A Bitter Irony

Happy, healthy, brown people in colorful traditional Mayan clothing smiling out at you. That`s what you see everywhere there is a billboard or literature promoting Guatemala as a place to visit. If one knew no history and only saw these pictures, one would think that the Mayan people are the cherished people of Guatemala. This is hardly the case. The Mayans are at the bottom of the social strata. They are the beggars in the street, the poorest of the poor in Guatemala. They are the agriculture workers, the maids, the servants, the dishwashers...the invisible ones that quietly do the jobs that no one wants. They have long been the victims of racism and oppression. It is the Mayan people that have been most exploited for decades by the horrendous labor practices of the US backed United Fruit Company. It is the Mayan people that were, during the "civil war" (aka genocide) hunted down and killed en mass. It was the Mayan people that suffered the systematic destruction of over 400 villages by the Guatemalan government. Don´t they weave such lovely and colorful clothes and bags and table cloths? Aren´t they such charming, cute, little folks? Wouldn´t you like to buy a nice colorful woven bag for a couple dollars?