Notes for a Guatemalan ethnopsychology

Abstract

Before starting the minutes given to me to express what I understand by Ethnopsychology, I want to provide a justification: from my point of view, Ethnopsychology is a necessity in Guatemala. And it is a necessity given the ethnic diversity that constitutes the population in Guatemala. It is a historical fact that in Guatemala, ethnic groups are often divided into indigenous and Ladinos, as if both terms designate a population reality. That is not the case. From the indigenous perspective, there are at least twenty-one clearly different ethnic groups that have distinct cultural bases, languages, customs, myths, and traditions that make them entirely different from one another. On the other hand, it is thought that Ladino encompasses a reality, and that is also not true. The definition of Ladino is a rather nebulous one that places all of us within that ethnic group based on a criterion of a racial nature: Ladino is someone who has varying degrees of mestizaje (mixed heritage), a cultural fact, and who participates in some way in Western culture. We forget in this arbitrary and statistically valid division that clear and distinct differences exist among the indigenous population, and we forget that clear and distinct differences exist among the Ladino population.