{"id":8970,"date":"2021-07-13T14:00:30","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T22:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/?p=8970"},"modified":"2021-07-16T07:55:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T15:55:57","slug":"tuxinem-a-forceful-collective-of-young-mayan-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/culture\/tuxinem-a-forceful-collective-of-young-mayan-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuxinem: A Forceful Collective of Young Mayan Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mactzil Camey<\/b><\/p>\n

When the COVID-19 pandemic was emerging worldwide, the government of Guatemala registered the first case on March 13, 2020. \u00a0 I remember having been in the university with my classmates from the Student Association, and we were confused.\u00a0 The chaos in the open air markets and on public transportation was unbelievable.\u00a0 In early May,\u00a0 the university dean said we would be returning to in-person classes,\u00a0 so we all thought that would be the case. After a year in this pandemic,\u00a0 we continue in the same situation or even worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

The closure affected everyone in unbelievable ways:\u00a0 young people were inhibited from pursuing their academic paths and were left with uncertain future in-person classes.\u00a0 We did not know whether we would be continuing with our routines or whether we would be delayed even longer.\u00a0 Meanwhile, we were confined by restricted schedules and fear of the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Covid-19 brought disadvantages to every family.\u00a0 People were affected by the loss of employment as some small businesses were obligated to close.\u00a0 The educational system turned into a long-distance and virtual model that is inaccessible to everybody unless students have reliable internet and cell service.\u00a0 Yet,\u00a0 for some,\u00a0 there was an advantage to working or taking classes from home. Indeed, it turned out to be somewhat beneficial.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At Tuxinem, a collective formed by young Maya Women (initially created by a group of friends), we decided to make a video on Tik Tok about transitioning from wearing non-traditional Mayan clothing to traditional clothing.\u00a0 With this change in attire, we showed the diversity in our Mayan clothing in Guatemala.\u00a0 We did it merely to amuse ourselves to get through the quarantine.\u00a0 The day we put it up on social media, we received lots of comments,\u00a0 and our video went viral.\u00a0 We received requests from people who wanted to create a report on the Tik Tok video. We were very moved by what our post had achieved.<\/span><\/p>\n

This TikTok video was the basis for creating an Indigenous women\u2019s collective as the expectation was for youth to feel empowered in reclaiming our identity and our Mayan culture on social media. \u00a0 When we formed the collective, we started with eighteen members, all from different linguistic groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayan women\u2019s organization and participation in different environments are vital.\u00a0 At Tuxinem, our goal is \u00a0 \u201csharing thoughts, living situations, and ideas to have an impact on our spaces and our ways of living within the Mayan community. Our goal is\u00a0 to create visibility for Indigenous Peoples and stronger connections.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Indigenous peoples are our central core; we are Mayan people and young Mayan women who can rescue and share Mayan peoples’ values out of our ways of living. \u00a0 We aim to make evident the problems that confront us as a people, such as racism, colonialism, and patriarchy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Social media has been a means for facilitating communication among many people.\u00a0 It allows for the creation of content on many topics within the Mayan community.\u00a0 This kind of communication has motivated us to organize ourselves.\u00a0 Today, the Tuxinem Collective is a space of resistance against systemic racism, misogyny, and patriarchy;\u00a0 and a way to change ideas about Indigenous Peoples.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Aura Cumes says, \u201cThis stance of presenting Indigenous women more thoughtfully seems politically necessary to me.\u00a0 It helps untangle, debunk other ways they have been seen:\u00a0 as a ‘secondary culture’ or as ‘museum pieces,\u2019 untouched by the reality of their surroundings. Humanizing Indigenous women helps us understand that they are not all identical, the preferred view of them. They are not a homogeneous group and should not be obligated to present one narrow point of view.\u201d\u00a0 We must position ourselves in spaces from which we can communicate and generate new points of view for the next generations, betting on the recovery of Maya women\u2019s identity. Therefore, young Mayan women\u2019s organizations challenge this system, making us invisible and eclipse our actions.\u00a0 Our voices are essential to expose our struggles and our grandmothers\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mactzil Camey When the COVID-19 pandemic was emerging worldwide, the government of Guatemala registered the first case on March 13, 2020. \u00a0 I remember having been in the university with my classmates from the Student Association, and we were confused.\u00a0 The chaos in the open air markets and on public transportation was unbelievable.\u00a0 In early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[425,409,453,422,438],"tags":[3138,3156,3137,3155,3141,3136,3157,3158,3140],"class_list":["post-8970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-action-en-2","category-culture","category-frontpage-en","category-women","category-youth","tag-community-feminism","tag-indigenous-activism-guatemala","tag-indigenous-feminism","tag-indigenous-guatemala","tag-indigenous-organizations","tag-indigenous-woman-collective","tag-indigenous-women-guatemala","tag-tuxinem-en","tag-young-indigenous-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8970"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8997,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions\/8997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}