Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Indigenous Studies (147)
- Ethnic Studies (141)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (13)
- Anthropology (8)
- History (8)
-
- Latin American History (8)
- United States History (6)
- Education (5)
- International and Area Studies (5)
- Latin American Languages and Societies (4)
- Latin American Studies (4)
- Chicana/o Studies (3)
- Social and Cultural Anthropology (3)
- Sociology (3)
- African American Studies (2)
- American Studies (2)
- Communication (2)
- Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (2)
- Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication (2)
- Philosophy (2)
- Social Justice (2)
- Africana Studies (1)
- Architectural History and Criticism (1)
- Architecture (1)
- Art and Design (1)
- Asian American Studies (1)
- Business (1)
- Keyword
-
- Maya (22)
- Guatemala (10)
- Migration (10)
- Poetry (9)
- Immigration (8)
-
- Transnationalism (8)
- Displacement (7)
- Family separation (7)
- Migración (6)
- Cambio climático (4)
- Identity (4)
- Tamales (4)
- Turismo (4)
- Kaqchikel (3)
- Latina (3)
- Mayan Languages (3)
- Antropología (2)
- Autoethnography (2)
- Chiapas (2)
- Community (2)
- Conservación (2)
- Desarrollo (2)
- Educación (2)
- Expert testimony (2)
- Género (2)
- Indigenous (2)
- Indígenas (2)
- Ixil (2)
- Ixil Maya (2)
- Maya heritage (2)
- Publication Year
- Publication
- Publication Type
- File Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 154
Full-Text Articles in Latina/o Studies
Front Matter, Maya America Editors
Front Matter, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Full issue of Maya America, volume 8, issue 1.
Full Issue - Maya America V8, I1, Maya America Editors
Full Issue - Maya America V8, I1, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Includes Cover Art and Table of Contents
Introduction: Maya Language Advocacy And Mayas’ Production Of Cultural Knowledge, Walter E. Little
Introduction: Maya Language Advocacy And Mayas’ Production Of Cultural Knowledge, Walter E. Little
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This introductory essay is part of the special issue Maya America, Volume 8, Issue 1, guest-edited and coordinated by the Mayan Languages Preservation Project. The 10 authors of the various research articles and commentaries represent eight of Guatemala’s 22 Maya languages. What brings these essays into relationship with each other are the pragmatic concerns of strengthening Maya languages, such as providing academic, professional, and social services contexts for using and not merely maintaining these languages but helping them thrive. Each author in this special issue has actively worked in various ways to promote Mayan language and cultural knowledge preservation. As …
Geographic Origins Of Mam Interpretation Encounters At La Clínica De La Raza Fruitvale Village In Oakland, California: Informed By A Survey-Based Study, Anibal Pablo
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This study examined the geographic origins of Mam Maya who sought interpretation services at La Clínica de la Raza’s Fruitvale Village Pediatrics department in Oakland, California. Between February 22 and September 6, 2024. The results showed that 95% of interpretation encounters involved respondents from three municipalities – Todos Santos Cuchumátan, San Juan Atitán, and Santiago Chimaltenango – located within the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes region of western Guatemala. This concentrated pattern suggests that the Fruitvale Mam community is largely rooted in a specific set of municipalities whose linguistic variants and cultural practices have important implications for interpreter training and healthcare …
Who Owns Land, Who Owns Language? Challenging The Commercialization Of Indigenous Language Data, Matthew Riemland
Who Owns Land, Who Owns Language? Challenging The Commercialization Of Indigenous Language Data, Matthew Riemland
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
