Megan Martin

Guatemala J-term
Research Proposal
10 January 2013
They more need a hand up, not a hand out.
Mud-caked shoes, paint-stained clothes, and sore aching muscles. Night by night the
results of a days service in Semechaca take its toll. We originally came as a class willing to
serve with intentions of building a medical center. As our days click by, some grow
uncomfortable with our surroundings: wood plank floors to sleep on; toilets that cannot flush
toilet paper; limitations on the food we can eat; almost zero electricity. Discomfort arouses
doubting questions as to our purpose here in Guatemala. How do we know if our service helps or
hinders? Do we confuse our wants for these people with what they actually need? Do the people
here even need, let alone, want, our help? If we came here originally to work towards justice,
then we need to know what definition of justice we came to work under.
Four facts I knew. This class was a travel writing course, we were going to go to
Guatemala, we would be gone for ten days, we were going to build a medical center. Four facts I
knew. All I needed to know to want to be a part of this experience...right? I did not know all of
the details, nor did I think to get them before officially signing up. My heart saw an opportunity
to give of my time, to give of my service, to give of my all for these Guatemalan people. I did
not know where we were staying. Nothing did I know besides our destination: a third world
country.
I was so overwhelmed with the thought of being in a third world country and being of
service I did not take much time to focus on any of the details of the trip. However halfway
through the trip I hit a bump in the road. This bump changed my excitement of helping others to
more of a doubting continuous question of what service really meant. This metaphorical bump
was caused not by the red sticky clay that surrounded us; but by sheer discomfort. Pounding
humidity. Sweat dripped down my face as we worked throughout the sunny afternoon. Red mud
caked to my legs as I walked around the village. Water logged tennis shoes strapped to my feet.
This way to live for five days thoroughly ejected me from my obviously spoiled way of
American life I am accustomed to. Living outside of what I now consider my luxurious normal
life left me outside of my comfort zone entirely.

People in our world today love to help others. Some believe they help tremendously, but
some individuals are better off if they had not lent a hand to assist at all. My entire life I have
grown up to become one of those who just loves to give of myself, my time, and my all in
service of others. I have learned many things through my travels and through my years of service
to others--one of which is that I am very privileged and blessed to have been born an English
speaking woman in America. Often there are some people in America however, that think we are
the best of the best amongst the other countries of the world. We are the highest privileged.
We have the best life style. Some believe that if there are people who live in lifestyles that are
worse off than ours that we are responsible to help them get to a better level of development. We
automatically think that we need to provide for the less fortunate and be of service to them. We
feel a need to reach out and almost provide a makeshift sort of American lifestyle in our own
unique ways. Some often see people that are less fortunate then ourselves and their hearts may
go out to them, which is acceptable--to a degree.
When do we know that our service to others is actually helpful and when is it a
hindrance? When do we push our wants for the people we try to assist too far? When do we
know our helping hands are even wanted where we think they need to be?
This J-term experience summed up into two words: life changing. In a good way of
course. Prior to enrollment in this course I simply was a service girl at heart. Anytime, and
anywhere I was needed I was there. Now in this course however I have come to see the term of
service in a new light which has fascinated me. The detailed questions I have stated are only the
beginning of the winding thoughts flying about in my mind. This time last year I had no idea of
what was happening in Guatemala, or honestly anything to do with the country whatsoever. Now
however learning about the violence in this country in addition to what service can mean has
astounded me. Many things about this trip has changed my perspective entirely on service. The
event of going to Guatemala alone has helped to change my views about what service for others
is all about. One phrase I had never heard before this trip however still sticks out to me today.
They more need a hand up, not a hand out. Surprisingly in all my years of giving of my time
to others selflessly I had never taken this phrase into consideration. It took traveling to an under
developed nation-- and looking not with my eyes but with my heartto have my eyes opened to
a true definition of service.
The first day back in an actual classroom the first question posed to our class
related to our definitions of what service meant to us. My questions this entire trip to myself had
been attempting to figure this question out. The meaning of service to this group of twenty four
young adults stretches wisely beyond our years
Service is: building mentally beneficial relationships in which both sides learn from each
other while the serving focus on giving a hand up and not a hand out. Service should have the
goal of no longer being needed.
Service is: helping someone without doing it all. Building relationships, showing our care
and concern. Working with people towards a common goal. Influencing others to be a better
person.
Service is: mutual understanding and respect.
Service is: a two way street. Many times you go into a service experience and think you
are going to help so much, when in reality you take more out of it.
Service is: selflessness; willingness to help others but also let others help you/change
you; not imposing your way of life on them; being there to be of help.



