The Ancient Maya and the Spanish Conquest

Guatemala's history is not nearly as beautiful as its people or its landscape. Since the time of the Spanish conquest starting in 1533, we are all taught to discriminate against each other: indigenous people are discriminated against because we don't understand the importance of their ancient traditions; poor people are discriminated against because we don't realize that we all live off their hard labor; women are discriminated against because we don't respect all that they do for each one of us.

Guatemala is a country that has not been allowed to develop on its own. Thousands of years before the Spanish conquest, the ancient Maya had developed an advanced civilization, which reached it height between the years 300-500 AD. Several centuries later, the invading Spanish treated the Maya as less than human. The Spanish thought that their indigenous traditions and beliefs were wrong, savage and undeveloped. Using gunpowder and bullets, the Spanish sought to destroy the Mayan cultures by imposing their Catholic religion on the native population. In this way the colonizers could control the Maya people and force them to work for them.

After several centuries of Spanish rule, in 1821 Guatemala gained its independence from Spain. However, shortly after rich businessmen from Germany and other parts of Europe arrived to take over the best land to grow crops for export that the local people didn't even eat. Unable to own their own land, many Guatemalans had no other alternative than to work as farm laborers on these large fincas. A finca is a farn that is so huge that they owner needs lots of people working for him to plant and harvest his crops. In the finca the workers are poorly paid, while the owner and his family get more and more rich.