Meanwhile, Maya Descendants Face Discrimination And Poverty

[Judi Lynn]

Meanwhile, Maya Descendants Face Discrimination And Poverty
Henry Morales, Agence France Presse|Dec. 19, 2012, 8:14 AM

At its peak, the Maya civilization had one of the richest cultures in the Americas. Today, ethnic Mayas in central America and Mexico suffer from discrimination, exploitation and poverty.

In Guatemala, where nearly half of the population is indigenous, descendants of the once-mighty ancient civilization have even fallen victims to genocide.

The rich Mayan culture will be in the global spotlight Friday when revelers -- and doomsday watchers -- will mark the end of a 5,200-year era as sketched out in the elaborate Mayan calendar.

But the plight of indigenous Mayas in the region will likely go undiscussed.

"The indigenous population was always seen as cheap labor and this persists to this day," said Guatemalan anthropologist Alvaro Pop, a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

More:
http://www.businessinsider.com/maya-descendants-face-discrimination-2012-12?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider%2Fthelife+%28The+Life%29

[tama]

1. Zapatistas

The Zapatista uprising in Chiapas which inspired the new global revolutionary cycle of horizontal democracy, revolutionary cycle where Western people are learning from indigenous peoples, is by Mayan people.

[Judi Lynn]

2. That hasn't been widely known in the U.S. Thanks. n/t

[tama]

3. Yup

Our neocolonial attitudes change very slow - but they keep on changing. A group of "western" Marxists (one of them became Subcomandante Marcos) went to jungles of Chiapas to teach locals socialism and revolution, but ended up learning from the local people and their traditions of anarchy and horizontal democracy. Mayans have never stopped resisting, see for example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Yucat%C3%A1n

of which struggles Guatemalan civil war and Zapatista uprising are more recent chapters.

Yes they are poor and victims of horrible destruction and massacres and every form of oppression by Europeans, but they are also much else.