According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, identity means the qualities and/or beliefs that make a particular person or group different from the others. Such qualities and beliefs stem from a culture’s ancestry, whose central customs long surpass their lifespan and effortlessly travel into the future generations. For example, cultures founded on the basis of religion typically pass down their religious beliefs and ideologies firmly, which usually can be traced in the surviving generational cultures still in existence. However, some indigenous cultures were infiltrated and diluted by Europeans during their efforts to colonize and dominate new nations. One culture greatly afflicted by Europeans during this time of colonization was Central …show more content…
Rather than just focusing on identities as a whole, Colop explains how the current state of identities in Central America are a result of many years of repression and considerable influence of the Europeans. Specifically, he discusses the signs of infiltration and repression in sacred texts as well as the education system, Colop states, “It has been suggested that the roots of Guatemalan mestizaje spring from the Popol Wuj because this sacred Mayan text was copied and translate by a Spanish priest.” (Colop 23). This means that even the very sacred principles Guatemalans live by have been colonized. Since such religion is essential to the individuals’ identity within the society, then their identities are not formulated from their ancestors, instead they were forced upon them by their colonizers. In addition, Colop further explains the cultural power struggle in Central America today, specifically between the indigenous and the Spanish. He goes on to say, “With few exceptions, the contemporary Maya and all things Maya are associated with the “past” and “backwardness,” and so it is decided that they must renounce their culture and languages and integrate themselves into the “national culture” and speak the official language. The fixation that the Indians should resemble the Ladinos (culturally and linguistically) is so great that the former are interpreted as an inverse image of the latter… Thus, for some, the very fact that the Maya try to exercise their human rights is equivalent to hating Spain and the Spanish language and signifies a return to “primitive states.””(Colop 26). This demonstrates that colonization exists in Central America today and is still putting a strain on the identities of the indigenous. If the indigenous refuse to conform to the “national culture”, they will face conflict from the Ladinos,