As Indigenous scholars and activists have pointed out, the commercialization of Indigenous language data resembles the historical and ongoing dispossession of Indigenous land. Using Mayan languages as a case study, this article illustrates the process by which digital advertising platforms – Google and Meta – appropriate and benefit commercially from Indigenous language data, drawing parallels with the dispossession of Indigenous land. It identifies the significant costs of this commercialization to Indigenous communities, including the lack of compensation for the Indigenous language data’s commercial value, the distortion of Indigenous communities’ linguistic and cultural representation online, and the reinforcement of extractive relationships …
La Violencia: Family Stories Of Labor, War, And Migration, Gabriela Merida
La Violencia: Family Stories Of Labor, War, And Migration, Gabriela Merida
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Gabriela Merida, a doctoral student at the University of Albany and a child of Guatemalan Maya refugees, interviews her grandmother and father about their lives in Guatemala and their subsequent experiences as migrants in the United States. Through life history interviews with each of them, Merida examines how foreign intervention shaped the economic and political realities that compelled them to migrate. She employs Giovanni Batz’s (2024) concept of the four invasions as an analytic frame to demonstrate how the historical arc of colonization, the plantation economy, the Guatemalan Civil War, and capitalism produce compounding forms of structural and quotidian violence …
Mayan Languages And Technological Inclusion: The Mayan Languages Preservation Project As An Applied Model To Create Equity In Language Access, Winston Scott
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This article traces the project's founding, structure, and achievements over three years, documenting a community-led effort to create digital resources, including talking glossaries, keyboards, tools to help communities create textbooks for schools, and machine translation corpora for the 22 Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala. Drawing on principles of communitybased language documentation and recognized under UNESCO’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022–2032), the project confronts intersecting challenges of poverty, illiteracy, digital exclusion, and the ethical risks of data extraction by external actors. The author argues that meaningful language digitization should be guided by native speakers and community organizations, rather than …
Who I Am, Andrea Per
Who I Am, Andrea Per
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
I have many beautiful memories from my childhood visiting my grandma in the village of Patzicía, Guatemala. Usually, my cousins and I helped her feed her chickens and collect eggs. She also had turkeys, bunnies, and many other animals, including a parrot that my aunts and uncles bought for her so she wouldn’t feel alone during the day. After helping her, Grandma Rafaela usually invited us to enjoy a traditional Maya dinner: black beans, rice, homemade cheese, and handmade tortillas cooked on her comal over a traditional firewood stove, along with a warm drink she made from toasted corn powder. …
Sentimiento Maya Frente A La Injusticia: Qué Es Ser Maya, Kawoq Baldomero Cuma
Sentimiento Maya Frente A La Injusticia: Qué Es Ser Maya, Kawoq Baldomero Cuma
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
¿Qué es ser maya? El sentimiento de ser maya se refleja en todo nuestro y entorno, como lo es nuestra cosmovisión, donde emerge mucha sabiduría y arte, que muestran nuestra identidad. Los pueblos originarios tenemos un tronco común en nuestras vivencias, y eso nos hace identificarnos con el mismo sentir. Solo expresamos nuestros pensamientos sobre todas las vicisitudes de los distintos escenarios de nuestra historia. Así pues, este ensayo sirve como un llamado a alzar nuestra voz colectiva, para hacer saber al mundo que perduramos —que existimos— a pesar de las indignidades que hemos sufrido en un mundo desigual.
