Combating the invisibility and misrepresentation of indigenous migrant communities in Los Angeles and throughout the United States is the goal of “Mayas in LA,” the photographic exhibition that rescues landscapes, people and the environment. cultural heritage of one of the richest and oldest civilizations in the world.
The exhibition was inaugurated by Odilia Romero, executive director of CIELO and the organization’s Mayan workers themselves. It will be open to the public until the end of November.
“When we talk about invisibility, we mean that the Mayan world collides with what many call Latinos and the Mayans are not Latinos,” Romero said. “The Mayans are a civilization diverse among themselves and linguistically diverse.”
The display of images in this metropolis also celebrates the contributions of the Mayan culture of Mexico and Central America, where they navigate racial systems and institutions that often lack cultural competence for them.
In one of the photographs appears Julio Santis, a young Mayan Tzotzil born in Georgia, United States, but who grew up in Chamula, Chiapas, a magical town located 10 kilometers from San Cristóbal de las Casas.
Santis, who is coordinator of the Center for Indigenous Power and Languages (CILP), appears hugging his mother in the town of Cruztón. You can see the firewood cut and prepared for the artisanal charcoal that his father, Antonio Juana, would have prepared to prepare the food at his lunch stand.
“That experience connects me with what I am and who I am now, and to never forget where I come from,” said Santis, who was wearing a special suit made of sheepskin, and only worn by the municipal authorities of Chamula, Chiapas.
Enriching diversity
In Los Angeles, the presence of the Mayans has enriched the diversity in the city, and this is reflected in the works of Jon Endow (a Japanese photographer), Gabriel Carbajal and Seo Ju Park, who captured the cultural and social contributions in portraits. of a Mayan community that is strengthened through its tradition and innovation as described by the peninsular Mayan actor, Josué May Chi.
“It seems that the errors of history are being corrected,” the young actor who participated in the series “Malinche”, born in Chenchoh, Hopelchén (Campeche), told La Opinión.
“We Mayans were asking for spaces; Now we not only want to be there, but we want to be seen, heard and that people know that we are here with all the cultural wealth that we can contribute to society,” he stressed.
Illustrate the life of the Mayans
In early 2024, some CIELO members traveled to Mayan communities in Mexico and Guatemala to spend time with the Mayan families of several members of the organization. During that time, they visited the communities of Huehuetenango and Totonicapán in Guatemala, Citilcum and Kancab in Yucatán, and Crutzón in Chiapas, Mexico.
“This project seeks to show that Mayan communities are present today, as well as illustrate the life that people leave behind when they migrate,” says the administrative director of CIELO. Genesis Ek.
“It is also a way to highlight the diversity that exists among Mayan communities and at the same time, everything we have in common,” he adds.
The exhibit also emphasizes the presence and contributions of Mayan communities in Los Angeles, a city with the largest number of indigenous migrant residents and where Mayan languages such as K’iche’, Akateco, Q’anjobal, Mam, and Tzotzil, among others.
Throughout the exhibition, attendees will be able to appreciate and see various aspects of the daily life of Mayan families, their celebrations on holidays, and some social dynamics and cultures of each community.
“We captured images of a place in Guatemala known as The Valley of Cries, an intersection where buses park and families gather to say goodbye to people who decide to emigrate,” Ek explained.
In fact, he mentions that his grandmother had 10 children, of which five emigrated to the United States. The other five stayed in their village.
“I joke with them, because it hurts them more when my uncles separate than when their children leave,” Genesis mentions. “For us, family always comes first, in everything.”
“We continue with the fight so that we are cared for and that our languages are recognized as a human right in all institutions; Furthermore, that the right to interpret indigenous languages be recognized,” Odilia Romero, executive director of CIELO, told La Opinión.
At the same time, Romero expressed hope that the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, will make the support she has publicly expressed for migrant Mexican indigenous peoples a reality.
Sheinbaum has said he considered issuing constitutional reforms to make social programs related to the rights and recognition of indigenous peoples a key priority.
In fact, in September, the Senate of the Republic approved, in general and in particular, by a unanimous vote of 127 votes, the reform project that recognizes and guarantees the rights of indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities.
According to a 2020 census conducted by Mexico’s national statistics office, the country is home to 68 indigenous peoples, representing nearly 17 million people and around 15% of the population at that time, without considering all indigenous people. who reside in the United States.
