Racism and Ethnic Discrimination in Guatemala - Institute of Latin ...

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Racism and the Guatemalan StateRoddy BrettResponses of PDH interviewees indicated a profound legal and t heoreticalknowledge of racism, but failed to present specific examples of racism, or toattribute racist patterns of behavior to the state. Consequently, knowledge andperceptions of non-DDPI personnel were extremely abstract and, with twoexceptions, failed to mention state racism. Concerningly, several intervieweesmistook the legal nature of high-level discrimination cases, including the casewon by Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú, defining them as the crime ofracism, rather than discrimination. Knowledge and opinions of racism thenwere formalistic, and did not indicate a sensitivity or deep understanding ofcontemporary manifestations of racism. Masked as they are within politicallycorrect language and references to multiculturalism, racist attitudes persist.Inter-Ethnic Relations within the PDHThe most evident area where significant differences between perceptions ofLadino and indigenous PDH functionaries were demonstrated was regardinginter-ethnic relations within the institution. The question How would youdescribe ethnic relations within the PDH? generated the following responses from(non-indigenous) staff members: ‘respectful, positive, enjoyable and educational;respect of intercultural coexistence, with great respect and cordiality; as apartner or co-worker; normal, without discrimination; indigenous colleaguesare seen and treated as peers without distinction of any kind’.Only a single Ladino official responded analytically and critically:Overall, cordial and respectful, although even within the PDH we needto progress in order to increase the number of indigenous colleagues.The percentage of indigenous colleagues is low. I think here we needgreater incorporation of indigenous professionals not only in the DDPI,but throughout the institution. Possibly at the administrative level, theremay exist racist attitudes due to ignorance, but this is a process we areworking on and will take some time to eradicate (emphasis added).The experiences of DDPI staff seriously contradict the descriptions ofnon-indigenous personnel, given that any possible problems within the institutionare painted over, ignored, and put down to isolated individual cases. All currentDDPI staff explained that they or their colleagues had been at one time subjectto racist comments made by colleagues from other offices of the PDH. The mostindicative event occurred when DDPI staff went to an institutional meetingand a co-worker said: “Ah look here come the new tortilla-makers!” Themedium-level functionary was suspended and subsequently dismissed by the54STOCKHOLM REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDIESIssue No. 6, March 2010
Roddy BrettRacism and the Guatemalan StateOmbudsman. Such behavior, manifested throughout the institution, has beena recurrent pattern in the daily lives of the staff of the DDPI. According OdiliaChavajay, Departmental Officer for Guatemala:There are many people who do not agree with our presence and it isvery difficult for us. We have meetings to integrate, but many peopledon’t accept us. People think he looks at us as fortune tellers and thereare those who come and say to me “look I dreamt this, can you tell mewhat it means”.Similarly, whilst the majority of indigenous PDH employees work as c leanersin the institution, those that enjoy positions as functionaries are continuallycriticized by their colleagues, for the form in which they write and speak Spanishand their alleged lack of capacity to analyze legal and political issues.Whilst racist attitudes continue then to be manifest, including constantcriticism of the written and spoken Spanish language skills of high-levelindigenous officials by Ladino functionaries, such attitudes have diminishedover the last four years, partly as a result of the work of the DDPI within theinstitution. However, it is evident that racism is deeply embedded within Ladinoattitudes and perception, and serves to justify the predominance of Ladino staffwithin medium and high level positions within the PDH, despite the institution’spolitically correct and multicultural public discourse (Bastos and Cumes, 2008;Brett, 2008).Final ConsiderationsThe racist state of the 1980s has been transformed radically from its formergenocidal self, characterized by the evolution of an unprecedented institutionalframework developed out of the peace agreements and aligned with the normativeinternational framework relative to the promotion and protection of the rightsof indigenous peoples, the victims of the genocide of the 1980s. Guatemala’sgenocide was facilitated by historical institutional and structural racism thatdetermined the actions of the Guatemalan state and defined the norms thatshaped interpersonal relations, including those relations between victims andperpetrators of the violence and society as a whole, a society impervious andindifferent to the atrocities that were carried out against indigenous Guatemalansand which did little to prevent them. Such a transformation is of key significancegiven that indigenous people have suffered centuries of systematic and extremebrutality and marginalization from the state.STOCKHOLM REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDIESIssue No. 6, March 201055
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