“One of the brutal consequences of the Spanish Conquest was the division of the Guatemalan population into criollos (native-born Spaniards), ladinos (the product of intermarriage between Spaniards and natives, and the native population, called ‘indios’ by the Spanish but who refer to themselves as ‘naturales.’ The distinction between Indian and ladino is still present today, but it is cultural rather than racial. Racially, most of the Guatemalan population is some degree of mixture between Indian and early conquerors or later immigrants. Culturally, however, there are differences in dress, language, and customs that set the indigenous population apart from the others. The ethnic boundaries are not always clear, but by most definitions over half of the Guatemalan population still can be defined as ‘Indian,’ in spite of the official census figure of 43 percent (1964).”
– pg. 28, GUATEMALA, first printing 1974 by the North American Congress on Latin America.
“Beginning in the 1830’s, the Guatemalan government sought to attract Europeans and North American settlers. … There were those foreigners, however, who needed no invitation to do business in Guatemala. The English, concerned with increasing their markets for manufactured goods, were actively engaged in making inroads into Guatemalan commerce even before the latter’s independence from Spain. Contraband through the British colony of Belize, with Guatemalan merchant complicity, was common practice. After Independence (1821), trade through Belize continued and English merchants became established in Guatemala. The English commercial firm of Klee, Skinner and Company began operations in Guatemala around 1830, and others followed.”
– pg. 212, ibid.
The British and the Americans have made two serious attempts to have Belize become integrated into Guatemala. The first was the Seventeen Proposals in 1968, and the second was the Heads of Agreement in 1981.
The issue of the petroleum deposits which exist in Belize is central to the Anglo/American desire to settle the Guatemalan claim to Belize. As you know, petroleum prices have gone through the roof, and the mineral is so important strategically to the ruling nations of the world that wherever oil resources exist, such a region becomes of major concern to the British and the Americans, not to mention the French, the Germans, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Russians, the Japanese, and so on and so forth.
I have read some books about the histories of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico after oil was found in these territories. Things become tense and unstable in a territory when oil is found, because oil is somewhat like cocaine. Some people get rich quick: others die violently.
The Belizean that stopped the Seventeen Proposals was the late Philip Goldson, whose birthday we celebrated on Wednesday of this week. Goldson’s status as a national hero here, established when the British jailed him for sedition in 1951, was affirmed seventeen years later when he led the fight against Bethuel Webster’s Seventeen Proposals. And yet, the very year after Belizeans thanked God for Philip Goldson in 1968, there was an attempt to overthrow Mr. Philip as Leader of the Opposition National Independence Party. This challenge to Mr. Goldson has always mystified me. If I had to bet my money, I would wager that oil money financed that coup attempt.
Whatever the case, the biggest reason why Belizeans revere the memory of Mr. Philip is because we know he never sold out. His integrity was absolute. As we watch all the political whores and sluts who have emerged in Belize since Independence in 1981, Mr. Goldson’s reputation just grows and grows by comparison.
The fact that Anglo/American attempts to beat down Belizean resistance in 1968 and 1981 were unsuccessful, not to mention the Goldson-led fight against the Maritime Areas Act in 1991, convinced the British, no doubt in consultation with the Americans, to approach Belizeans in a more subtle manner.
Over the last three, four years, there have been well-financed and highly publicized initiatives to have Belizeans and Guatemalans increase their mingling in the military, the police, education, business, trade, culture, sports, and such important disciplines.
This increased mingling at influential leadership levels has been going on at a time when Belize’s black population has been more than halved as compared to what it was in 1968. It was felt in 1968, and to a lesser extent in 1981, that it was black Belizeans who were leading the resistance to integration with Guatemala. Since Latin Guatemalans and Latin Belizeans had similar ethnic and religious backgrounds, there was a tendency to believe that Latin Belizeans were not as uptight about the Guatemalan claim as black Belizeans were. Today, however, we know that there is a difference between Latin Guatemalans and indigenous (Maya) Guatemalans, even as there is a difference between Latin Belizeans and Maya Belizeans. The issue of the so-called Guatemalan claim has become more complicated because the indigenous Maya issue, both in Guatemala and in Belize, has moved to center stage in the two countries. And the Maya were here before the Guatemalan generals and before Queen Elizabeth II. So who rightfully owns the land, Jack?
When my generation was growing up in British Honduras in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the schools pretended the Mayans did not exist. But the churches insisted they were “educating” us. That was a damn lie. Damn lie. I agree with Clinton Uh Luna. What’s the matter with you “Baymen clan”? Learn the real facts before you be running off your mouths. Black people demand respect, and Baymen haven’t given us any for centuries. Why you think dancing in the streets with Buckingham Palace is cool? Get real, Tom.