Tradition vs. Modernity in Mexico

Mayan Descendents Struggling to Cope in Modern World

By Alastair Leithead

BBC

15 February 2012

Citation: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17051131

The Mayan civilisation may have died out centuries ago, but people descended from them still live in Central America and southern Mexico.

They are among the poorest in the region, and attempts to alleviate their poverty have relied on modernisation and development - but the results are far from ideal.

Alastair Leithead reports from the Mexican state of Chiapas.

(Article clipped, see link for video)

This video illustrates how indigenous Mayans in Mexico are being impacted by globalization. The segment begins with a Mayan Curandero (healer) performing a ceremony to cure a disease that he believes doctors, with all their modern gadgets cannot cure: fear. He believes that "doctors cannot cure the sickness of the soul." However, despite the prevalence of these medicinal traditions and others, like the Saint's Day festival, globalization is insidiously altering these people's traditional ways. Mayans are among the poorest indigenous people in Mexico, and constantly face pressures from the Mexican government to modernize. The video illustrated the government's latest attempt to bring the Mayans to terms of modernity: a rural city, complete with a hospital to combat infant mortality, to help lessen poverty among Mayans. However, the city is a ghost town; few Mayans have moved in, and those who did had to deal with shoddy construction of houses and buildings that failed to meet Mayan traditional cooking needs. The video ends with a segment from the Mexican government official who helped design the city, who expressed his confidence that more Mayans would move in. In ending the segment, the reporter closed with the cryptic phrase: "there is no escaping the modern world."

The theme of this video is clear: Mayans need to modernize. Globalization does make this a fact, and I agree that to some degree there is no escaping modernity. However, I feel strongly that this perhaps was an unwise approach to development in this Mexican community. For example, the rural city that was built did not serve the needs of the community. One of the Mayan women who lived in the complex remarked that the house had already started falling apart, that there was no water, and that she actually had to construct a separate kitchen to cook in because Mayans cook over wood fires, and the floor of these houses was also wood! Seems to me that these houses are just a waste of time. It was clear that the Mexican government had a mission: to reduce poverty, infant mortality, and bring this isolated community "closer to social services." These are all noble goals, but their approach was way off. Where are the Mayan voices in all of this? What do they think they need in order to combat these challenges in their community? This reminds me greatly of the work of Amayrta Sen (if you haven't read Development as Freedom then you definitely should!), particularly his belief in a "capabilities approach" to development (ie: what are people capable of?). Like the belief that by educating women, they will all make similar choices (to have children later etc), this rural town was built on the belief that if you build modern buildings and hospitals, people will use them. However, both of these approaches deny people their own agency in the matter, and group people together assuming that they will all make the same decision. The Mexican government official who constructed the city remarked that "it was difficult to deal with the culture and customs of the indigenous Mayans." This phrase in itself indicates a certain devaluation of the Mayan people in my opinion. It is clear that the Mexican government officials were not looking to create a partnership with Mayans; rather, they simply wanted to supplant a modern way of life on these very traditional people. In cases like this, agency is extremely vital, and should be encouraged. Development in this sense should be about creating collaborative partnerships between locals and national officials to better the community as the community sees fit.