MAYA PERSPECTIVES
Educational Documentary Series
(THE AUDIO-VISUAL LIBRARY IN
THE UGL NOW HAS THIS SERIES; CHECK THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THESE 20 FILMS BELOW; YOU
CAN WATCH THESE VIDEOS IN THE AUDIO-VISUAL LIBRARY)
About the
Mayan people Yesterday and Today
The Pre-Classical and Classic Maya who
flourished between approximately
(2000 B.C-250 A.D) in Mexico, Guatemala,
and Belize, perfected the most
elaborate writing system in the
hemisphere, mastered mathematics, created
astronomy based calendars of astonishing
accuracy, and built massive
pyramids all over southeastern
Meso-America. Today there are some twenty
eight different Mayan languages still
spoken by descendants of the ancient
Maya. Mayans of all language groups were
systematically subjugated by the
Spaniards at the time of the conquest in
the early 16th century. Indians
who were not killed in battle or felled by
European diseases were forced
to work on colonial plantations, often as
slaves.
Socioeconomic Conditions
Guatemala has a population of over 10
million people. Eighty-seven percent
of indigenous households are living below
the poverty line. Forty-one
percent of Mayan children are malnourished.
Fifty percent of Mayan children
die before the age of five. Eighty-seven
percent of indigenous families
have no potable water, while over two
million have no access to proper
sanitation, and seventy percent have no
electricity.
War and Peace
According to the Commission of Historical
Clarification created as part of
the peace accords,"Guatemala's
government allowed the military to carry out
policy of genocide against Mayan people
during the bloodiest era of the
nation's 36-year-war where more than
200,000 people died before the
conflict ended with a peace agreement in
December of 1996. The Mayan of
Guatemala have suffered five centuries of
exploitation and repression. They
have been massacred, enslaved,
dispossessed of communal lands, and
discouraged from practicing their cultural
traditions. They continue to be
exploited through a system of land tenure
inherited from the Spanish
conquest.
Healing and Reconstruction
Now that the war has ended a tremendous
reconstruction of the country has
begun. On December 29, 1998, at the second
anniversary of the signing of
the peace accords the president of the
Republic of Guatemala, President
Alvaro Arzϊ, asked pardon from the
Guatemalan people on behalf of the state
for the massacres and torture carried out
by the military and security
forces during the internal armed conflict.
This gesture of reconciliation
has opened the doors of communication for
the Mayans granting them the
political space needed to develop their
own medias of mass communications.
About Maya Perspectives
Maya Perspectives is an award winning
educational series which documents the
lives and struggles of the Mayan people.
Patricia Moore is the "Maya
Perspectives" series creator, producer and primary videographer.
Moore is
a photojournalists and videographer
specializing in Mayan indigenous rights
issues. She has been a contributing
photographer for the Texas Observer for
the past eight years and has produced
three nationally touring photographic
exhibits on the Mayan people of Guatemala
and Chiapas.
She first visited Guatemala in 1993 as a
documentary photographer, invited
by a human rights delegation, organized by
the Guatemala Support Network
and the Dominican Sisters of Houston,
Texas. The war in Guatemala
heightened the dangers of the fact finding
expedition. "At first glance,
the beauty of the land and the colorful
clothing of the Mayan people
disguises the tyranny the people
suffer," says Moore.
While seeking a degree in journalism at
the University of Texas at Austin,
Moore studied the ancient history and traditional customs of the Mayan
people.
During summer and semester breaks she continued to return to
Guatemala, sometimes venturing into
Chiapas, Mexico with her backpack and
Sony camcorder. Climbing 10,000 foot mountain
ranges and trekking through
jungles to get to isolated Mayan villages
was hard on a Texan who lived
most of her life at sea-level altitudes.
As the years progressed she
learned more about the realities of the
Mayan people. Most importantly, she
was accepted into their communities and
families as a friend.
MAYA
PERSPECTIVES Documentary Video Series
(1) "The
Return of ARDIGUA" ( one hour)
This is a documentary about the return of
the dispersed refugees who had
fled the war in Guatemala during the early
1980s and settled in Chiapas
along the border of Guatemala. These
refugees did not live in the Mexican
refugee camps because they did not leave
Guatemala in large groups from
areas where the Guatemalan massacres took
place. Most of the dispersed
refugees where community leaders and their
family members who had suffered
selective repression by the Guatemalan
military. Many left with out their
identification documents with hopes of one
day returning to Guatemala.