Climbing to the top of the wooden un stable ladder. Lime green covered paint roller in
one hand, the other hand clutching on to the shaking ladder beneath my feet. Thoughts running
through my mind of praying I do not slip and fall six feet to the mud covered ground. Reaching
my destination on the not yet painted wall, I begin to roll a new coat of life onto this dull colored
building. Speckles of green spray my glasses, and my once black jacket. When do we know our
helping hands are even wanted where we think they need to be? I realized as my paint roller
glided up and down the wall in front of me that a local person could climb this ladder just as
easily as I could. They could be the ones covered in green speckles right then instead of I. How
was my work being of service to these people? Looking around from a top my ladder I saw
Hector, our interpreter/guide, talking with Tom, one of the adult staff on the trip. I saw two
locals talking with other girls on our trip. I saw a mother and nine children surrounding her
laughing and smiling with yet another girl on our trip. Perched atop my ladder I realized not only
were we helping them, but they were helping us. Our presence to them was about them knowing
someone cared, and noticed them. They did not necessarily need us to climb ladders to paint their
buildings, or dig holes in mud to fill in the floor of their medical center. They were a community
of relationships. Building relationships with these people was the true act of service on this trip.


In research, to find that out I thought it would have to do with their colonization times
which began between the years of 1523-1524 when the Spaniards came and decided to conquer
what was already Guatemalas land for themselves. Starting at more or less the beginning has
lead me to read about the history of the Mayas and Guatemalas history, and why possibly their
country is the way it is today. I have decided to write about and tie all together topics such as: the
colonization, the Maya and Ladino population, Guatemalas history (to an extent), the civil war,
acts of service, and why present day Guatemala is the way it is.
At the time of the Spanish conquest there already was 2 million Mayas inhabiting the
present day Guatemala grounds. Then during the 1520s when the Spaniards came to colonialize
what they thought would be their new land, they brought with them demographic chaos that
would strike the Guatemalans for centuries to come. Many factors-warfare, culture shock,
ruthless exploitation, slavery, forced migration, and resettlement-were responsible for the Maya
demise and worked together in horrific, fatal unison However even though the Maya people
were put through all of that by the Spaniards, nothing proved more deadly to their numbers than
the diseases the Spaniards brought with them to this new country ("A Dark Obverse": Maya
Survival in Guatemala,: 1520-1994). The sicknesses that struck the Maya population resulted in
a decrease in number dramatically. However the population increased once again in the 1680s.
Skipping ahead a few years: Leading up to and during the civil war, the masses of
Guatemalan society were consistently dominated by a class of Elites who owned the vast
majority of the land. Much of this land was also owned by multinational corporations, such as
the U.S. owned United Fruit Company in the 1940s and 50s, which had little concern for the
well-being of local populations. Three percent of landholdings control 65 percent of the
agricultural surface, while close to 90 percent of the landholdings are too small for peasant
subsistencethe vast majority of people [are] excluded from basic constitutional guarantees
Sixty percent of the population lives on less than one dollar per day. More than 95 percent of the
poor in Guatemala have not attended a single grade of secondary education, and 44 percent have
never attended school at all (Causes for the Guatemalan Civil War as seen in Paradise in Ashes
by Beatriz Manz). Because of these harsh times it caused the people of Guatemala to want to rise
up and take their land back for themselves. During these times they knew of countries
surrounding them that were able to take back their land from the government, so they figured
why couldnt they do the same? Unfortunately the government at the time struck down the
uprisings with violence. The people thought what they were fighting for was their justice. After a
while the U.S. decided to step in and provide political and military backing to Guatemalas side
of the war. It is clear that the force that drove the civil war for the insurgents in Guatemala was
the reality of economic oppression and violence that existed on a daily basis, inflicted primarily
by the governing elite. However, this force alone likely would not have created such a protracted
and destructive conflict had it not been for the influence of the international community (Causes
for the Guatemalan Civil War as seen in Paradise in Ashes by Beatriz Manz).
Throughout my research I found statistics elaborating on why Guatemala has such
violence throughout its history. Guatemala has one of the highest violent crime rates in Central
America. Between January and September 2012, an average of 95 murders per week were
reported countrywide in Guatemala (Travel.State.Gov). On a national level, the homicide rate
nearly doubled from 2001 to 2006, making Guatemala the second-most-dangerous country in
Latina America, after El Salvador (OCAVI 2006a; 2006b). Guatemala City has become a symbol
of urban violence (Moser and McIlwaine, 2004). On average, 250 people are murdered each
month in the capitol (Resocializing Suffering: Neoliberalism, Accusation, and the Sociopolitical
Context of Guatemala's New Violence). Starved of resources and riddled with corruption,
Guatemalas state institutions have been unable to reverse or even contain this violence, and
from marginal barrios in the capital to desolate stretches of Petn, large swaths of territory are
now effectively under the control of drug traffickers, youth gangs, or other criminal groups.
Guatemalan institutions have always been relatively feeble, but the continuing wave of crime
now poses an acute challenge to the credibility and authority of the government (Crime,
Violence, and the crisis in Guatemala: A Case Study in the Erosion of the State).
All of this sadness and tragic events I believe has been sparked from the beginning during
the colonial times. In my opinion the events that are taking place is Guatemala can be linked to
one question: What if? What if the Spaniards never came, what would Guatemala be like in
present day?
I do realize that the Spaniards came to what is now Guatemala simply to conquer the
land. However I am relating their decision to colonialize the inhabitants who were already there
to an individuals decision in present day to go and be of service to another person. The
Spaniards saw a way of life amongst the inhabitants in the 1520s that were not up to par with the
way they wanted life to be. They therefore took it upon themselves to make the inhabitants
change their way of life to make it better and more accustomed to what the Spaniards knew as
correct. Now, when an individual decides to go and be of service to someone more often than
not their intentions of why they have decided to be of service are pure are for a good cause.
However the act of service itself can be taken into examination here. Living in America we all
have life well off, and privileged. When we see natural disasters strike other countries, or when
we see third world countries that dont have schools or medical centers like we do in America we
think that they need to have these things provided for them, because their lives will not be
benefited without those things. So we take it upon ourselves then to go and be of service to those
less fortunate than ourselves and build these buildings, or provide what we think they need. This
scenario is related to the questions I posed at the beginning: When do we know that our service
to others is actually helpful and when is it a hindrance? When are we pushing our wants for the
people we are trying to assist too far? Are our helping hands even wanted where we think they
need to be?
In these two relatable situations--the colonization and the act of service--are the people
being put through change better off than they were without the change being done to them?

