Sacred Maize against a Legal Maze: The Diversity of Resistance to Guatemala’s ‘Monsanto Law’
Abstract
I chronicle here how a small country deled one of the world’s largest corporations and, in the process, reinvigorated civic hopes for a more democratic future. In the summer of 2014, massive mobilizations across Guatemala forced its legislature to repeal a plant varieties protection act, dubbed the ‘Monsanto Law’ that would otherwise have legalized genetically modiled (GM) crops in one of the few countries worldwide that prohibits them. Harnessing Raymond Williams’s distinction between residual/emergent and incorporated/unincorporated counter-hegemonies, I examine how diverse classes and interest groups articulated their opposition to the law through expressions of ‘moral economy’ across social media and news platforms. With respect to Guatemala’s indigenous majority, I explain how and why Maya leaders uncompromisingly regard GM corn as blasphemy through my prior cultural and historical research on the centrality of maize for indigenous economic survival, community cohesion, autonomy, and spiritual identity.
Download Media
PDF (Price: £17.50 )
DOI: 10.1558/jsrnc.30666
References
Abbott, Jeff. 2014a. ‘Mayan Q’eqchi’ Communities Violently Evicted in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala’, Upside Down World, 15 September. Online: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5048-mayan-qeqchi-communities-violently-evicted-in-alta-verapaz-guatemala
Abbott, Jeff. 2014b. ‘In Guatemala, Indigenous Communities Prevail Against Monsanto’, Truthout. 12 November. Online:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27395-in-guatemala-indigenous-communities-prevail-against-monsanto?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TRUTHOUT+(t+r+u+t+h+o+u+t+%7C+News+Politics).
Altieri, Miguel. 2004. Genetic Engineering in Agriculture: The Myths, Environmental Risks, and Alternatives (Oakland, CA: Food First Books, 2nd edn).
Alvarez, Carlos. 2014a. ‘Crece Rechazo a Ley de Obtenciones Vegetales’, Prensa Libre, 18 August. Online: original url removed from www.prensalibre.com
Alvarez, Carlos. 2014b. ‘Analizan Alcances de la Ley De Obtenciones Vegetales’, Prensa Libre, 21 August. Online: http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/politica/ley_monsanto-decreto_19-2014-ley_de_obetenciones_vegetales-analistas_0_1197480313.html%5D (removed).
Alvarez, Carlos. 2014c. ‘Semilla No Tiene Patente’, Prensa Libre, 22 August. Online: http://registrodeusuario.prensalibre.com/noticias/Nacionales-semillas-no-tienen-patente-Ley-Vegetales_0_1198080181.html.
Alvarez, Carlos, and Jessica Gramajo. 2014. ‘Ley de Vegetales Traerá Conflictividad Social’, Prensa Libre, 22 August. Online: http://test.prensalibre.com/noticias/politica/ley_monsanto-decreto_19-2014-ley_de_obetenciones_vegetales-analistas_0_1197480313.html.
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (New York: Verso).
Azurdia, César. 2008. ‘Agrobiodiversidad de Guatemala’, in C. Azurdia Pérez, F. García Barrios and M.M. Ríos Palencia (eds.), Guatemala y su Biodiversdad: Un Enfoque Histórico, Cultural, Biológic y Económico (Guatemala City: Consejo Nacional de Áreas Protegidas, Oficina Técnica de Biodiversidad): 399-463.
Bá Tiul, Kajkoj Máximo. 2014. ‘No y Punto’, Prensa Libre, 6 September, printed. Online: original url removed from www.prensalibre.com.
Barreto, Bill. 2014. ‘La Mano Invisible que Trazó la Ruta del TLC a la Ley Monsanto’, Plaza Pública, 20 August. Online: http://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/la-mano-invisible-que-trazo-la-ruta-del-tlc-la-ley-monsanto-0.
Bennett, Drake. 2014. ‘Inside Monsanto, America’s Third-Most Hated Company’, Bloomberg Business, 3 July. Online: http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-07-03/gmo-factory-monsantos-high-tech-plans-to-feed-the-world.
Castillo, Mike. 2014. ‘Pérez Pide Revisar Ley de Vegetales’, Prensa Libre, 24 August. Online: http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/politica/perez-pide-revisar-ley_de_vegetales_0_1199280066.html.
Chiquin, Cristina. 2014. ‘NO a La Ley Monsanto: Semillas Para Los Pueblos, No Para Las Empresas’. Prensa Comunitaria, Km. 169, Guatemala.
Coe, Sophie. 1994. America’s First Cuisines (Austin: University of Texas Press).
Copeland, Nicholas. 2014. ‘Mayan Imaginaries of Democracy: Interactive Sovereignties and Political Affect in Postrevolutionary Guatemala’, American Ethnologist 41.2: 305-19. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.12077.
Copeland, Nicholas. 2015. ‘Repudiating Corruption in Guatemala: Revolution or Neoliberal Outrage?’, NACLA, May 19. Online: https://nacla.org/news/2015/05/19/repudiating-corruption-guatemala-revolution-or-neoliberal-outrage.
Edelman, Marc. 2005. ‘Bringing the Moral Economy Back In…to the Study of 21st-Century Transnational Peasant Movements’, American Anthropologist 107.3: 331-45. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2005.107.3.331.
Falla, Ricardo. 1972. ‘Hacia la Revolución Verde’, Estudios Sociales (Universidad Rafael Landívar) 6: 16-51.
Galeano, Eduardo. 1967. Guatemala: Pais Ocupado (Guatemala City: Editorial Nuestro Tiempo).
Goldman, Francisco. 2007. The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? (New York: Grove Press).
