The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

The local context
4.2.2 Historical references
Historically, as elsewhere in Guatemala, the reality of the indigenous population in
Alta Verapaz has been continuously threatened by socio-cultural, economic and ecological
transformations, including a wide range of politically destabilising factors.
Throughout the centuries, the rights of the Q'eqchi' were largely neglected and their
culture, language and traditions were regarded as socially inferior by the Europeandescended
ruling class. At the time when the Spanish colonists reached the eastern
highlands in the 1530s, it was highly difficult to establish centralised governmental
control over the area due to continued resistance of the Q'eqchi' and the dispersal of
their settlements. After the Spanish military failed to conquer it by force, the territory
became governed by an ecclesiastical administration. In the 1540s, the Dominican
priest Bartolomé de las Casas set out to pacify the area, which had been known until then
as Tezulutlán – ›the land of war‹, by converting the population to Catholicism. In 1547,
it was named Verapaz, ›true peace‹ (Schackt 2004: 6). Despite the ›spiritual conquest‹,
which comprised a central element of the Spanish subjugation, the pre-hispanic religion
proved resilient, as the Q'eqchi' incorporated Christian beliefs into their traditional
worldview. 38 A second historical epoch that deeply transformed the world of the
Q'eqchi' was the liberal period in the 19 th century, paving the road to the conflicts of
the 20 th century. 39
Fig. 4.4 The Calvario in Cobán 40
38 The indigenous worldview will be further discussed in chapter 5.2.
39 For an early ethnographic account dealing with Q'eqchi' culture, see Sapper (1936).
40 As Secaira (2005) mentions, several sacred sites were ›christianised‹ by building churches on top of
them. One example is the Calvary church in Cobán, which was built around 1810 on a hill overlook-
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