Work Cited
1. Guatemala: Country Specific Information,
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1129.html#crime
2. When did the Spanish arrive in Guatemala?
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_did_the_Spanish_arrive_in_Guatemala
3. "Hard Working, Orderly Little Women": Mayan Vendors and Marketplace Struggles in Early-
Twentieth-Century Guatemala,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40280388?&Search=yes&searchText=postcolonial&searchText=Gua
temala&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DGuatemala%2Bpost
colonial%26fromHomePage%3Dtrue%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearch=
&item=3&ttl=1059&returnArticleService=showFullText
4. Latin American Perspectives,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27648119?seq=2&Search=yes&searchText=Guatemala&searchText
=service&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DGuatemala%2Bse
rvice%26fromHomePage%3Dtrue%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearch=&i
tem=5&ttl=11831&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null
5. "A Dark Obverse": Maya Survival in Guatemala,: 1520-1994
http://www.jstor.org/stable/215503?seq=4&Search=yes&searchText=violence&searchText=Gua
temala&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dviolence%2Bin%2B
Guatemala%26fromHomePage%3Dtrue%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearc
h=&item=4&ttl=5479&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null
6. Causes for the Guatemalan Civil War as seen in Paradise in Ashes by Beatriz Manz,
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/7/causes-for-the-guatemalan-civil-war-as-seen-in-paradise-
in-ashes-by-beatriz-manz
7. CRIME, VIOLENCE, AND THE CRISIS IN GUATEMALA: A CASE STUDY IN THE
EROSION OF THE STATE, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB986.pdf