The Influence of Catholicism in Guatemala’s Government
Religion has influenced countries for several centuries, it has influenced culture, government, and social views. The United State is based on the belief of freedom of religion. Freedom of religion is a right that every person has,they can choose to practice a religion of their liking and receive no harm from practicing a chosen religion. Guatemala’s Catholic beliefs are from their past rulers of Spain. Catholicism has greatly influenced the politics and ideologies of Guatemala through leaders and government and military enforcement. Research has shown that Guatemala has been greatly influenced by Catholicism and Mayan belief. The Catholic religion has hindered the indigenous
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people of Guatemala from preserving their ancestral Mayan religion. Catholicism influenced the government of Guatemala. The Catholic religion influenced Guatemala’s government by giving power to the leaders of the Catholic church. Persists, Arch Bishops and other important figures of the church were given authority by the Guatemalan government. Under the control of Rafael Carrera in 1859 ,the Catholic religion became the sole religion of Guatemala. However, the church lost power in 1879 , it was deprived of property, and prohibited from discussing political issues (Cruz 351). The church had privileges that most citizens of Guatemala did not have. The church was allowed to make local laws and to enforce the Catholic religion on the citizens of their towns. In another study published in 2006 Wendy Tyndale Guatemalan Mayans in San Marcos “are catholic but with their vision of the universe, interwoven with their Christian beliefs (315)”. The influence that changed Guatemalan government.
In the work Church and State by Joel Morales Cruz, he mentions how Rafael makes Catholicism Guatemala’s national religion (351). Catholicism is put on a peddle stool and revered. Political dictators influenced and change Guatemala’s government. However, Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez believes that “religious discourse” changed how Guatemala’s societal ideas (18). Guatemala became more centered on their Christian beliefs and disregarded the Mayan religion. Guatemala turned to Christianity to become another Israel. Sullivan discusses how the idea of Guatemala becoming like Israel, “ a chosen nation called to fulfill the law of God”, changes the laws and authority in Guatemala (18). Priests and Arch Bishops created rules and established new ideals about Catholicism. Mayan people were not regarded as respectable citizens, the Catholic religion impeded the preservation of the Mayan culture. Not only were Political dictators responsible for Guatemala’s government reforms, but Catholic power within the government made life difficult for the indigenous people of …show more content…
Guatemala. Rafael Carrera promoted to keep the church and state together in government. In the work A Chosen People and the Church and State, one trend in both of these works is that the political leaders that take power in Guatemala were motivated by their own religious beliefs. In 1959, Rafael Carrera made the nation’s sole religion Catholic, Carrera challenged politics, motivated by religious concerns forcibly controlled the power structure inherited from colonial times (Sullivan Gonzalez 17). Carrera was a dictator in Guatemala for several years, he was motivated by his beliefs the Catholic religion. Carrera protested in favor of the church and state remaining equal parts of the government system. Catholicism led to the oppression of indigenous Mayan people of Guatemala. Catholicism has been a big part within Guatemala’s history several sources reveal that the indigenous Mayan people were being repressed due to Guatemala’s Catholic practice. Catholicism played a major role in the development of the Guatemalan nation. In the beginning of Guatemala’s growth as a nation, there was a lack of equality in Guatemala , the Mayans shifted the religious view of Guatemala. Bruce J. Calder states “the Maya involved themselves in a movement for socioeconomic and political change which swept Guatemala . . . despite the severe repression of both the movement change and the Mayan generally in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s “( 93 ) . Mayans had to change their government in order to be recognized as complete citizens. Bruce J. Calder and Virginia Garrard-Burnett both agree that the repression of the Maya encouraged the pro-Mayan movement. In “ 1993, the Mayan movement became a full-blown political and social crusade by and for Mayan people to assert their own cultural and political rights” (Garrard-Burnett 129). Both authors support the claim that the oppression of the indigenous Mayan people of Guatemala was due to the cultures repression from the government. The government was highly influenced by the catholic religion. The Mayan and Catholic religion are combined together.
In the work Mayan and Catholic Spiritual beliefs a trend that was prominent in other works was the Mayan culture and Catholic religion sharing similar ideals. The ideals they shared was a “strong sense of community (316)”. The Catholic religion did not only oppress the Mayan people but it made them combine their two religions together. The combination of the two religions preserved their traditional beliefs.
