Garifuna Place-Making: Hope for the Guatemalan Nation

Abstract

In this thesis I use the geographic framework of moral progress to analyze the few places within Guatemala that are being constructed by the Garinagu. I use specific criteria from the framework to judge whether or not the Garinagu are making moral progress based on information I acquired through my progressive fieldwork and literature. While Guatemalans have been struggling for more than a decade to experience more fully the Peace Accords, the unique Garifuna communities of Livingston and Puerto Barrios (and places within them, such as the schools, spiritual places, and the Garifuna Cultural Institute) encourage truth, diversity, and justice. I argue that making known this ongoing successful process of constructing and reconstructing the Garifuna communities could provide hope for the rest of the "hopelessly dichotomous" Guatemalan nation.