GUATEMALA 4-24
An approach to its Cultures and Ethnic Groups
Social Sciences Essay in Six Sections
By Darío Morán
danzatradicion@hotmai.com

Section 1 : Introduction

Guatemala in Central América is a marvellous country where 4 peoples together act and live dynamically making the country to be alive.
The four peoples living in an area of 108,889 square kilometers are the Maya,the Garífuna, the Xinca and the Ladino.

Although Mayas today have some physical, ethnic and ethnographical features of some Mexican peoples due to invasions, active trade and family links, remnants of life during the Post Classic period-before and after the Spanish conquest, they have kept some of their great cultural inheritance from their for parents the Great Maya of the Classic Period (300-900 A.C) when they reached their complete flourishment in many fields of knowledge.

Today the Mayas in Guatemala are trying to rescue their proper identity and values linked to their own culture: there are some representatives in the Congress and many other occupy positions as Majors in different City Halls of the 333 municipalities which form the 22 departments of the country.

We have two Nobel Prize winners in Guatemala, one, Miguel Angel Asturias, lawyer and writer who obtained in 1967 the Prize of Literature with his social political novel Mr. President.

The second, Mrs. Rigoberta Menchú Tum who in 1992 obtained the Prize of Peace for the fulfillment of the right observance and respect of human rights of all indigenous peoples in the American continent and the world.
Both Guatemalan Nobel Prize winners are Maya descendants and belong to the K´iché Maya group, the major of all, living in the west highlands in the country.

The Maya people also forms other groups like the Maya Cackchiqueles,the Maya K´ekchí, the Maya Tzutuhil, the Maya Pocomam and other to count 21 groups also know as Mayan ethnic groups.