Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

assimilation of Mayas into Guatemalan life was not a priority of the revolution. Although there
was concern at the time that Mayas, if given the opportunity and resources (literacy, voting, and
access to political power), would rise up, violently, and become the majority oppressors. As a
result, there were calls to bring basic health care and access to food for the Mayas, however most
of these calls to action stemmed from the desire to nourish the population so they would “produce
more efficient work” in the fields (Smith, 1992, 151). When middleclass ladinos and midlevel
military officers began to withdraw support first from President Arévalo and then from President
Arbenz, there was a fleeting moment when the Mayas were perceived as a more important
political, social, and economic population.
The agrarian reform passed in 1952 was the event that catalyzed social and political
organizing in rural Mayan communities. The violent reaction of landowners to the agrarian
reform resulted in an even greater number of rural community organizations. By the time of the
coup in 1954 there were active “campesino unions in every major village and in many smaller
aldeas in Guatemala” (Smith, 1992, 170). Despite the rise in peasant organizations, the agrarian
reform also had the unintended consequence of turning peasants against one another. Under the
official agrarian reform law, the laborers who worked on a particular finca had the first
opportunity to settle any expropriated land. Since it was quite common for laborers to work on
fincas that were not near their place of residence it created animosity between laborers and local
peasants who believed they should have first rights to land expropriated where they resided
(Handy, 1984, 131; Smith, 1992, 174). The violent reaction of foreign and domestic landowners,
coupled with the growing animosity in the rural areas between peasants, threatened to disrupt life
in rural and urban Guatemala. As a result, the middleclass ladinos, military members, and union
members in urban areas, many of whom had previously supported the goals of the revolution,
now decried the efforts to redistribute land and began to withdraw support for President Arbenz.
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