Lenguas Vivas: La Importancia De Preservar El Idioma Mam Y Las Lenguas Indígenas De Guatemala, Sindy Villagrez
Lenguas Vivas: La Importancia De Preservar El Idioma Mam Y Las Lenguas Indígenas De Guatemala, Sindy Villagrez
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Cada vez que una lengua indígena deja de hablarse, el mundo pierde una manera única de entender la vida, la naturaleza y la experiencia humana. Con ella desaparecen historias transmitidas durante generaciones, conocimientos construidos a través de siglos de observación y experiencia, formas particulares de relacionarse con la comunidad y visiones del mundo que no pueden reproducirse completamente en ningún otro idioma. Estas lenguas forman parte del patrimonio cultural de la humanidad porque conservan conocimientos sobre la agricultura, la medicina tradicional, la convivencia comunitaria y la relación respetuosa con la naturaleza. También guardan valores, memorias y formas de pensamiento que …
My Experience As A Mayan Language Interpreter, Misael Itzep
My Experience As A Mayan Language Interpreter, Misael Itzep
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Misael discusses his experiences as a court interpreter for K’iche’ migrants in the United States. He has witnessed that “many of my compatriots don't consider that driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, fleeing after an accident, leaving a minor alone at home ‘for a moment’, hitting their partner, etc., has serious repercussions under the law in the United States, something that rarely has legal consequences in Guatemala. For example, in Guatemala, many driving laws aren’t enforced, such as the requirement to wear a seatbelt or to stop at a red traffic light. In contrast, laws are enforced in …
Importance Of Maya Culinary Traditions In Cultural Identity, Claudia Pacay
Importance Of Maya Culinary Traditions In Cultural Identity, Claudia Pacay
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Elder women play a crucial role in preserving Mayan identity through food, serving as the primary keepers and transmitters of traditional culinary knowledge. Through everyday cooking and special ceremonial meals, they pass down ancestral recipes, techniques, and the symbolic meanings of ingredients to younger generations. These foods are deeply connected to Mayan history, agriculture, spirituality, and community life — such as the use of native maize, traditional grinding methods, and dishes prepared for rituals and celebrations. By teaching children and grandchildren how to prepare these foods and explaining when and why they are eaten, elder women help maintain cultural continuity …
Woven In Silence: Maya Q’Anjob’Al Cosmology, Gaspar Tomas
Woven In Silence: Maya Q’Anjob’Al Cosmology, Gaspar Tomas
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
The Q’anjob’al, Akateko, and Chuj communities of the Guatemalan highlands are among many Maya communities that are flourishing with knowledge that draws on the classical-period Maya civilization and infuses it with contemporary practices. This knowledge guided the Maya people in building a stronger relationship with the natural and spiritual worlds: the very foundation of our social structure and the key to understanding our place in this universe. The survival of our culture, our languages, and our oral traditions all played a critical role in preserving our worldview, but the one that stands resilient above all is the one recorded on …
Front Matter, Maya America Editors
Front Matter, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Includes Cover Art and Table of Contents
Maya Health In The Days Of Deportation Discussion And The Case Example Of Colectivo Vida Digna, Guatemala, David W. Barillas Chon
Maya Health In The Days Of Deportation Discussion And The Case Example Of Colectivo Vida Digna, Guatemala, David W. Barillas Chon
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Health inequalities and health racism have a long history in the Americas, as in Guatemala and the United States. Drawing upon testimonies and case examples from the Maya non-profit Colectivo Vida Digna [Guatemala]. Barillas-Chon reveals how some Maya in Guatemala have organized to overcome historic and current challenges and are now working with Maya who have returned from the US.
