Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cultural, multilingual, and multiethnic.” The country is divided about evenly between des-
cendants of indigenous Maya (comprising 21 different linguistic groups) and
ladinos
, who
are ofMayan descent but have adopted European culture and dress in addition to the Span-
ish language. A sizable percentage of the population is a mixture of Mayan and European,
also known as
mestizo
. A much smaller percentage of the population is of purely European
descent, primarily from Spanish and German families, and they control a disproportionate
fraction of the country's wealth. Many of these are direct descendants of the
criollo
(New
WorldSpanish-bornelite)familiesdominatingthecountry'seconomysincecolonialtimes.
IndigenousMayadescendantsarefoundingreatestnumbersinthewesternhighlands,with
Guatemala City, the Pacific, Caribbean, and Petén lowlands being largely
ladino
.
Additionally, there are two non-Mayan ethnicities thrown into the mix, Xinca and Garí-
funa. Only about 100-250 Xinca-speakers remain, confined to a small area near the Sal-
vadoran border. The Garinagu (plural of Garífuna), a mixture of Amerindian and African
peoples, arrived from St. Vincent via Roatán, Honduras, in the early 1800s and settled in
the Guatemalan Caribbean coastal town of Lívingston. Their culture is more similar to that
of the Western Caribbean, with whom they identify more readily, than the rest of Guatem-
ala.
Mayan Groups
Ethnicity and language are intertwined when it comes to Guatemala's principal Mayan
groups, which include K'iche', Kaqchikel, Tz'utujil, Mam, Ixil, Q'eqchi', Poqomchi',
Poqomam, and Q'anjob'al. By far the most numerous group is K'iche', with nearly one
million speakers. A little more than 400,000 people speak Kaqchikel, and there are about
686,000 Mam speakers.
The Oligarchy
The direct result of Guatemala's Spanish colonial legacy granting privileges to Spanish-
born elites is the modern-day oligarchy. In many cases, families can trace their roots to
these colonial-era
criollo
families. As in neighboring El Salvador, where there is frequent
reference to “The Fourteen Families,” the Guatemalan oligarchy has a strong history of in-
termingling to the exclusion of outer echelons of society. For the purpose of this discus-
sion, the oligarchy will also encompass the “new rich” and the subsequent generations of
landowning business elites who remain firmly in control of Guatemala's politics and eco-
nomy.
Much has been written about the Guatemalan elite's support for right-wing governments
and military policies aimed at eliminating the threat of Communist subversion during the