Guatemala has been influenced by political dictators, Catholicism , and government oppression of Mayans. Research shows that the majority of Guatemala's timeline has been influenced by the practice of Catholicism. Catholicism is a religion that is still practiced in Guatemala. Mayans in Guatemala are now equal to other Guatemalans. They all share similar values and religious beliefs. The Maya were able to preserve their culture by resisting political demands. Guatemala has changed its government since it was made an independent
country. Works Cited J. Calder, Bruce . “ Interwoven Histories.” Resurgent Voices in Latin America: Indigenous Peoples, Political Mobilization, and Religious Change, edited by Edward L. Clearly, Timothy J. Steigenga, Rutgers University Press, 2004, pp. 93-94 Cruz, Joel Morales. “Guatemala.” The Histories of the Latin American Church: A Handbook, Augsburg Fortress, Publishers, Minneapolis, 2014, pp. 341–366. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9m0t2k.22. Garrard-Burnett, Virginia. “God was Already Here When Columbus Arrived.” Resurgent Voices In Latin America: Indigenous Peoples, Political Mobilization, and Religious Change, edited by Edward L. Clearly, Timothy J. Steigenga, Rutgers University Press, 2004, pp. 125-129 . Sullivan-González, Douglass. “‘A Chosen People’: Religious Discourse and the Making of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821-1871.” The Americas, vol. 54, no. 1, 1997, pp. 17–38. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1007501. Tyndale, Wendy . “Mayan and Catholic Spiritual Traditions.” Mountain Research and Development, vol. 26, no. 4, 2006 , pp. 315-318 . ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/211235825/fulltextPDF/8312EA742D4B4048PQ/13?accountid=104557 . Accessed 20 October 2017
Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America shows that while Christians thought themselves superior to natives, both sides were diverse and could commit good, bad, or neutral behavior towards each other. Therefore, the Indians and the Christians were much more similar than different. This is apparent in de Vaca’s accounts of Indian to Indian behavior, Christian to Christian behavior, and Indian to Christian behavior (and vice-versa).
Explanation- This article gives examples of how indigenous people used to live before the colonization of Christopher Columbus. After the appearance of Christopher Columbus in Mexico different ethnic groups were distributed amongst different states along with their different languages. In the state of Oaxaca there around sixteen different ethnic groups which the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs are the two main ethnos who have continued to expand amongst the territory. During the Spanish conquest the Mixtec and the Zapotecs’ religion was mostly based on belief in the vital force that animated all living things, meaning that they worshiped the land and the creator. Throughout this day there are still indigenous people who believe and practice their ideology, and the “modernized” are set to practice Catholicism.
The Indigenous people of America are called Native Americans or often referred to as “Indians”. They make up about two percent of the population in the United States and some of them still live in reservations. They once lived freely in the wilderness without any sort of influence or exposure from the Europeans who later came in the year of 1492, and therefore their culture is very different from ours.. In the following essay we will discover some differences between the religious beliefs of the Native American Iroquois and Christianity to see if the culture and ways of living have an effect on the view of religion, but we will also get to know some similarities between them. I am going to be focusing on the Iroquois, which are the northeastern Native Americans who are historically important and powerful.
... god. Religious meeting were held in secrecy in the homes of members of the church, mainly female members of the church. Amalia risked her freedom by holding a meeting in her home. (p232) Both the Ladinos and the Indians believed that they were being punished by their gods for the sufferings they experienced. The Mayans believed that they were being punished by their gods for the suffering their people were experiencing at the hands of the Europeans. “They came, who were destined to come; haughty and hard of manner and strong of voice, such were the instruments of our chiding”. (Castellanos, year, p 56) The religious rites and customs practised by the indigenous people were constructed by Europeans as “lies and deceptions which the devil had invented” (Tignor et al 2002, p97) They were to worship only the Christian God instead of bowing to their many idols.
This essay will study the Central Intelligence Agency’s intervention in Guatemala, and how they assisted Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas in the coup d’état against Jacobo Arbenz. It will describe the reasons of the intervention, the United States’ interest in Guatemala, and how it affected Guatemalans. Such events help explain much about the role that the United States has in their own migration. The paper argues that the United States’ political interest in Guatemala played a fundamental role in the migration of Guatemalans to its borders. As a result of this intervention, Guatemala suffered one of its worse political periods in their history. Guatemala experienced a period of political instability that led the country into social chaos, where many Guatemalans opted to migrate to the United States.
