Questions of Indigeneity and the (Re)-Emergent Ch'orti' Maya of Honduras

Abstract

Entre el espacio de unos an˜os, los Ch’orti’de Honduras salieron de una identidad de´bil y vergonzosa a tener unmovimiento e´tnico con miles demiembros y tan fuerte que apresuro´ el gobierno nacional. La volatilidad de tal identidades en la e´poca de derechos y reparaciones indı´genas exige un ana´lisis que reconozca la construccio´n social de identidades de grupos, pero atencio´n u´nica a procesos de construccio´n de corto plazo es impracticable y engan˜adora. La gente utiliza cultura existente para reconocer y fortalecer fronteras e´tnicas. Tal cultura y las identidades que moldea es evidencia clave en decidir si los demandantes indı´genas son legı´timas, o si esta´n aprovecha´ndose de recursos mejor destinados a otros. In the early 1990s, the Honduran Ch’orti’s denied their indigenous heritage; within a few years, however, they had formed a fully fledged ethnic movement with thousands of members putting pressure on the government for land. The volatility of such changing identities in an era of indigenous rights and remuneration lends strong support to the social construction approach to group identity, but extreme versions of this approach are impractical and misleading. People use pre-existing culture to both recognize and reinforce ethnic boundaries. Such culture and the identities it informs are useful in deciding whether people have legitimate claims based on indigeneity, or are usurping resources meant for others in greater need.