Tell About the South: Emilio del Valle Escalante

What role have Maya writers and their literatures played in the affirmation of indigenous cultural identity and the struggle for indigenous rights and self-determination in Guatemala since the 1960s? Please join us for a lunchtime discussion with Emilio del Valle Escalante, Associate Professor of Spanish in UNC’s Department of Romance Studies, on “Maya Literary Resurgence in Guatemala.”

Professor Escalante will answer the question above by offering a critical discussion of the poetry of Kaqchikel Maya authors Francisco Morales Santos and Luis de Lión. Given that the context of the 1960s defines the beginning of a 36-year-long civil war, he argues that Morales Santos and Lión respond to that experience as well as the interest of the Guatemalan left in incorporating the Maya population into the armed struggle. These Kaqchikel authors embrace the socialist ideal proposed by the Guatemalan left while using the left to propose and build a political space to articulate their own Maya national liberation; that is, their poetry speaks of revolution and socialism as well as Maya cultural/national vindication and decolonization.

This event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to Patrick Horn at pathorn@unc.edu.