Guatemala held democratic elections in 1944 and 1951, they resulted in leftist government groups holding power and rule of the country. Intervention from the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed a more conservative military minded regime. A military coup took place in 1954 to over throw the elected government and install the rule of Carlos Castillo Armas. Carlos Armas was a military general before the coup and with the CIA orchestrated operation he was made President from July 8th 1954 until his assassination in 1957. Upon his assassination, similar militant minded presidents rose to power and continued to run the country. Due to the nature of military dictatorship, in 1960, social discontent began to give way to left wing militants made up of the Mayan indigenous people and rural peasantry. This is the match that lit Guatemala’s Civil War, street battles between the two groups tore the country and pressured the autocratic ruler General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes to fight harder against the civilian insurrection. Similar to the government Abductions th...
The French and Spanish were heavily influenced by Catholicism. Both colonies had established missions across the New World in hopes of converting Indians to Catholicism. The Spanish colonists were especially determined to establish missions and convert Indians in their territories as a response to the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile seeking to “transform their own pluralistic societies into a purely Christian kingdom (Butler 28). The Spanish were also heavily influenced by religion due to the Crusades in the Old World as well being motivated by “gold, God, and glory” for voyaging into the New World. The role of religion in Spanish society extended out towards how they governed their colonies as the Catholic populations were under control of both the monarchy and the Vatican. The French Catholics had taken example from the Spanish by establishing multiple missions in the New World in efforts to become trading partners with local Indian tribes. Both New Spain and New France were heavily influenced by Catholicism c...
Today more than six million Maya live in Guatemala Mexico and Belize. Modern Maya has brought their unique way of life. Their religion to has changed from idolatry to Catholicism, animal offerings. Tikal is a Visitor site with museums and hotels cover the space was camp of Arc.
When I was a toddler, I had blonde hair, blue eyes and white skin, and still presently do. My parents are Guatemalan, however they fit the stereotype of a Guatemalan, small, a bit chunky, and tan. My siblings also carry the same genes as my parents, but yet I stand out like the moon in a night sky. But just like the moon, the public looks at me different. Growing up in a hispanic community and having a Latino family I gained numerous titles for my abnormality. “Canche” is the George Clooney of my nicknames, it means white boy.
The Mayan interpretation of the cosmos included a plethora of gods: some benevolent, others malignant; some unattainable, others close at hand. Defining past, present and future, it concerned itself with death, the afterlife and reincarnation. Itzamna was a Mayan god that represented the earth and sky. This god was there to produce vegitables. The Aztec beliefs were very similar to that of the Mayan civilization. Both societies were very similar in their belief of gods, sacrificing, and wars. The ritual of human sacrifice was infulenced by the Toltec tradition. Praying, sacrifice, speaking in metaphors were all forms of speaking with dieties. The calendar was very accurate, more accurate then the calendars that we follow now. Europeans thought that Mesoamerican people were wild people because they were cannibals, believed in many gods, and "enjoyed sex".
The consistent interaction between Mesoamerican civilizations within the region created a cultural diffusion that allowed Mesoamericans to share a great degree of their cultural practices and knowledge with each other. Church and State are one of the same. They considered the gods to be the everyday rulers of their daily lives and depended on their priests and rulers to ensure that the gods were appeased and didn't destroy the earth or extinguish the essential life sustaining Sun. The Maya religion required a highly complicated method of worship that demanded bloodletting and sacrificial rituals that were often fulfilled by the kings and queens. These efforts were necessary because it was believed to "feed" the gods.
In the Central America, most notably the Yucatan Peninsula, are the Maya, a group of people whose polytheistic religion and advanced civilization once flourished (Houston, 43). The Maya reached their peak during the Classic Period from around CE 250 to the ninth century CE when the civilization fell and dispersed (Sharer, 1). Although much has been lost, the gods and goddesses and the religious practices of the Classic Maya give insight into their lives and reveal what was important to this society. The major Mayan gods and goddesses all have common characteristics and, according to “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). One of these characteristics is that Mayan gods and goddesses have “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198).
The first Catholic priests came to South America with the conquistadors and through social and political force superimposed 16th century Catholicism upon conquered peoples and in subsequent generations upon slaves arriving in the New World. Catholicism has, likewise, frequently absorbed, rather than confronted, popular folk religious beliefs. The resulting religion is often overtly Catholic but covertly pagan. Behind the Catholic facade, the foundations and building structure reflect varying folk religious traditions. (2)
Maya civilization was based mainly on agriculture and religion. Maya every day life revolved around an innumerable number of earth Gods. The most important God was chief, ruler of all Gods. The Mayans prayed to these God’s particularly about their crops. For example, they prayed to the Rain God to nourish their crops. They practiced their religion during ceremonies conducted by priests. They also practiced confession and even fasted before important ceremonies (Gann and Thompson 1931 118-138). The Mayans also b...