In the specific case of the Mayans, the main ethnic groups are: Yucatecan Mayans, the largest group that lives in the states of the Yucatan Peninsula; the Chontales, from Tabasco; Choles, Tzeltals, Tzotziles, Tojolabals and Lacandones of Chiapas.
In Guatemala there are 22 Mayan towns; In Belize the Yucatecan, Mopán and Q’eqchi’ Maya live, and in Honduras they are located in the departments of Copán, Ocotepeque and Santa Bárbara.
Some of the languages of Mayan origin are: Achi, Akateco, Chortí, Chuj, Itza, Ixil, Jakalteco, Qánjob’al, Kaqchikel or K’iche
Where to see the Mayans photography exhibition in LA?
The exhibition opened last week and will be on display until the end of November, and is located in the facilities of the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, located at 2401 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA.
More service windows for indigenous migrants
From the protests of decades ago to the current close collaboration with the authorities of the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, the fight of indigenous communities to combat invisibility and institutionalized racism continues.
Thanks to the work of more than two decades of Odilia Romero, executive director of Indigenous Communities in Leadership (CIELO), indigenous people of Mexican origin can now access countless consular services in 25 indigenous languages.
“The indigenous people have fought to have a space where they are provided with a better service,” recalled Odilia Romero, who managed to open the Comprehensive Care Window for Native and Indigenous Peoples of Mexico Abroad (VAIPOME), thanks to the help from the head of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad, Luis Gutiérrez.
“We financed the project and the need to have a team here [en el consulado]which guides from giving presentations on the rights as a Mexican to our communities in your language,” Romero told La Opinión. “We provide interpretation services and connect calls with our network of interpreters.”
For indigenous people of Mexican origin, the service windows have been a great achievement, because their requests and protests in the past were largely ignored for decades.
Juan Carlos Mondragón, coordinator, announced that, so far, 10 VAIPOME windows have been opened in Albuquerque (New Mexico); Fresno, Los Angeles, Oxnard and San Diego (California); Chicago (Illinois); Miami and Orlando (Florida); New Brunswick (New Jersey) and New York.
Mondragón highlighted that, as of August 2024, Mexican consular authorities in the United States have assisted 4,781 indigenous people in procedures ranging from passport, consular registration, voter ID, protection services and repatriation of bodies.
Building a world in Los Angeles
this day [8 de noviembre] The Mayan calendar marks a break in Ajpú. (god Ajpú) and means a day with the energy charged by a hunter and warrior.
“In a broad interpretation it refers us to the energy of the twin warriors who fight and win in Xibalba.” They go to the underworld and return victorious,” said Odilia Romero, director of CIELO, at the opening of the photographic exhibition.
He added that he did not make that interpretation in a banal way, as is sometimes heard in new era spaces.
“I do it with respect to the Mayan civilization, which has taught us its calculation of time, its numbering, its food system, its
knowledge, their textiles and other ways of making the world,’ he stated.
“We also see this whole world of struggles and making the world here in Los Angeles, since the Mayans are a fundamental part of the food industry, agriculture, restaurants and services in general,” said the director of CIELO. .
“And they are Mayans who have accompanied their communities and maintain them, not only with remittances, but they support and maintain their families, provide education, health and have made their communities great.”
Romero declared that, since time immemorial, the Mayans have given humanity their food and continue to do so when they serve at restaurant tables.
The Mayans and other peoples are present here in the city of Los Angeles and are distributed in at least four countries: Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras; and they speak more than 40 languages, including Mam, Q’anjobal, Q’eqchi’, Tzotzil, Tojolabal.
“They are languages that also sound and build a world here in Los Angeles,” said Romero, who recalled that at the end of the 20th century, the Mayan peoples experienced wars.
For example, in Guatemala a genocidal war devastated 60% of the Mayan population, their women were sexually abused, they were dispossessed of their lands, and due to sociopolitical conditions they took refuge in the southern states of Mexico and the United States.
“The refuge in times of the Guatemalan war reminded us of the binational condition and of the Mayan peoples who split between Mexico and Guatemala, when the borders between both countries were defined in 1820,” said Romero.
“But this history of the Mayan peoples is also our history, since the Nation-States divided us and imposed Spanish as the dominant language,” he said. “Nation-States have suppressed our existence, but as indigenous peoples we have had a great capacity to reinvent ourselves and continue fighting.”
“We have managed to recover from the genocide, racism and xenophobia; We have been creative, we have organized parties to celebrate life and we continue to fight for our rights, against linguistic violence and guarantee the right human choice to interpretation,” concluded the executive director of CIELO