Latin-American Studies

December 1996 was the historic month for the Guatemalan army and guerrilla fighters, as they signed the peace accord that brought to an end the bloodiest and longest civil wars ever held in the history of Central America. The conflict continued for thirty six years and according to the 1999 report of Truth Commission sponsored by United Nations, it left in its wave more than 200,000 dead or disappeared, with majority of them being Maya Indians. Ninety percent of these killings were caused by the atrocities committed by army, paramilitary organizations and the state. Greg Grandin presented these horrific details with his lucid eyes in his book The Blood of Guatemala. Grandin was an historian at the Duke University and worked as a consultant for the Truth Commission. In his tenure, he gained considerable experience of the Guatemalas past including role played by the Indians in the social and economic formation of the place.

There is no doubt of the fact that several scholars interpreted and produced explanations on the Guatemalas four decades of violence and repressions in the Latin America. Some of these studies went back as far as to the nineteenth century and found varied distinctions and differences that arose between Ladinos and Indians during that crucial phase of nation building. In these studies are shown the ways liberal Ladino had exploited the peasants and workers to establish the export-oriented economy and how Indians resisted them. For these researchers, Ladinos were the exploiters while the Indians were exploited and subjugated population but Greg Grandin produced different interpretations. His study goes beyond the conventional ethnic lines to show us the histories at both the local as well as national level uncovers the nationalistic endeavors of both Ladino and Indian and helps in explaining the structure of power that ultimately resulted in the war in Guatemala in 1950s.

Grandin examines the Guatemalan history in the most chronological way showing events of each day as well as most important phases of the Guatemala past like the late colonial period, riots of 1786, cholera epidemic of 1837, the rule of the conservative regime under Jose Rafael Carrera, the transformation towards a liberal rule after 1871, the establishment of export economy on the basis of coffee plantation in the post-1871 period and ultimately the decade of democracy i.e. from 1944 to 1954. Democracy decade was the period when peasants and workers as a result of reforms raised their unprecedented voices in the country. Grandin shows how before 1944, Ladino state, just like others, viewed Indians as obstacles of modernization and only believed integration as the way for perusal. Grandin study comes to an end at the point in 1954 when anti communist forces in support of the CIA dethroned the elected president, Jacobi Arbenz, and thus initiated forty years of civil war.

The book deciphers history of Kiche elites in the city of Quetzaltenango from the colonial period towards the mid-twentieth century- these elites or principales, as called by Grandin, strived to assert their position for prestige and power at Guatemala and surprisingly were able to retain the same for more than two centuries. They were able to exert their power and dominating position inspite of many challenges like Bourbon Reforms, a shift of power from conservatism to liberalism and coming of the coffee plantations during late1800s.  From another aspect, Grandin is also able to redress much wider issues like what went behind the solidification of the state power, the nationalistic trends of both the Ladinos and Indians and their existence in Guatemala and the role played by Kiche elites to embrace both the modern world of Ladinos as well as traditional world of Indians. They welcomed all the new developments like construction of railroads etc, sending children to schools, showing photographs of themselves, dressing in traditional dress, constructing of Indian monuments, and holding Mayan beauty pageants. Kiche elites claimed that both the Indian peasants and workers were required to erect a modern and coffee producing country thus they were able to develop a distinguished Indian nationalism. More importantly, local resources were controlled by principales and also Indian population was progressively proletarianized by them as a result Ladino elites were depended on them. Grandin opines no doubt both Indians and Ladino elites were impressed by Kiche elites but in the process this produced an apparently contradictory effect ethnic identity deepened while state power increased (p. 54). It is within this historical social and economical climate, Grandin makes us realize what all that went behind the civil war.

As long as Kiche elites were acting as a medieval men between the Indians and a state, there was a peace in Guatemala but within ten years 1944-1954, the power structure altered, as democracy became the norm and peasants and workers gained power.

Acquisition of lands by the Indian commoners in 1950 on account of the agrarian reforms caused direct threat to the Kiches position. In direct reproach, they joined anti communist groups, who were strictly against the reforms. They broke all the ties with the Indians creating a further divide and making grounds for the leashing of civil wars.
 
Gradin did the ground breaking work by giving us well researched study of all the events that became the root cause of the war and the effects of the same. It also opened yet again scope for further studies and more arguments but there is a need to go further into the position and role played by Kiche. But overall it is a good historical piece which has looked beyond the conventional thoughts and boundaries that go deep within the Guatemalan history. He has also linked elites and commoners, Ladinos and Indians and showed how the actions of the principales at the community level had deeply impacted both the Indian commoners as well as nation state. He has also illustrated how local people and the state were bound and were connected to each group while maintaining their individual identity. He has also effectively dealt with the questions arisen amidst the ethnic and class relations, relations between the nation and the state, identity and nationalism. Overall it is a good anthropological as well as historical study.