11/07/18 Maya weaving as contemporary cultural commoning

Located at 21 Avenida in Zona 3, a huge hangar represents the dark history of Guatemala. Built as a tramway depot in 1930, it became a military base in 1945. During the armed conflict, it served as a counterinsurgent detention and torture centre. As recently as last May, four military were sentenced to imprisonment of between 33 and 58 years for their involvement in the torture and rape of a young woman at the base in 1981 and the disappearance of her 14-year old brother. Since the military left in 2004, the hangar and its surroundings are the location of the Intercultural Centre with two museums and an art workshop. Even with this transformation, it remains a contested place. In 2012, the government wanted to turn it into a regional police academy which provoked heavy protests from civic society and artists. In January of this year, the Historic Museum of Quetzaltenango was opened. It received severe criticism for its (mis)representation of Xela’s contemporary history, Mayan culture and the armed conflict.

An important component of the Intercultural Centre is the Museum Ixkik’ which was established in 2006 and is dedicated to Mayan clothing. Last Monday, its director Raquel Garcia showed us around. She opened room after room filled with weaving utensils, pottery and Mayan costumes in a wide variety. The museum intends to revive Mayan values and practices. Identifying as a Maya herself, she regrets that she only has a basic knowledge of the K’iche language and the art of weaving. In her endeavour to promote Mayan culture she doesn’t stand alone. In Xela, several textile associations intend to revive Mayan culture and to recuperate from the armed conflict that hit the Maya population particularly hard. The efforts of all these women I see as a process of cultural commoning.

The women benefit from the steadily growing number of tourists in Xela who come to study Spanish at one of its many language schools or sign up as volunteers to work in a development project. Yesterday, I went back to the Ixkik’ museum to interview Raquel Garcia. In the middle of her story, we had to stop because a language teacher and two students entered. Raquel invited them to take a seat. While I left, she started her exposé, explaining how she and her colleagues studied the Mayan Codices to conclude that the Mayan culture is both age-old and very much alive.

Annelou Ypeij

Photo courtesy of Amparo de Leon and Charlotte Middleton, teacher and student at Trama Textiles