Under the October 8th peace agreement
representatives from the refugee
camps had negotiated with the Guatemalan
government to return to their
country and purchase large tracts of land
on credit. The refugee not
living in camps decided to organize
themselves to petition the government
for their return. ARDIGUA, the
Organization of Dispersed Guatemalan Refugee
negotiated with the Guatemalan government
for six years and finally won the
right to return to the southern coast ,
where the richest farmland is
located in the heart of the coffee growing
regions. Rich landholders in the
region tried to stop the purchase of
plantation land to the returning
farmers.
During their six years of struggle to be
recognized as documented refugees
by the government, ARDIGUA refugees
prepared themselves in the hopes of
establishing a cooperative coffee
plantation where workers owned their own
homes and shared in the work and profits
of the plantation. Credit was
finally extended to ARDIGUA in November of
1998 to purchase the first of
four coffee plantations ARDIGUA would
acquire. Profits from the sale of
plantation coffee are used to repay their
debt..
Filmed by Patricia Moore, edited by Vicki
Hartin and Patricia Moore,
narrated by Marco Fregoso,translated by Genie
Johnson and Marco Fregoso.
Maya Perspectives Documentary Series
(2&3) Low Intensity War and NeoLiberalism:part 1
& 2 ( two thirty minute
shows)
On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista Army of
Liberation declared war on the
Mexican government and occupied one third
of the state of Chiapas, Mexico
as a response to the signing of the North
American Free Trade Agreement and
abuse of indigenous rights issues. This
program tells the story of
campesino and human rights organizations
struggle during the height of this
conflict.
Filmed and edited by Patricia Moore
(3&4) Two Rituals of the
Mayan Highlands (
two 30 minutes)
Mayan ritual of thanksgiving and a healing
ritual.
Filmed and edited by Dr. Geoff Grimes
(5) Laguna 16 (30 minutes)
The community of Laguna 16 have occupied
federal land and are petitioning
the government for land ownership. A near by estate owner is trying to
block the sale of the lands. The
conditions the farmers are living in
and
their struggle to obtain land is a story repeated throughout Guatemala.
CONIC, a national indigenous farmers
organization visits the community and
assists
them during their fight for the land. Two
months later, CONIC returns with
health care workers from the Coatepeques
Hospital, a Doctor of the PIES
association and members from the Workers
Union of Quetzaltenango who have
helped them to organize this visit to bring medicine to the community.
After the children receive their
vaccinations a pinata game is played.
Filmed by Patricia Moore, edited by Vicki
Hartin and Patricia Moore,
narrated by Marco Fregoso,translated by
Genie Johnson and Marco Fregoso.
(6) La Blanca Ocos (30 minutes)
On September 25, 1996, 426 people were
violently evicted from the community
of La Blanca in Ocos, San Marcos, Guatemala.
In February of that year
campesinos had established an urban
compound on land set aside for urban
development for the poor. Since this time
four people have been
assassinated and the communities homes
have been destroyed and rebuilt
three times.
Maya Perspectives visits the village to
gain a Mayan perspective on what
has occurred.
Filmed and edited by Patricia Moore
(7) The Michael
Devine Case
(30 minutes)
At the fourth annual conference of the
Guatemalan Support Network of Texas
a researcher and law student form St.
Mary's University San Antonio, gives
an analysis of declassified CIA and State
Department documents and other
information surrounding the murder of
Michael Devine, a US
citizen who was living in Guatemala.
PrimeTime news cast on Michael Devine
is shown with the permission of the news
service.
Filmed and edited by Patricia Moore.
(8) Jennifer
Harbury and Alice Zackman stories (30 minutes)
Jennifer Harbury relates her story of the
quest to find her husband, a
Commander in the URNG ORPA guerrilla
army. Alice Zackman tells the story
how
she founded the Guatemalan Human
Rights Commission USA in Washington
D.C.
Filmed and edited by Dr. Geoff Grimes.
Maya Perspectives Documentary Series
(9) Seminal (30 minutes)
In Guatemala on December 29, 1996, peace
accords were signed between the
Guatemalan government, the military and
the URNG which ended 36 years of
war. The body of Carlos Vidal, a community
religious leader (catechist) is
exhumed from an unmarked grave 15 years
after the military took him into
the mountains and tortured him. Testimony
by his father and wife are given.
The town of Seminal gather to pay respects
to his memory.
Filmed by Patricia Moore, edited by Vicki
Hartin and Patricia Moore,
narrated by Marco Fregoso, translated by
Genie Johnson and Marco Fregoso.
(10) The Weavers of Guatemala (thirty minutes)
The history of weaving in Guatemala and
the different types of weaving are
explained as well as identity and
traditional design.
Filmed and edited by Dr. Geoff Grimes.
