In Their Own Voices
It is a truism that history gets told by the victors, but
David Carey Jr., assistant professor of history, has used
his knowledge of a little-known indigenous language of Guatemala
to set the historical record straight. Through interviews
conducted in the Kaqchikel language, he allows the Mayan people
to give their account of their history, preserved through
their oral history tradition.
After collecting the oral histories through hundreds of interviews,
Carey gave the people an extraordinary gift, reversing the
traditional pattern of exploitation by outsiders. He reproduced
for them copies of their history written in their own language
and gave it to elders he’d interviewed and to teachers
to be used in schools. When he secures funding, he plans to
have the Kaqchikel history published in Guatemala so it can
be distributed more widely. The Mayans were overwhelmed by
this gift and told Carey that no other researchers had shared
research about them with their community.
Meanwhile, his more analytical English-language book, “Our
Elders Teach Us: Maya-Kaqchikel Historical Perspectives,”
is being published by the University of Alabama Press, due
out in December. “Our Elders Teach Us” is a history
of the last 130 years in Guatemala based on both the oral
histories he collected and Spanish-language archives. Because
of the oral histories, his book offers a broader perspective
on the history of the region than the traditional Ladino or
western histories.
Carey first went to Guatemala as a Tulane University graduate
student in 1994. Over a five year period, Carey learned the
language, spent four summers in field work and lived there
for a year, from 1997 to 1998. Combining the methodological
approaches of anthropology as well as history, he conducted
414 interviews with sources in tiny villages and in larger
population centers, including Guatemala City, to gain as broad-based
a perspective as possible. In doing so, he recaptures a Mayan-centered
account that has been omitted from official histories.
Using the native language gave Carey entree to the community.
There are 21 Mayan languages, Carey says, as well as Spanish,
the official language, but Kaqchikel is one of the most widely
spoken Mayan languages. The population is 70 percent Mayan,
he says, but many of the younger people are not learning the
Kaqchikel language. His Mayan language book will help preserve
the language as well as the oral histories.
Supported by a Faculty Senate research award, Carey started
a new project during the summer of 2001. He began interviewing
women and hired women from the indigenous population to interview
other women to capture an account of Mayan history from the
perspective of Mayan women. He plans to return to Guatemala
to continue this project during the summer of 2003.
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