The Blood of Guatemala

Abstract

Searching for the Living among the DeadThe memory of the living gives life to the dead.-Inscription above the entrance to Quetzaltenango's general cemetery, 1894 A Walk in the Cemetery It is easy to imagine the city of Quetzaltenango's sprawling general cemetery as a metaphor for Guatemalan society.Shaded by bowers of pepper trees, elaborate mausoleums of prominent Ladino families line the main path at the front of the graveyard.∞ Gated enclaves segregate and protect the graves of wealthy European immigrants-Italian manufacturers and German planters and merchants who helped build Guatemala's co√ee economy.At the end of the walk, stairs abruptly rise to a plateau where the poor are buried under crowded dirt mounds.Amid patches of wildflowers, simple crosses and headstones bear mostly Indian surnames.It seems as if even in death, Quetzaltecos could not escape an unjust and racially divided existence.If one were to venture o√ the main path, however, and examine the lowland graves more closely, a more complicated picture of the city emerges.Mixed among the Ladino vaults, numerous mausoleums of Maya-K'iche's testify to the existence of a large urban indigenous middle class comprised of artisans, builders, farmers, merchants, and political elites.These Indians, their importance in regional and national politics, and how they managed to avoid the fate of similar indigenous communities are the subject of this work.Just down the path from the pantheon of former Guatemalan president Manuel Estrada Cabrera, stands the tomb of Agatón Boj, who died in 1915.Boj, in his day a skilled mason and one of the largest employers in the city, built Estrada's tomb-replete with an ornate frieze and fluted columnsin 1907.A few rows away, Santiago Coyoy's modest grave understates his importance.

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