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The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation
Over the latter half of the twentieth century, the Guatemalan state slaughtered more than two hundred thousand of its citizens. In the wake of this violence, a vibrant pan-Mayan movement has emerged, one that is challenging Ladino (non-indigenous) notions of citizenship and national identity. In The Blood of Guatemala Greg Grandin locates the origins of this ethnic resurgence within the social processes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century state formation rather than in the ruins of the national project of recent decades.
Focusing on Mayan elites in the community of Quetzaltenango, Grandin shows how their efforts to maintain authority over the indigenous population and secure political power in relation to non-Indians played a crucial role in the formation of the Guatemalan nation. To explore the close connection between nationalism, state power, ethnic identity, and political violence, Grandin draws on sources as diverse as photographs, public rituals, oral testimony, literature, and a collection of previously untapped documents written during the nineteenth century. He explains how the cultural anxiety brought about by Guatemala’s transition to coffee capitalism during this period led Mayan patriarchs to develop understandings of race and nation that were contrary to Ladino notions of assimilation and progress. This alternative national vision, however, could not take hold in a country plagued by class and ethnic divisions. In the years prior to the 1954 coup, class conflict became impossible to contain as the elites violently opposed land claims made by indigenous peasants.
This “history of power” reconsiders the way scholars understand the history of Guatemala and will be relevant to those studying nation building and indigenous communities across Latin America.
Focusing on Mayan elites in the community of Quetzaltenango, Grandin shows how their efforts to maintain authority over the indigenous population and secure political power in relation to non-Indians played a crucial role in the formation of the Guatemalan nation. To explore the close connection between nationalism, state power, ethnic identity, and political violence, Grandin draws on sources as diverse as photographs, public rituals, oral testimony, literature, and a collection of previously untapped documents written during the nineteenth century. He explains how the cultural anxiety brought about by Guatemala’s transition to coffee capitalism during this period led Mayan patriarchs to develop understandings of race and nation that were contrary to Ladino notions of assimilation and progress. This alternative national vision, however, could not take hold in a country plagued by class and ethnic divisions. In the years prior to the 1954 coup, class conflict became impossible to contain as the elites violently opposed land claims made by indigenous peasants.
This “history of power” reconsiders the way scholars understand the history of Guatemala and will be relevant to those studying nation building and indigenous communities across Latin America.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Greg Grandin
25 books575 followersGreg Grandin is the author of Fordlandia, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A Professor of History at New York University, Grandin has published a number of other award-winning books, including Empire's Workshop, The Last Colonial Massacre, and The Blood of Guatemala.
Toni Morrison called Grandin's new work, The Empire of Necessity, "compelling, brilliant and necessary." Based on years of research on four continents, the book narrates the history of a slave-ship revolt that inspired Herman Melville's other masterpiece, Benito Cereno. Philip Gourevitch describes it as a "rare book in which the drama of the action and the drama of ideas are equally measured, a work of history and of literary reflection that is as urgent as it is timely."
Grandin has served on the United Nations Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War and has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New Statesman, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and The New York Times.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College, CUNY, in 1992 and his PhD from Yale in 1999. He has been a guest on Democracy Now!, The Charlie Rose Show, and the Chris Hayes Show.
Toni Morrison called Grandin's new work, The Empire of Necessity, "compelling, brilliant and necessary." Based on years of research on four continents, the book narrates the history of a slave-ship revolt that inspired Herman Melville's other masterpiece, Benito Cereno. Philip Gourevitch describes it as a "rare book in which the drama of the action and the drama of ideas are equally measured, a work of history and of literary reflection that is as urgent as it is timely."
Grandin has served on the United Nations Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War and has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New Statesman, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and The New York Times.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College, CUNY, in 1992 and his PhD from Yale in 1999. He has been a guest on Democracy Now!, The Charlie Rose Show, and the Chris Hayes Show.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 22, 2010
A reworking of Grandin's dissertation, "The Blood of Guatemala" refers to the both the national/ethnic/racial identities that defined Guatemala throughout its history and also the literal blood that flowed during the 30 year civil war in which the most repressive state in the hemisphere slaughtered two hundred thousand of its citizens.
The narrative centers on Mayan elites of the town of Quetzaltenango (a place name that will probably give trouble to any English-based spell checking program) in the western highlands of Guatemala. It tells the history of the indigenous people, the Spanish conquerors and the Ladino bourgeoisie through the centuries by highlighting several key events: a demonstration in 1784 against state monopoly of liquor production that gave three Spaniards control of much of the economic life and police power in the area, a demonstration that became a riot that almost turned into an insurrection; the 1837 cholera epidemic, part of the world-wide spread of that disease, and the way it was handled and mishandled by national government; and the rise of coffee capitalism and the creation of an export economy based on plantations in the lowlands.
Grandin does an excellent job with a complicated set of subjects that include caste, class and national identity and a changing array of ethnic classifications depending on who was in power (who was doing the classifying and who it benefited) at various times.
