By Luc\u00eda Escobar<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Guatemala is a multicultural country that has different types of civil and community organizations. I will attempt to outline a few authorities that still continue to be operative in the country today.<\/p>\n The Alcald\u00edas Ind\u00edgenas <\/em>(\u201cindigenous councils\u201d) are institutions that were born in the Colony when the \u201cIndian pueblos\u201d were formed and principales<\/em> (people with lineage) were chosen to dispense justice, collect taxes for the Crown, and make the new Spanish laws and regulations public.<\/p>\n The isolation of the villages and the neglect of the State contributed to the fact that this structure of social and community service was necessary and effective for hundreds of years; absorbing, changing, and even disappearing according to the history of each of the country\u2019s indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n This system of responsibilities continues to function in departments such as Solol\u00e1, Totonicap\u00e1n, and Quich\u00e9.<\/p>\n For example, in Quich\u00e9, the Alcald\u00eda Ind\u00edgena<\/em> remains active and the positions are named in an open assembly in each canton. From this comes a board of directors or senior counsel. The positions are usually destined for older people with certain spiritual qualities, previously proven service in the community, and a talent for mediation or dialogue. There is also the Consejo de la Alcald\u00eda Ind\u00edgena<\/em> (\u201ccounsel of the indigenous council\u201d), head of the brotherhood (who guard the community\u2019s treasures and religious images) and of the Principales<\/em> (guardians of the documents and titles of ancient properties).<\/p>\n In Totonicap\u00e1n each year, an average of a thousand people take on the different positions in their communities that are necessary to maintain such a solid work structure, which include the positions of communal mayor, vice mayor, court clerk, secretary, treasurer, forest rangers, plumber, custodians, bathroom maintenance, and heads of water and health committees; this is a network that does a better job than even the State of meeting the needs of the population, and which furthermore acts without a budget. This work is called \u201ccashcol\u201d, a long-suffering service for which some people save in advance, because when the moment arrives they must leave their jobs to serve the village. They resolve cases including intrafamily violence and thefts; they record deaths or births; they solidify health and education projects. In addition, they take care of issues related to cemeteries, roads, and confluences. They also help with maintaining the one thousand two hundred springs that enrich the water flow of the Chixoy, Motagua, Samal\u00e1, and Nahualate rivers and feed into the entire basin of Lake Atitl\u00e1n. Moreover, Totonicap\u00e1n is the only department in which water is a community business, because it is piped and distributed by the people themselves. And it is able to operate thanks to this efficient system of authorities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Table of the system of responsibilities of the indigenous authorities<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Authorities elected by the community<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Ajpop: <\/strong>highest authority of the village government, usually three people: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Ajpop<\/p>\n Ajnim winaq: <\/strong>Counsel made up of three ex ajpop or principales<\/p>\n Ajk\u2019amal b\u2019e:<\/strong> Authorities with different functions, such as the community mayor or the town crier who runs through the streets to give warnings<\/p>\n Ajtz\u00b4ib\u00b4: <\/strong>person who writes, or a secretary<\/p>\n Ajchajal: <\/strong>person who collects money<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Authorities by vocation (not elected)<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Ajchinimtal y Chuchuxel: <\/strong>elderly guides<\/p>\n Ajch\u2019ut Tat: <\/strong>Family authorities, such as grandparents and parents<\/p>\n Ajkun:<\/strong> Health authorities specialized in natural medicine<\/p>\n Aj Iyom: <\/strong>Midwife<\/p>\n Ajq\u2019ijab\u2019: <\/strong>Timekeepers and those in charge of spirituality<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first authority that existed many years ago was La Cofrad\u00eda (qa\u00b4tba\u00b4l tzij, \u201cthe brotherhood\u201d), which was made up of different people with distinct abilities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (With information from Nicol\u00e1s and Don Miguel Pilo and the book Una visi\u00f3n global del Sistema Jur\u00eddico Maya<\/em> by the Defensor\u00eda Ind\u00edgena Wajxaqib\u2019 No\u2019j).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Luc\u00eda Escobar \u00a0 Guatemala is a multicultural country that has different types of civil and community organizations. I will attempt to outline a few authorities that still continue to be operative in the country today. The Alcald\u00edas Ind\u00edgenas (\u201cindigenous councils\u201d) are institutions that were born in the Colony when the \u201cIndian pueblos\u201d were formed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[453,424],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-frontpage-en","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ajpkjop.jpg?fit=297%2C268&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ljt7-zH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10002,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/politics\/indigenous-governance-as-a-form-of-community-organization\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":2213,"position":0},"title":"Indigenous governance as a form of community organization","author":"EntreMundos","date":"10 julio, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Deysee Maribel Cotom Ixcot Indigenous authorities have existed since before the Spanish invasion. Indigenous people had their own government, closely linked with the way of life that was cut short by colonization. Before, authorities were chosen through established methods, but in the colonial period Spanish authorities chose and impose\u2026","rel":"","context":"En \u00abFrontPage\u00bb","block_context":{"text":"FrontPage","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/category\/frontpage-en\/?lang=en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/articulo-3-foto-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/articulo-3-foto-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/articulo-3-foto-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/articulo-3-foto-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/articulo-3-foto-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7618,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/world\/indigenous-peoples-and-their-complete-access-to-the-criminal-justice-system-in-mexico\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":2213,"position":1},"title":"Indigenous Peoples And Their Complete Access To The Criminal Justice System In Mexico","author":"EntreMundos","date":"2 octubre, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"By Ana Bel\u00e9n Gil Full access to the justice system for indigenous people is a pending situation in need of resolution on the part of the Mexican government. The problem appears to be getting worse because of economic, political and social marginalization which besets first peoples every day. The major\u2026","rel":"","context":"En \u00abCommunity Action\u00bb","block_context":{"text":"Community Action","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/category\/politics\/community-action-en-2\/?lang=en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/flickr-gaelx.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/flickr-gaelx.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/flickr-gaelx.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7632,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/world\/olutec-an-indigenous-language-in-risk-of-extinction\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":2213,"position":2},"title":"Olutec: An Indigenous Language in Risk of Extinction","author":"EntreMundos","date":"15 octubre, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"By Modesto Ort\u00edz Olutec is an indigenous language considered to be at high risk of extinction. It is spoken only in the Olmeca region in the south of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Historically, many factors have influenced its replacement by Spanish, leading to the current situation in which only\u2026","rel":"","context":"En \u00abFrontPage\u00bb","block_context":{"text":"FrontPage","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/category\/frontpage-en\/?lang=en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/oluteco_1.png?fit=1198%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/oluteco_1.png?fit=1198%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/oluteco_1.png?fit=1198%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/oluteco_1.png?fit=1198%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/oluteco_1.png?fit=1198%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6252,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/politics\/community-action-en-2\/6252\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":2213,"position":3},"title":"Call for Indigenous Writers of Mexico and Central America","author":"EntreMundos","date":"28 junio, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you passionate about writing? 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