Indigenous people in Guatemala mark 500 years of ‘resistance’ to Spanish ‘invasion’

With walks, ceremonies, dances, music and a display of the ancestral ball game, indigenous people in a Maya town in Guatemala on Saturday commemorated 500 years of “resistance” after Spanish colonization.

The activities began with a march by indigenous peoples from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras from the center of the municipality of Tecpan (west) to the archaeological site of Iximche in a “counter-celebration” of the arrival of the first expedition to Guatemala by the Spanish conquistadors in 1524.

During the day, indigenous groups took a “tour through the historical memory of 500 years of struggle” in Iximche, the ancient Mayan city where Spanish conquistadors founded Guatemala’s first capital.

In that city, Mayan descendants danced to the rhythm of marimba music on the edge of a circle of fire made of dozens of wax candles of various colors as they burned tree resins.

“We are celebrating 500 years of resistance. It was a cruel and violent invasion,” Pacal Rodriguez, a member of the Kaqchikel Taq Molag, one of the indigenous Guatemalan entities organizing the celebration, told AFP.

“Today we are not celebrating 500 years, today we are commemorating our ancestors, 500 years ago the great massacre began, the invasion of these lands,” Marco Tulio Picchia, an indigenous from the Ralcol Ba Tz organization, regretted to AFP.

He stressed that “racism, discrimination, genocide and major massacres are not celebrated (…), we are in resistance as indigenous peoples.”

He pointed out that the city was burned by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado and that the activities organized by the local municipality to celebrate the arrival of the Spaniards were attacked. He said: “These positions and these actions are truly shameful.”

Meanwhile, Xmucan Alvarez, from the same entity as Bacal, told AFP it was necessary to “do these memorial tours to thank and honor the struggle of our ancestors.”

“We believe it is necessary to talk about the trauma of the invasion in order to begin healing the entire population,” he said.

Alvarez thanked the grandparents because they “taught us the way to never give up above pain and suffering, to always have hope, to always have joy, and to always fight for life.”

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