Guatemala's distinctive look is rapidly vanishing

By Andres Oppenheimer

CHICHICASTENANGO, Guatemala -- In my first visit to this Indian-majority country in more than a decade, I was shocked by how much things have changed -- the Indians' colorful traditional dress is vanishing and being replaced by blue jeans and made-in-China sweaters.

When I had last visited this Mayan city and the nearby towns bordering Lake Atitlan in 1991, it was a scene unlike anything I had seen anywhere: You drove from town to town and you could see each of Guatemala's more than 21 different Indian groups in their respective, clearly distinctive garments.

No town was the same as the other. You saw the K'Iches of Chichicastenango wearing their red-and-black huipiles, square-cut blouses decorated with embroidered designs; the Solotecos of Sololá in their multi-colored striped shirts and slacks. On market days, usually Thursdays and Sundays, it was a magnificent scene -- a sea of colorful huipiles against the backdrop of pine-tree-covered mountains. It seemed like one of those postcard pictures from National Geographic.

Now the same towns look very different. Most older Indian women still wear their traditional dress, but their daughters cover themselves with Chinese-made sweaters, and their granddaughters have abandoned Indian clothes altogether. They wear T-shirts and Chinese-made plastic sandals.

Among Indian men, the break with the past is even more striking: The vast majority of men are wearing blue jeans and Nike, Adidas or other brand-emblazoned sweaters. They get them from their relatives abroad -- Guatemala is one of the Latin American countries with the highest migration rates to the United States -- or buy them from companies that re-sell second-hand U.S. clothes here.

My first reaction when I saw the significant loss of Mayan traditions was a mixture of sadness and bewilderment. Will the estimated 60 percent Guatemalan Indian population -- the highest in Latin America -- be better or worse off by blending in with the ladino [mixed ancestry] minority, I wondered?

While several non-Indian Guatemalans told me that racism and discrimination is moving a growing number of Indians to abandon their distinctive dress, many others argued that it's a change for the better, and that foreigners who feel bad about the change are being selfish and patronizing.

''You want our Indians to look nice for the picture,'' one university professor told me, conceding that the changes will affect tourism. ``But they want to get ahead in life.''

Many Guatemalans reminded me that the Indian dress that I and most tourists cherish so much are nothing but a relic of Spanish oppression: The Spanish conquistadors divided the country among themselves and forced their respective Indian servants to dress differently to prevent them from fleeing their territory.

Today, there are economic reasons behind the change: A Mayan Indian dress takes months of hard knitting and costs the equivalent of $500, while a second-hand made-in-China sweater imported from the United States goes for $1 or $2. Thus, many Indians keep their traditional dresses for weddings or other special ceremonies.

Likewise, Indian women who used to carry water in clay jars on their heads are now using plastic buckets, which are much lighter.

It doesn't look as exotic to camera-toting tourists, but it's not as hard on the women's backs.

And the Indians' homes, which used to be made of clay and blended beautifully into the landscape, are now made of bare cinder blocks. They're not as pretty, but the previous construction led to many deaths during the 1976 earthquake.

While Guatemala is losing some Indian traditions, several Indian groups announced Dec. 10 the creation of the Mayan University. Francisco Puac, a Mayan University professor, told me the new school seeks to preserve and expand Mayan culture.

Critics say it will create an educated class of difficult-to-employ experts in Indian culture, who would be much better off studying for more marketable careers at established universities.

It's hard to tell who is right, although it's not that hard to guess which side will prevail. Globalization is changing the look of Guatemala's Indians.

It's most likely for the better, but you can't help but feel that something is getting lost.

Source: Miami Herald