Research hopes to inform public of indigenous peoples' hardships

Although the Maya, the Aztecs and the Incas all were able to construct great societies in ancient Central America, MSU researchers said their current-day descendents still are facing considerable problems.

Eduardo Guizar-Álvarez, an assistant professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and Laurie Medina, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, shared their research on the indigenous people of Latin America at the “Indigenous Issues in the Americas” panel Wednesday afternoon in the International Center.

Guizar-Álvarez and Medina said indigenous people often are relocated, undereducated, under-represented and occasionally struggle to gain the rights offered to natives by the government.

The panel discussion was part of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies’ (CLACS) fall seminar series, which covers a litany of issues in the Latin world, said Robert Blake, the director of CLACS.

The center held the symposium, which focused on natives in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, because the way they interacted with the Earth can teach modern students a lot about their own lives, Blake said.

“(They are) the stewards of the environment that care for natural resources, biodiversity, water capture, all things that make the planet healthy or healthier,” he said. “We need to be knowledgeable about that instead of infringing on their space and their culture.”

The indigenous people of Mexico acted as the caretakers for the environment, Guizar-Álvarez said, but the government has seized control of what originally was the people’s property.

Guizar-Álvarez’s lecture focused on how indigenous people were represented, both in terms of public perception and political representation. He said his research was valuable because he wanted to give tribute to “a voice that has traditionally been marginalized in economic, political or cultural terms.”

The native people often never are taught Spanish, he said, and have been relocated by the government several times and put on reservations so the government can take advantage of valuable natural resources.

“They have a right to the land they live in,” he said at the symposium. “Even their gods inhabit those lands and resist displacement.”

Hispanic studies graduate student Zenaida Moreno said she attended the discussion because she wanted to learn more about the region her ancestors came from.

“It’s very important,” Moreno said. “It informs people from the U.S. about people from around the world and the conditions that are going around. It doesn’t just have an impact in Latin America, but around the world.”

Blake said CLACS will continue to host lectures throughout the school year in hopes of promoting what he called global citizenship.

“If you want to have an opinion about the rest of the world, you need to get educated about it,” he said.