(11) Tuxauc Exhumation and Panzos Exhumation
(one hour)
After 18 years the Ixil Mayan return to
their small farming village to give
proper burial to their dead and rebuild
their homes. Village testimony
reveals eighty percent of the population
of the community of Tuxauc were
massacred by the Guatemalan military in
1981 and 1982. Included is the
short video on the Panzos massacre
exhumation and Mayan burial ceremony.
Filmed by Patricia Moore, edited by Vicki
Hartin and Patricia Moore,
narrated by Marco Fregoso,translated by
Genie Johnson and Marco Fregoso.
(12) Joseph Kennedy speech: Shut Down the
School of the Americas (30 minutes)
Congressman Joe Kennedy comes to Austin,
Texas and speaks on his
legislature to close the School of the
Americas.
Filmed and edited by Patricia Moore
(13) The Movement of Tzuk Kim-pop
(30 minutes)
The Movement, TZUK KIM POP, (TKP) is comprised of a diverse spectrum of
Mayan and non-governmental organizations.
TKP works in the Western
Highlands of Guatemala, an area comprised of 80 municipalities that
are
situated 2,200 meters above sea
level. In this region political,
socioeconomic and environmental data
reveal a critical level of poverty,
especially amongst the rural indigenous
populations. Guatemala's Western
Highlands are inhabited by approximately
2.5 million people. This is a
concentration of 25 percent of Guatemala's
total population in 8 percent of
the nation's territory. Eighty percent of this population are Mayan
who
belong to the major linguistic communities
of Tzutuhil, Kakchikel, Kiche
and Mam. For these reasons, Tzuk kim-pop
focus of work is in this area.
Filmed and edited by Patricia Moore
(14&15) Land struggles
in Guatemala and the work of UTESP part 1&2
( 30
minutes.) Carlos Mejia, director of Union of State Workers and Popular
Sectors (UTESP), talks about the work of
UTESP and the struggle for land
during the Guatemalan war. Atanasio Tzul:
Guatemala Support Network
conference in Texas 1996.
Filmed and edited by Patricia Moore
Maya Perspectives Documentary Series
(16&17) Guatemalans
United in Dallas:Voz del Pueblo part
1&2 (30 minutes)
Guatemaltecos Unidos en Dallas organization give testimony to why
members
fled to the United States for political
asylum and a plea for Amnesty is
given.
Filmed by Marco Fregoso, Dan Darling, and
Moke Neeley, edited by Vicki
Hartin and Patricia Moore, translated by
Genie Johnson and George St.
Clair. .Song by Pete Sears copyright
granted
(18-19-20) San Isidro
Plantation (30 minutes per tape)
Guatemalan campesinos (farmers) organize
themselves into a Coffee produce
workers union on the San Isidro
plantation. They are fired from their jobs
and black listed by the owner of the
plantation and because of this unable
to obtain work at other coffee
plantations. On the night of December 25th
at a Christmas celebration in Santa Anita,
the small home town of the
plantation workers, which happens to be
located in the middle of the San
Isidro plantation, security guards disrupt
the festival by ambushing the
workers with machetes, knives and
firearms. Four people from Santa Anita
are wounded during the attempted massacre.
This documentary follows the farmers in
their pursuit of justice and
reinstatement of their jobs which has been
court ordered by the presiding
judge of the Labor Justice Department and
whose court authority and orders
have been ignored by the plantation owner.
Filmed by Patricia Moore, edited by Vicki
Hartin, Marco Fregoso and
Patricia Moore, translated by Marco
Fregoso and Genie Johnson.
22 videocassettes :
sd., col. ; 1/2 in. + 1 guide (5 leaves ; 28 cm.) Contents
[V. 1] The return of
ARDIGUA
[v. 2] Low intensity
war and neoliberalism : part 1&2
[v. 3] Two rituals
of the Mayan Highlands
[v. 4] Laguna 16 -- [v. 5] La Blanca Ocos
[v. 6] The Michael
Devine case
[v. 7] Jennifer
Harbury and Alice Zackman stories
[v. 8] Seminal --
[v. 9] The weavers of Guatemala
[v. 10] Tuxauc
exhumation and Panzos exhumation
[v. 11] Joseph
Kennedy speech : shut down the School of the Americas
[v. 12] The movement
of Tzuk Kim-pop
[v. 13] Land
struggles in Guatemala and the work of UTESP : part 1&2
[v. 14] Guatemalans
United in Dallas : Voz del Pueblo pt. 1&2
[v. 15] San Isidro
Plantation : Part 1-3
[v. 16] Pueblo to
people.
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12/21/2008