Cultivating Marginality: The Process of Reconstructing Identity and the Development of Xinka Cultural Activism in Southeastern Guatemala. In: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Pierre Robert Colas; Helmke, C. & F. Sachse (eds.):353-374. Acta Mesoamericana; 27. München: Saurwein, 2014 (original) (raw)

The Xinka in southeastern Guatemala remain at the geographical and cultural periphery of Mesoamerica. With their language unaffiliated and their cultural traits distinct from the neighboring Maya and Pipil, the Xinka have suffered continuous process of acculturation, ladinisation and language loss since the beginning of the colonial era. With the signing of the peace treaty in 1995, the Xinka were first recognised as an independent ethnic group and indigenous communities in southeastern Guatemala have re-defined themselves as Xinka, based on the language that was formerly spoken in their towns and barrios. The topic of this paper is the beginning and development of organised Xinka cultural activism. It will be argued that the process of redefining Xinka culture and identity has been initiated by a small group of activists largely as a reaction to external socio-political circumstances. Recovering lost cultural diacritics, a new Xinka identity is built that legitimises the participation of Xinka activists in the political process of the indigenous rights movement and the institutions that arose from it. This participation is often criticised from within the Maya Movement, and deemed as pretentious. The Xinka activists’ response to this criticism has been to cultivate a status of cultural difference and marginality.