Guatemalan History and Handicrafts on Display at Chichicastenango Market

Description

People Are Culture’s curriculum brings to life the subjects of Geography, History, Social Studies, and World Cultures with engaging, thought-provoking, and inspiring stories of real people around the world. Our interviews and feature profiles reveal the meaning and relevance of traditions and customs, and demonstrate the real-life impact of historical events and social change. Students can see life through the eyes of real people around the world with lessons that are authoritative, first-person accounts of people describing their own cultures.

People Are Culture’s content aligns with all ten of the National Social Studies standards.

NO AI is used in creating our material. Each interview and article was made in collaboration with the individuals featured, who reviewed and approved the piece prior to publication.

Included in this People Are Culture Reading & Reflection Assignment Module are three elements:

• General Overview of Indigenous Peoples
• 15-page PDF feature story about the Chichicastenango Market in Guatemala
• Reflection Assignment | Takeaways from Guatemalan History and Handicrafts on Display at Chichicastenango Market

Each lesson is likely to take a student three hours to do the readings and complete the comprehension/reflection exercises.

In this feature story about the Chichicastenango market, you will hear personal stories and insights from different people’s lives in creating these pieces of folk art, including:

• An overview of the “Conquest Dance” festival featuring elaborate masks carved by artisan Miguel Angel Ignacio that depict Spanish Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado and Mayan chief Tecun Uman and how this dance reenacts the 16th-century Spanish invasion with dancers accompanied by drums and flutes
• A description of Guatemala’s traumatic 36-year civil war during which the government perceived “all Maya as enemies of the state” and instituted scorched earth genocide attacking over 626 villages, with the Quiché people suffering the worst devastation
• An exploration of K’iche Mayan spiritual practices including a blend of beliefs mixing pre-Christian animism with Catholic mysticism, rituals at Chichicastenango Cemetery where shamans make food offerings while burning incense, and the symbolic use of colors on crypts
• The personal story of guide Luis Cholotio who grew up in poverty and was persistent in his English Language education from a Peace Corps volunteer, even when all other students quit, eventually becoming interested in Mayan religion through teaching tourists about his heritage, and now works with the Ninas Mayas program, encouraging young women to stay in school

Expected Learning Outcome:

This lesson includes clear expected learning outcomes that support students in understanding cultural identity through first-person perspectives, while building intercultural awareness and connections between individual experience and global traditions.

• Students will identify and describe key cultural practices and beliefs from the lesson’s focus community (i.e., Guatemalan culture).
• Students will articulate insights into their own cultural identities and how those identities relate to what they learned.
• Students will analyze how cultural expressions (like textiles, festivals, and handicrafts) reflect values, history, and social traditions.
• Students will compare perspectives across cultures while finding similarities and differences through human themes.
• Students will make connections between cultural traditions and broader global contexts (civil war, violence, cultural preservation), showing critical thinking about identity and intercultural understanding.