Comentario Al Libro: ¡Qué Chula Te Ves! – ¡Wal Watx’Il Heli!, Glenda Yojana Ixtabalán Hernández
Comentario Al Libro: ¡Qué Chula Te Ves! – ¡Wal Watx’Il Heli!, Glenda Yojana Ixtabalán Hernández
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Por todo ello, leer ¡Qué chula te ves! es un acto de escucha intercultural. Cada poema, desde Majan Mundo hasta los textos finales, mezcla recuerdos personales con escenas cósmicas y denuncias históricas. En esa mezcla se produce una armonía que no es complaciente, sino insurgente: belleza como resistencia. Quizá por eso, al terminar de leer, resuena la frase del prólogo transformada en exclamación colectiva: “¡Qué chula te ves, Madre Tierra!”. No es solo un elogio, sino un compromiso político y espiritual: verla libre, viva y en plenitud; ver también a nuestros pueblos y culturas liberados del racismo y del despojo. …
Women In Santa Eulalia, Guatemala Through The Concepts Of Rootedness, Community, And Migration., Helen Hobson
Women In Santa Eulalia, Guatemala Through The Concepts Of Rootedness, Community, And Migration., Helen Hobson
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This essay explores the experiences of Maya Q’anjob’al women in the villages of Santa Eulalia in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Women from eleven communities participated in group interviews during the four months I spent conducting fieldwork in 2024, thus building upon my findings from 2022 and 2023. Questions focused on their daily lives, their connections to people and places, strategies for generating income, and the impact of migration on their lives and the community. Two broad themes emerged from the interviews. The first relates to their relationships to the land and community, and how this rootedness supports a wholistic (Indigenous) sense of …
Introductory Note: Profound Guatemala, Alan Lebaron
Introductory Note: Profound Guatemala, Alan Lebaron
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Words have historic and contemporary variations in meaning. People who write about the Maya employ words such as revitalization, resurgence, agency, resistance, authenticity, and cosmovision, for example. “Profound” is the theme for Maya America this issue, and we present three examples, two from the past and one from today. The 1st profound comes from Raúl Leiva’s poem Mundo Indigena, and the second from Guillermo Bonfil Batalla who applied the word to Mexico. Our third example of profound comes from Silvia Patricia López Juan, one of the authors in this issue of Maya America.
Flores De Caña: Documental, Adrianna Cruz-Manjarrez
Flores De Caña: Documental, Adrianna Cruz-Manjarrez
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
García Ortega, Martha. (2024). Flores de Caña. El Colegio de la Frontera Sur. https://youtu.be/W3Yv_gOT_EQ?si=nHK-70sEa22tZUFO Dirección: Martha García Ortega Fotografía: Marco Girón y Martha García Ortega Edición y posproducción: Meztli Vianey Suárez Mc Liberty Reseña por Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez Universidad de Colima
El Último Viaje, Gaspar Pedro González
El Último Viaje, Gaspar Pedro González
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Gaspar le hizo una oferta a la revista: publicar uno de los capítulos de su último libro, Hojas de Onoño. El capítulo, titulado El Último Viaje, narra el último viaje de un anciano a la comunidad de su juventud, ubicada en el departamento de Huehuetenango, Guatemala. De forma lírica y metafórica, el autor describe cómo se desvanecen los recuerdos y la tristeza por las personas que ya no están. El poeta Daniel Caño escribió una breve reacción personal a la historia que incluimos al final de esta.
Full Issue - Maya America V7, I2, Maya America Editors
Full Issue - Maya America V7, I2, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Full issue of Maya America, volume 7, issue 2.
Living Experiences Of Indigenous Health Practice: Belizean Maya Communities And Belize Migrants, Kristina Baines
Living Experiences Of Indigenous Health Practice: Belizean Maya Communities And Belize Migrants, Kristina Baines
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Belize Maya communities, like many indigenous communities around the world, have long experienced challenges to maintaining health as they interface with an ever-expanding globalized model of development. This essay explores the relationship between traditional ecological practices and health in the context of a holistic understanding of what makes healthy bodies, healthy communities and healthy lives. Using the author’s Embodied Ecological Heritage (EEH) framework and a phenomenological lens, the essay shares how sensory experiences become embodied through everyday practice, promoting health and general wellbeing. This grounded theory, developed in and with Maya communities, helps us understand ways to consider and support …
Princesa Chnab’Jul Un Espacio Para La Mujer Maya Huehueteca Que Florece A Través Del Empoderamiento, Silvia Patricia López Juan
Princesa Chnab’Jul Un Espacio Para La Mujer Maya Huehueteca Que Florece A Través Del Empoderamiento, Silvia Patricia López Juan
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Este documento recoge la historia viva de las mujeres mayas de Huehuetenango que, a lo largo de las décadas, han representado a sus pueblos en espacios de incidencia cultural. Más que un recuento de coronas, títulos y certámenes es un homenaje a la resistencia, la dignificación y el despertar de voces que durante mucho tiempo fueron silenciadas por el racismo y la exclusión. El surgimiento del certamen de la Princesa Xinabajul no fue casual: nació en un contexto marcado por la marginación de los pueblos originarios, donde la mujer maya no fue considerada apta para ser Reina Departamental. A pesar …
Front Matter, Maya America Editors
Front Matter, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Includes Cover Art, Definitions, and Table of Contents
Introductory Note: Maya America Volume 7 Issue 1 2025, Robin Chancer, Alan Lebaron
Introductory Note: Maya America Volume 7 Issue 1 2025, Robin Chancer, Alan Lebaron
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Maya America Volume 7 Issue 1 presents essays, commentaries, and literature that directly or indirectly address our theme for this journal issue: “Maya Cosmic Health.” The authors examine various topics of health, and the collective work addresses the meaning of health as understood through Maya cosmovision. The editors of this special issue aim to encourage bridge-building between Maya health cosmovision and biomedical or psychological practitioners. In addition, we recognize the opportunity to address rapidly changing technological realities, the responses of Maya peoples, and the emerging potentialities for partnerships.
