My rant: please read and repeat to everyone you know

I have wanted to write about this for a bit now, but wasn't sure if I would be putting people in actual danger by speaking out on the internet. As many of you know, the Guatemalan government (with the assistance and funding of the US) had a civil war that went from 1960-1996. During this time Mayan communities were targeted and attacked through both political and social discrimination as well as actual killings. According to Wikipedia, "40,000 to 50,000 people were disappeared during the war and approximately 200,000 were killed."

This discrimination and blatant racism continues in many forms today. One of which is preventing the vote. What better way to keep people oppressed, impoverished and unable to overhaul a hateful system than to prevent the vote. AND THIS IS CURRENT HISTORY WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. A month from now comes elections. I have now heard two different accounts of ways in which mayan citizens will be prevented from participating- rendering the elections not free elections and not representative of the actual wants and needs of the people.

The first way is through Mayan names. The government has switched to an automized voting system and claims that the system can't register the glottal stop in Mayan names. The glottal stop is written like this ' and is the sound that in English we have in uh'oh. This means that anyone with a Mayan name such as Raina's: Ixajpub' is said to be too difficult to register in their home town. To vote they need to go to the capital, Guatemala City and register there. They will then be denied three or four times and have to keep coming back to the capital before the change can be made. Unbelievable!

The second way (that I have heard of so far) is through identification cards. Currently Guatemalans have Cedula's as their identification cards. However, these are old and not scannable so again Guatemala is attempting to update its technology. Supposedly applying to get the new card is a rapid process when you have a Ladino name such as Ana, Diego, Marcos. Yet, if you have a Mayan name the process suddenly retards to an almost stop. I've heard of cases of Mayan adults waiting over a year for the same card that takes others a month to receive. This is important because without this new card- one cannot vote.

And without the vote- one cannot affect political change. This does not mean one cannot affect change, but the political aspect matters. It matters that the laws promote anti-discriminatory practices and respect for differences. It matters that the laws respect linguistic differences, since language is so complexly intertwined with culture and identity. It matters that the laws respect a person's own history and being and don't try and erase it for "a more developed guatemala" If the point of a government is to "protect us" everyone needs their voices heard. Please mention these cases so that the other side is heard as well.