Customer Reviews

The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation (Latin America Otherwise)

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Grandin's research on the Quiche Mayans of Quetzaltennago is exhaustive and well presented. In particular, his central thesis that the Quiches were a social body already divided by the time of the 1954 US-backed coup helps break schismatic thinking regarding the history of the 36 year civil war there that defines the Indians as merely the victims of a violent and complex historical legacy. That said, however, I often found myself asking if the ladinos in the city were similarly divided. Grandin does make some suggestive remarks in this area, but his focus on the Indians of Xela reveals, perhaps, a bias he holds in their favor. Moreover, the book attempts to use the city of Quetzaltenango as a microcosm of the national situation, which for the most part does not follow since the Indians of other highland townships are very different from those of Xela (and even from one another). Finally, I have to mention that Grandin subscribes to currently fashionable theoretical terms (which comes into relief when he talks about the Mayan "body" in his chapter on the cholera epidemic) that may or may not do justice to the social and cultural dynamic he encounters. Overall I would say this is a book worthy of reading despite lacunae in his otherwise critical approach.

"Anyone interested in Latin American history will enjoy this myth-and-stereotype-shattering study of Mayan cultural and national identity. Thick with novelistic detail and anecdote, brilliantly and imaginatively researched, totally engrossing in its melding of convincing analysis and strong narrative sweep, Grandin takes us to a 'high place' and guides us back over the tangled, treacherous paths that led there"

A reworking of Grandin's dissertation, "The Blood of Guatemala" refers to the both the national/ethnic/racial identities that defined Guatemala throughout its history and also the literal blood that flowed during the 30 year civil war in which the most repressive state in the hemisphere slaughtered two hundred thousand of its citizens.

The narrative centers on Mayan elites of the town of Quetzaltenango (a place name that will probably give trouble to any English-based spell checking program) in the western highlands of Guatemala. It tells the history of the indigenous people, the Spanish conquerors and the Ladino bourgeoisie through the centuries by highlighting several key events: a demonstration in 1784 against state monopoly of liquor production that gave three Spaniards control of much of the economic life and police power in the area, a demonstration that became a riot that almost turned into an insurrection; the 1837 cholera epidemic, part of the world-wide spread of that disease, and the way it was handled and mishandled by national government; and the rise of coffee capitalism and the creation of an export economy based on plantations in the lowlands.

Grandin does an excellent job with a complicated set of subjects that include caste, class and national identity and a changing array of ethnic classifications depending on who was in power (who was doing the classifying and who it benefited) at various times.

Recommended for those with some knowledge of the history of Guatemala. An understanding of how historians and ethnographers work and some familiarity with academic prose generally would be helpful but not essential to profit from this book

I appreciated this book for the insights it was able to give me on a city that I will soon visit, but I found the writing style dry and overburdened with unnecessary details. Several times, I fell asleep trying to make it through the reading. Other times, I would lower the book in exasperation and say to myself, "Is this Grandin's dissertation?" The book is very informative, but it is not an accessible read for the layperson.