Book Review: Ch’Ul Mut: Sacred Bird Messengers Of The Chamula Maya, David Stoll
Book Review: Ch’Ul Mut: Sacred Bird Messengers Of The Chamula Maya, David Stoll
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
by Maruch Méndez Pérez and Diane Rus University of New Mexico Press, 2023 xli + 365 pp., 75 black-and-white photos, 77 color plates, 4 appendixes
Guatemalan Maya Women’S Attitudes Towards Biomedical Contraception After Migrating To The United States, Shreenaya Prabu, Iris Parshley, Robert Malkin
Guatemalan Maya Women’S Attitudes Towards Biomedical Contraception After Migrating To The United States, Shreenaya Prabu, Iris Parshley, Robert Malkin
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Medical providers in the United States who discuss the use of contraceptives with Maya women migrants might discover strong reluctance and complex beliefs about the social and physical benefits of biomedical contraceptive measures. This research report presents information about contraceptive usage among Maya in Guatemala and how usage or attitudes toward contraception might have changed while living in the United States. The research team, during 2024, interviewed six adult female Guatemalan Maya refugees over Zoom to understand their thoughts toward contraceptive use before and after migrating. Discussion points included: lack of sexual education in Guatemala, health concerns arising from using …
Paris Trip Blog: The Codex Pérez And The Unesco Conference On Language Technologies, Gaspar Tomas
Paris Trip Blog: The Codex Pérez And The Unesco Conference On Language Technologies, Gaspar Tomas
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Gaspar Tomas discusses his trip to Paris, where he attended the UNESCO conference on language technologies. Gaspar has long studied and lived within Maya cosmology; thus he also visited the Codex Pérez. Gaspar explains that technology can and must be employed in the preservation of Indigenous languages. In his own words: “Just as our ancestors once protected our languages, we must remember that ancestral knowledge is not lost; it simply waits to be reclaimed. The responsibility now lies with us to preserve, promote, and archive our voices to shape our future better.”
Full Issue - Maya America V7, I1, Maya America Editors
Full Issue - Maya America V7, I1, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Full issue of Maya America, volume 7, issue 1.
Integration Of Modern Treatments With The Cosmology Of Health Contributes Integrally To Physical, Emotional And Community Wellbeing, An K'A'Ch Guzmán Marcos
Integration Of Modern Treatments With The Cosmology Of Health Contributes Integrally To Physical, Emotional And Community Wellbeing, An K'A'Ch Guzmán Marcos
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
An K'a'ch Guzmán Marcos, an Ixil health care worker in the Ixil region, Guatemala, describes how cosmology forms an integral part of the people's identity. She describes the importance of cosmic health to the lives of the people, and the increasingly successful efforts of Ixil workers to build bridges of understanding with the biomedical medical profession.