Recommended for those with some knowledge of the history of Guatemala. An understanding of how historians and ethnographers work and some familiarity with academic prose generally would be helpful but not essential to profit from this book
The narrative centers on Mayan elites of the town of Quetzaltenango (a place name that will probably give trouble to any English-based spell checking program) in the western highlands of Guatemala. It tells the history of the indigenous people, the Spanish conquerors and the Ladino bourgeoisie through the centuries by highlighting several key events: a demonstration in 1784 against state monopoly of liquor production that gave three Spaniards control of much of the economic life and police power in the area, a demonstration that became a riot that almost turned into an insurrection; the 1837 cholera epidemic, part of the world-wide spread of that disease, and the way it was handled and mishandled by national government; and the rise of coffee capitalism and the creation of an export economy based on plantations in the lowlands.
Grandin does an excellent job with a complicated set of subjects that include caste, class and national identity and a changing array of ethnic classifications depending on who was in power (who was doing the classifying and who it benefited) at various times.
Recommended for those with some knowledge of the history of Guatemala. An understanding of how historians and ethnographers work and some familiarity with academic prose generally would be helpful but not essential to profit from this book
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September 12, 2008I recommend this book... especially to understand capitalism in expansion to new spaces
May 9, 2024
Read while travelling in Guatemala
Excellent book on the power struggle of the Indigenous people of Guatemala faced over the past 400 years - with a specific zoom on K’iche people in Quetzaltenango.
In summary - Largely indigenous elite drew power creating lines along ethnicity rather than class during nationalism of Guatemala through colonialism, dictatorship, democracy but ending with the guerrilla war.
Poses a stark contrast to the Indigenous peoples of Canada who were relegated and pushed out early to secluded self-governing lands - whereas large municipalities and townships had strong indigenous populations >50%, resulting in different educational, technological, and political structures.
Excellent book on the power struggle of the Indigenous people of Guatemala faced over the past 400 years - with a specific zoom on K’iche people in Quetzaltenango.
In summary - Largely indigenous elite drew power creating lines along ethnicity rather than class during nationalism of Guatemala through colonialism, dictatorship, democracy but ending with the guerrilla war.
Poses a stark contrast to the Indigenous peoples of Canada who were relegated and pushed out early to secluded self-governing lands - whereas large municipalities and townships had strong indigenous populations >50%, resulting in different educational, technological, and political structures.
Want to Read
April 1, 2023F1465.2 Q5 G73 2000 College Library Rm. 1191 and Memorial Library
March 9, 2026
I was on a reading tear until I got to this book and it totally derailed me. I had to start it a few times and it felt like a slog, even if parts were rewarding. The book is very "dissertation-y" and very specific: basically about the development of national identity in Quetzaltenango, an important city in Guatemala, primarily in the 1800s.
Still, the book was interesting. The core is about relations between the large indigenous population and, first, the Spanish Crown and, later, the Ladino national government. The hook is that the indigenous community is not without its internal divisions; crucially, there is a stratum of indigenous society who benefited from the colonial arrangement. Some were pretty powerful and wealthy; there are great anecdotes of Ladino community leaders reaching out for help or loans from the indigenous community and getting nothing.
Grandin highlights how this elite, indigenous class worked to protect its privilege at different points, often in surprising ways. The most interesting is in the classic Latin American struggle between Conservative and Liberal parties in the 1800s. Surprising from our vantage point, the Liberals are primarily the villains from the indigenous perspective. In wanting to reform society and erase boundaries between indigenous and non-indigenous (assimilating the indigenous population), they come into conflict with the community and especially its elites. During a war in which the Western Highlands briefly declares independence, the indigenous community sides with the Conservatives.
Other interesting moments: during a cholera outbreak, and then in the 1940s during Arbenz rule, indigenous elites actually joined anticommunist efforts to undermine land reform by indigenous peasants.
Great content for thinking about how, even under governance schemes that hurt a group overall, there are still "winners and losers" within the group who respond to strategic incentives.
Still, the book was interesting. The core is about relations between the large indigenous population and, first, the Spanish Crown and, later, the Ladino national government. The hook is that the indigenous community is not without its internal divisions; crucially, there is a stratum of indigenous society who benefited from the colonial arrangement. Some were pretty powerful and wealthy; there are great anecdotes of Ladino community leaders reaching out for help or loans from the indigenous community and getting nothing.
Grandin highlights how this elite, indigenous class worked to protect its privilege at different points, often in surprising ways. The most interesting is in the classic Latin American struggle between Conservative and Liberal parties in the 1800s. Surprising from our vantage point, the Liberals are primarily the villains from the indigenous perspective. In wanting to reform society and erase boundaries between indigenous and non-indigenous (assimilating the indigenous population), they come into conflict with the community and especially its elites. During a war in which the Western Highlands briefly declares independence, the indigenous community sides with the Conservatives.
Other interesting moments: during a cholera outbreak, and then in the 1940s during Arbenz rule, indigenous elites actually joined anticommunist efforts to undermine land reform by indigenous peasants.
Great content for thinking about how, even under governance schemes that hurt a group overall, there are still "winners and losers" within the group who respond to strategic incentives.
August 29, 2007
This book is one of the best local histories I have read on Guatemala.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews