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Ashley Perez

Professor Shahrazad Encinias

CAS 113B

12 March 2024

The Shadows of War on Guatemala’s Mayan Children

Many people overlook how a war can affect the lives of a child and rather focus more on

how it would impact society. The war in Guatemala began in 1969 and continued until 1996.

Over 200,000 Guatemalans were killed or disappeared but out of this number, about 83% of

them were indigenous people. The destruction of the Mayan community foreshadowed the loss

of guidance for young Mayan children, leading them to have no knowledge or wisdom of their

ancestors. The children were left alone in poverty to fend for themselves and were forced to live

without any aid from the government. As a result of this, many of them were left struggling with

their physical health because of the environmental damage and lack of natural resources. On top

of that, a great number of Mayan children disappeared or were kidnapped the moment they were

born. The trauma that they faced inevitably continues to affect their mental health. The armed

conflict in Guatemala has affected the future generation of Mayan children in multiple ways, but

the main features are psychological trauma, the destruction of their cultural identity, and the lack

of access to education.

Psychological trauma affects the future generations of Mayan children because of the

way they were exposed to violence, which caused distress to their mental and emotional health.

In the article, “The Effects of State Terrorism and Exile on Indigenous Guatemalan Refugee
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Children: A Mental Health Assessment and an Analysis of Children’s Narratives,” Kenneth E.

Miller studies the mental health of Guatemalan Mayan children who took refuge in Mexico and

what they recall of the violence they endured describing that, “...it can be seen in the vocabulary

of the children, who at a young age readily speak of such things as torture, massacres, and war

when describing the violence that drove their families out of Guatemala” (Miller 93). This

demonstrates how even after the Mayan children are away from the war, they’re still afraid of

what they saw in their homeland. In the article, Miller also states that this resulted in them

developing PTSD, anxiety, and depression.

Equally important, in Children Who Survived: An Examination of the Effects of and

Responses to Armed Conflict in Guatemala and El Salvador, Cristina Vega writes about the

brutality the Mayan children suffered during the war explaining that, “The process of national

recovery in Guatemala must take into account the physical and potential psychological trauma

inflicted on Guatemalan children from events...” (8). This shows how memories of the war can

still be associated with the reconstruction of the Mayan community for children. Vega also

expressed that the children who experienced the violence are now “raising their own children in

contexts of silence, fear, and impunity” (16). The government of Guatemala not addressing this

issue causes no healing or healing for the Mayan community. The recovery from this trauma is

beneficial for the future well-being of future Mayan generations. The trauma would also affect

how the Mayan children would parent their children because of the struggle with their mental

health. In the article, “Terror, Silencing and Children: International, Multidisciplinary

Collaboration with Guatemalan Maya Communities,” Lykes Brinton explains, “The inadequacies

of psychological theory based on a medical model that sees trauma as an intrapsychic

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phenomenon and conceptualizes its effects in situations of war as post-traumatic stress…” (543).

This proves that looking at psychological trauma as an individual experience overlooks the

experience of the whole community. This also relates to seeing trauma as only affecting the mind

and personality can change the perspective of seeing how big the issue of the effects of trauma

has on generations to come. The analytics that Brinton provides helps see the long-term effects

of the mental and physical well-being of the Mayan children. Psychological trauma is important

to know because not only did the trauma affect the Mayan children, but it can also affect the next

generations as well seeing how trauma can be passed down.

In addition, the destruction and displacements of Mayan communities/families affect the

cultural identity of the next generation of Mayan children. In her book, Cristina Vega also writes

about how the murders of the Mayan community affected the Mayan children's cultural identity.

She expresses how, “... killing children the army was attempting to carry out its goal of

eradicating aspects of the Mayan communities culture and limiting any chance at collective

recovery” (Vega 6). When cultural traditions, languages, and practices are destroyed, this affects

the transmission of knowledge to identity for generations of Mayan children. The Mayan

children staying in touch with their cultural roots helps establish the importance of their identity

and the identity of the generations to come. Another important fact is how in the article,

“Guatemala’s Baby Brokers: How Thousands of Children Were Stolen for Adoption,” Rachel

Nolan discusses how Mayan children were adopted abroad during the war. Mayan children being

forced to live in a different country than their homeland affects how they identify themselves.

They have no idea of their roots and their culture. Culture plays a big part in figuring out your

identity and the children who were stolen struggled to navigate who they were in a strange
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environment. A majority of the Mayan children adapted to the language in the country they were

in and forgot about their native background. Since the children spoke differently from their

native language, it was hard to find their parents. There was a language barrier that made it

difficult for the Mayan children to communicate and relocate to their motherland. This results in

the Mayan children having an identity crisis of how they identity themselves since they have no

recollection of their native culture. Moreover, the video, “Guatemalan Genocide Survivor

Rosalina Tuyuc: USC Shoah Foundation,” talks about how Rosalina Tuyuc, a survivor of the war

in Guatemala had no recollection of her culture. Rosalina says, “I did know we were indigenous,

but that was it” (00:01:09). Rosalina was not told of her cultural background growing up which

affected her identity as a Mayan woman. Mayan children weren’t told much of their culture after

the war because of the way the world criminalized the Mayan community. This negatively

impacts the future generations of Mayan children because they would grow up being ashamed of

their cultural backgrounds. The fear of identifying as Mayan because of the way the world

viewed them would affect their perspectives of their native identity. Rosalina also mentions that

her grandmother wouldn’t go into depth when she talked to her about her culture (00:02:38).

