the lowlands to the north. Even though these three regions were under the same civilization they all practiced different religious rituals. Religion plays a big role in every civilization. Some civilizations tend to praise more than one god and they always mention that what they have is thanks to their god. When they see things going wrong they often say that their god is punishing them because they did something that the god/s did not like. This tends to be the same

The Maya were a people from Middle America, which includes modern Guatemala, Southern Mexico, and Northern Belize (Editors). The Maya civilization was considered to be “one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica,” (Maya). “The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork,” (Maya). They also gave mankind the modern calendar (Jarus, Maya). The Mayans were a very advanced people, but one of the most important things in the Mayan culture was their religion/god worshipping rituals.

The Mayas: Civilized Americans While Europeans, Asians, and other inhabitants of the known world were making their great civilizations, Americans were doing the same. Behind the backs of the peoples of the known world, the Americans were building their own great civilizations and empires. When spanish explorers reached america, they would find that one of their popular misconceptions was just that: a misconception. Civilization was not unique to the known world. The Mayas had already built a great empire.

I studied many things about Guatemala such as, the culture, religion, food, population, geography, imports, exports, and most popular of all sports. The sports of Guatemala is something I found very interesting.

The collapse of the Mayan Empire is one of history’s greatest mysteries. It was one of the most advanced and developed civilizations of its time period, reining during the Pre-Classic period and into the Classic and Post-Classic Periods (2000 B.C. – 900 A.D.). The territory stretched from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, down to modern day El Salvador in Central America. Its achievements were monumental for the era, being the first empire communicating with the use of a written language having over 800 symbols and producing the first 365 day calendar. They maintained an in-depth understanding of astrological cycles that would assist in planning harvesting cycles and predicting solar eclipses. The Mayan’s

What is significant about the war is that it is largely an example of discrimination and calculated genocide. Although the population of Guatemala is predominantly made of Indians, the Spaniards in the region have long abused the people of Mayan descent. So eventually it causede a massive civil war.

Not everyone has experienced traveling to another country, but many people dated another individual from another country before. From a life experience, dating someone from Guatemala is a big experience for me because dating that person I was able to determine how Guatemala culture is just by the way he carries himself. This experience is very interesting because I was able to gain knowledge on how Guatemalans do things and it was like learning something new that I never knew about. However, it is very difficult because we both really don’t understand each other’s language. This is why it is important to understand the major concepts of ethnocentrism because people won’t always be around things that they are more familiar with.

The Guatemalan Revolution was on October 1944 and it forced the resignation of Jorge Ubico. He was the President of Guatemala in the previous thirteen years. Ubico's government was a fear period in the country and it was called the “peace on the cemeteries”

During genocides many things happen, homes and lands get rected, women get raped and many people die. A genocide that happened in 1981-1983 was in Guatemala. During the Guatemalan genocide it targeted the Mayan civilization. The first stage was classification. It is when they would put people in categories to determine them by their ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality. By the second stage symbolism was used. In this stage, a simple thing or idea represented them. Then the Guatemalan army used their power to deny the rights of the Mayan, which lead to denying the humanity of the Mayan. Organization then began. This meant that plans to start the killings began. Next, the extremist split the group through the use of propaganda. Then, armies

Guatemala Genocide is very interesting so that one of the reason why i had chosen this genocide. It very interesting because they had another type of genocide and a lot of people usually don't talk about the Guatemala Genocide. This genocide is one of the genocide that had so many people killed. It about 60 percent of the population. Another reason why I had chosen the Guatemala Genocide because I had never ever heard about or ever learned about the Guatemala genocide so I thought I should learn about Guatemala. Learning about this Genocide made me realize alot of genocide such like african american and jewish weren't the only one being abuse. Genocide happened almost everywhere in the world and people will never know where else it couldn't of happened. My topic about the Guatemalan just cover everything about the genocide such as the army , how people were treated , how they felt and world response. Just doing research base on the question , there were ruf time to even read the articles. How they describe how the beat newborns and 3 years to death in front of their parent or its vice versa. Guatemala citizens lost everything during 1981-1983 genocide.

The ancient Mayan civilization settled in the Yucatan Peninsula in around 900 AD. This civilizations was one of the most advanced of its times. They created their own religion, language, mathematical structure, a very precise calendar, and many other things.

Throughout world history, many manifestations occurred which led to horrific demeanors. In 1981, Todd Strasser wrote a fictionalized novel known as The Wave, based on a real life event about an experiment. This experiment, conducted in 1969 by Ron Jones in Palo Alto, California, proves how effortlessly fascism can corrupt people. This experiment begins with a student’s question about the Holocaust which Jones cannot answer. The Holocaust was a horrific event that occurred from 1933 to 1945. This atrocity was initiated by Adolf Hitler, who tortured and murdered over eleven million Jewish people in extermination camps.

The Mayan Civilization at its height was one of the greatest civilization to ever reign on the planet. Their advances in astronomy and mathematics well in advance has helped present civilizations to prosper. But one of the great questions is what happened to the Mayans? Why did they collapse? What caused them to collapse? It is a question that had gone unanswered for decades until some of the worlds great historians and scientist finally concluded to three reasons why the Mayan Civilization collapsed. The Mayans Collapse was fast and occurred due to Deforestation and Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Internal and Exterior Rivalry.

Subsequently, many people in Guatemala grew to be numb after the massacre of indigenous people; they did not wish to relive the traumatic experience ever again therefore they stayed in silence as they were taught. As Eduardo Halfon explains, “He waved at me but without looking” (29). This shows how many were unable to look directly in others eyes because they did not want them to see what they have been through because their souls were killed with all those that were tortured to death in the genocide. They were devastated that their population was just disappeared for just for fighting for equality for their people. Halfon also explains, “I was surprised at how silent he’d been in class. I wanted to speak to you, he said, ignoring my comment

     The ancient Mayans were a very well developed society with a very accurate calendar, skilled architects, artisans, extensive traders and hunters. They are known to have developed medicine and astronomy as well. All of this was developed while the Europeans were still in the Dark Ages.