Global Coloniality Of Power In Guatemala: Racism, Genocide, Citizenship
by Egla Martínez Salazar /
2012 / English / PDF
1.2 MB Download
In this engaged critique of the geopolitics of
knowledge, Egla Martínez Salazar examines the genocide and other
forms of state terror such as racialized feminicide and the attack
on Maya childhood, which occurred in Guatemala of the 1980s and
'90s with the full support of Western colonial powers. Drawing on a
careful analysis of recently declassified state documents, thematic
life histories, and compelling interviews with Maya and Mestizo
women and men survivors, Martinez Salazar shows how people
resisting oppression were converted into the politically abject. At
the center of her book is an examination of how coloniality
survives colonialism—a crucial point for understanding how
contemporary hegemonic practices and ideologies such as equality,
democracy, human rights, peace, and citizenship are deeply
contested terrains, for they create nominal equality from practical
social inequality. While many in the global North continue to enjoy
the benefits of this domination, millions, if not billions, in both
the South and North have been persecuted, controlled, and
exterminated during their struggles for a more just
world.
In this engaged critique of the geopolitics of
knowledge, Egla Martínez Salazar examines the genocide and other
forms of state terror such as racialized feminicide and the attack
on Maya childhood, which occurred in Guatemala of the 1980s and
'90s with the full support of Western colonial powers. Drawing on a
careful analysis of recently declassified state documents, thematic
life histories, and compelling interviews with Maya and Mestizo
women and men survivors, Martinez Salazar shows how people
resisting oppression were converted into the politically abject. At
the center of her book is an examination of how coloniality
survives colonialism—a crucial point for understanding how
contemporary hegemonic practices and ideologies such as equality,
democracy, human rights, peace, and citizenship are deeply
contested terrains, for they create nominal equality from practical
social inequality. While many in the global North continue to enjoy
the benefits of this domination, millions, if not billions, in both
the South and North have been persecuted, controlled, and
exterminated during their struggles for a more just
world.