This establishes why it is important for Mayan children to learn about their culture growing up.

The Mayan children not knowing their native backgrounds can affect the identity of the next

generation because there would be no knowledge of special traditions.

Lastly, the lack of access to education affects the development and opportunities of the

future generations of Mayan children. In the article, “Children in Crisis: Maya Identity in

Guatemalan Children’s Drawings,” Felix Rodriguez talks about the struggles Mayan children had

because of their lack of no education. Mayan children were struggling with the limited education
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and opportunities they were offered after the war because Mayan children weren’t able to pass

down their cultural heritage to future generations of children. Furthermore, in the article,

“Guatemalan Child Refugees, Then and Now (Disponible En Español),” Rachel Nolan discloses

how there was limited education after Mayan children migrated from their homeland to another

country. Nolan writes about a congresswoman, Vicenta Jerónimo, who is now serving in

Guatemala, and how she was struggling with education when she migrated from Guatemala to a

refugee camp in Mexico. Vicenta Jerónimo was barely able to finish second grade, which led her

to start working as a maid in Mexico (Nolan). Vicenta had no opportunities to finish her

education because of the war and that resulted in her not being able to learn the skills needed to

adapt to modern society. Adding on, in another article, “The human capital consequences of civil

war: Evidence from Guatemala,” Rubiana Chamarbagwala discusses the rates of education of the

Mayan women and men who lived in rural areas post-war. Chamarbagwala states, “… we find

that it was primarily due to a lower likelihood of completing primary school grades that rural

Mayan males and females received less schooling as a result of the war” (Chamarbagwala 43).

The rate of education was low for Mayan children post-war considering how the war destroyed

most of the schools in their community. Education for Mayan children was low as well after the

war because the majority of their community migrated to different countries for safety. This

connects back to how the lack of access to education affects the future generations of Mayan

children because they would have limited career options growing up. Moreover, this also affects

the lack of opportunities because with no work, most of the Mayan children would not be able to

break the cycle of poverty.

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In conclusion, war can have many aspects to it, but there will always be specific

attributions that affect the community of future generations of children the most. As the war

comes to an end, the effects of it echo in the lives of Mayan children. A war is more than what is

left behind on the battlefield and takes a toll on the generations and cultures of Mayan children.

Mayan children in Guatemala had to go every day looking for safety and spend the night

surrounded by the sounds of the massacre that their community faced. They suffered living in

poverty and constantly migrating to continue living safer lives. There are still a majority of

Mayan children who are struggling with their mental and physical well-being regardless of the

war being 28 years ago. People must also take into account the resilience of the Mayan children

which can play a role in shaping a better and safer future for the next generations.
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Works Cited

Brinton Lykes, M. “Terror, Silencing and Children: International, Multidisciplinary

Collaboration with Guatemalan Maya Communities.” Social Science & Medicine (1982),

vol. 38, no. 4, 1994, pp. 543–52, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/02779

5369490250X?via%3Dihub.

Chamarbagwala, Rubiana, and Hilcías E. Morán. “The Human Capital Consequences of Civil

War: Evidence from Guatemala.” Journal of Development Economics, vol. 94, no. 1,

2011, pp. 41–61, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2010.01.005

“Guatemalan Genocide Survivor Rosalina Tuyuc: USC Shoah Foundation.” YouTube, USC

Shoah Foundation, 15 Sept. 2016, youtu.be/d8oDD2xzjjg?si=Yl7wC08o_tuMRsEL

Miller, Kenneth E. “The Effects of State Terrorism and Exile on Indigenous Guatemalan Refugee

Children: A Mental Health Assessment and an Analysis of Children’s Narratives.” Child

Development, vol. 67, no. 1, 1996, pp. 89–106. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1131

688?origin=crossref&seq=1.

Nolan, Rachel. “Guatemala’s Baby Brokers: How Thousands of Children Were Stolen for

Adoption.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Jan. 2024, www.theguardian.

com/news/2024/jan/04/guatemalas-baby-brokers-how-tens-of-thousands-of-children-wer

e-stolen-for-adoption#:~:text=A%20report%20in%202000%20found,Most%20were%20I

ndigenous%20Maya.

Nolan, Rachel. “Guatemalan Child Refugees, Then and Now (Disponible En Español).” NACLA,

13 Nov. 2020, https://nacla.org/news/2021/04/23/guatemalan-child-refugees-then-and

-now-disponible-en-espa%C3%B1ol.
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Vega, Cristina. “Background.” Children Who Survived: An Examination of the Effects of and

Responses to Armed Conflict in Guatemala and El Salvador. LAP LAMBERT. Academic

Publishing, 2012. pp. 3-21.

Rodriguez, Felix. “Children in Crisis: Maya Identity in Guatemalan Children’s Drawings.”

Studies in Art Education, vol. 59, no. 4, 2018, pp. 311–27, https://doi.org/10.1080/00393

541.2018.1509262.