The Pan-Mayan Movement is an ethno-political movement among the Maya peoples of Guatemala and Mexico. The movement emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s in response to a long tradition of the political marginalization of the large indigenous population of Guatemala, and particularly in response to the violent counter-insurgency policies that disproportionately affected indigenous communities during the Guatemalan Civil War. The movement was organized around an ideology seeking to unite the speakers of Guatemala's many Mayan languages under a single shared cultural/ethnic identity. It was an alternative to either of the parties of the civil war - the communist revolutionaries and the conservative government. Indigenous Mayan linguists trained by North American linguists in the Proyecto linguistico Francisco Marroquin played a major role in organizing the movement. With the 1996 peace accords the movement gained a significant position in Guatemalan politics.
Background
The Pan-Mayan Movement consists of the collaborative action of about more than 20 different Maya language groups. Although the indigenous people of Guatemala make up about half of the total population they are unrepresented and highly discriminated against.
Unification was difficult during a repressive civil war, which helped keep the Mayans fragmented. Mayan organizations were usually local organizations catering to a small group of the population, mostly those in the same language group. Barriers to unification included the diversity of languages, which made it hard to coordinate within the indigenous population. Geographic barriers include the lack of concentration of the Maya in one region of Guatemala and the majority of the population living in rural areas, which makes physical coordination difficult. Finally socioeconomic barriers include high poverty rates and fewer resources than other ethnic groups in the nation.
Mobilization
The Pan-Mayan Movement was officially mobilized when organizations started making explicitly indigenous claims. These organizations focused on creating Pan-Mayanism, uniting the diverse population of Mayan people throughout the nation. The organizations vouched for political autonomy, linguistic preservation, access to land and cultural revitalization.
The movement arose along with the rise of other indigenous movements across Latin America. The movement broke away from former indigenous activism that emerged through peasant organizations but did not make ethnic claims. They have previously joined peasant organizations because creating organizations with explicitly indigenous claims allowed them to be easy targets for discrimination. The international support for indigenous rights at the time helped change that.
Peace Talks
The Pan-Mayan Movement gained strength at the end of a brutal civil war when international pressure had pushed for peace talks in the nation of Guatemala. The peace talks of the early 1990s created an opportunity for Mayan social movements to expand and Pan-Mayanism to succeed. International and nongovernmental organizations saw the need for advocate for human rights for the indigenous population in Guatemala. They helped create pressure on the Guatemalan government in allowing the movement to be part of the peace talks as well as defending the interests of the movement. The Pan-Mayan movement was limited before the peace talks as it occurred during the nation’s civil war, which created genocidal state violence where the victims were largely of indigenous descent. International actors helped highlight the violence that the Mayan community was exposed to.
By 1992 the movement had been nationally recognized as a political actor. Umbrella organizations such as the Coordinadora de Organizaciones del Pueblo Maya (Coordinator of Organizations of the Maya People of Guatemala, COPMAGUA) were created in order to unify organizations under one political roof. This helped better highlight issues that affected the indigenous communities as a whole.