Gramajo, Jessica, and Carlos Alvarez. 2014. ‘Ley Privatizaría Semillas Nativa’, Prensa Libre, 19 August. Online: http://test.prensalibre.com/noticias/comunitario/Nacionales-crece-rechazo-ley-obtenciones-vegetales-pequenos-agricultores_0_1195680423.html.
Grandia, Liza. 2004a. Stories from the Sarstoon Temash (Punta Gorda, Belize and Berkeley, CA: Sarstoon Temash Institue for Indigenous Management).
Grandia, Liza. 2004b. From the Q’eqchi’ Kitchen: Recipes of Traditional Corn, Forest, and Milpa Foods from the Sarstoon-Temash Villages (Punta Gorda, Belize and Berkeley, CA: Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management).
Grandia, Liza. 2014. ‘Modified Landscapes: Vulnerabilities to Genetically Modified Corn in the Political Economy of Maize Production in Northern Guatemala’, Journal of Peasant Studies 41.1: 79-105. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2013.872631.
Grandia, Liza. 2015. ‘Slow Ethnography: A Hut with a View’, Critique of Anthropology 35.3: 301-17. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X15588616.
Klein, Naomi. 2001. ‘Reclaiming the Commons’, New Left Review 9, May–June: 81-89.
Klepek, James. 2011. ‘The New Men of Maize’, in G. Grandin, D.T. Levenson and E. Oglesby (eds.), The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Durham, NC: Duke University Press): 569-75. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394679-111.
LaDuke, Winona. 2006. ‘The People Belong to the Land’, in J. Mander and V. Tauli-Corpuz (eds.), Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance to Globalization (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books): 23-25.
Marty, Belén. 2014. ‘Congreso de Guatemala Derogó la Polémica Ley Monsanto’, PanAm Post, 9 September. Online: http://es.panampost.com/belen-marty/2014/09/09/congreso-de-guatemala-derogo-la-polemica-ley-monsanto/.
Menchú, Rigoberta. 1984. I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (London: Verso).
Mohawk, John. 2006. ‘Subsistence and Materialism’, in J. Mander and V. Tauli-Corpuz (eds.), Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance to Globalization (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books): 26-28.
Montejo, Victor, and Luis Garay. 1999. Popol Vuh: A Sacred Book of the Maya (trans. D. Unger; Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books).
Nadal, Alejandro. 2000. The Environmental and Social Impacts of Economic Liberalization on Corn Production in Mexico (Oxford, UK: Oxfam). Online: www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/NadalOxfamWWFMaizeMexico2000.pdf.
Nader, Laura. 1997. ‘Controlling Processes—Tracing the Dynamic Components of Power’. Current Anthropology 38.5: 711-37. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/204663.
Nader, Ralph. 2014. Unstoppable: The Emerging Left–Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State (New York: Nation Books).
Palomo, Laysa. 2014. 12 Cosas Que Tienes que Saber Sobre la Famosa ‘Ley Monsanto’, 18 August. Original source: http://brujula.com.gt, Universidad de Rafael Ladivar (no longer available).
Pérez, Mynor. 2005. ‘Tortillas contra el TLC’, Prensa Libre, 15 April. Online: http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/Tortillas-TLC_0_110389000.html.
Polanyi, Karl. 1944. The Great Transformation (New York: Rinehart & Co.).
Quist, David, and Ignacio Chapela. 2001. ‘Transgenic DNA Introgressed into Traditional Maize Landraces in Oaxaca, Mexico’, Nature 414.6863: 541-43. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/35107068.
Randall, Adrian, and Andrew Charlesworth. 2000. ‘The Moral Economy: Rios, Markets and Social Conflict’, in A. Randall and A. Charlesworth (ed.), Moral Economy and Popular Protest: Crowds, Conflict and Authority (New York: Saint Martin’s Press): 1-32.
REDSAG et al. 2014. ‘La Alianza Nacional para la Protección de la Biodiversidad Ante la Aprobación de la Ley Monsanto en Guatemala’, 4 August. Online: http://millonescontramonsanto.org/la-alianza-nacional-para-la-proteccion-de-la-biodiversidad-ante-la-aprobacion-de-la-ley-monsanto-en-guatemala/.
Reina, Ruben E. 1967. ‘Milpas and Milperos: Implications for Prehistoric Times’, American Anthropologist 69.1: 1-20. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1967.69.1.02a00020.
Rodríguez, Francisco. 2014. ‘Una Semilla Patentada Podría Modificar a Cultivos Vecinos, y Eso Los Convertiría en Cultivos Ilegales’, El Periódico, 25 August. Online: http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20140825/pais/842/Una-semilla-patentada-podr%C3%ADa-modificar-a-cultivos-vecinos-y-eso-los-convertir%C3%ADa-en--cultivos-ilegales”.htm.
Rosemont, Franklin. 2009. Karl Marx and the Iroquois. Online: libcom.org/library/karl-marx-iroquois-franklin-rosemont.
Scott, James C. 1976. The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Scott, James C. 2000. ‘The Moral Economy as an Argument and as a Fight’, in A. Randall and A. Charlesworth (eds.), Moral Economy and Popular Protest: Crowds, Conflict and Authority (New York: Saint Martin’s Press): 187-208.
Thompson, E.P. 1971. ‘The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century’, Past and Present 50: 76-136. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/past/50.1.76.
Williams, Raymond. 1977. Marxism and Literature (New York: Oxford University Press): 121-27.
Wittman, Hannah, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, and Nettie Wiebe (eds.). 2010. Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature, and Community (Oakland: Food First Books).
Wolford, Wendy. 2005. ‘Agrarian Moral Economies and Neoliberalism in Brazil: Competing Worldviews and the State in the Struggle for Land’, Environment and Planning 37: 241-61. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1068/a3745.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
