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Ashley Perez

Professor Shahrazad Encinias

CAS 113B

29 February 2024

War’s Shadow on Guatemala’s Mayan Children

I. Introduction

A. Attention Device—How can I gain the attention of the audience?

The main casualty of the Guatemalan war for the indigenous people was the

innocence of a Mayan child. Many people see past how a war can affect the

lives of a child and focus more on how the war would impact society.

B. Thesis Statement—What is my speech about?

There are a lot of ways that the armed conflict in Guatemala affected the future

generation of Mayan children, but the main features are the psychological

lasting trauma, the destruction of their cultural identity, and the lack of access

to education and healthcare.

C. Forecast of Main points—What are my 3-5 speaking points

The war in Guatemala began in 1969 and lasted until 1996. Over 200,000

Guatemalans were killed or disappeared but out of this number, about 83% of

them were indigenous people. The destruction of the Mayan community

foreshadowed the loss of guidance for the young Mayan children, leading them

to have no knowledge or wisdom of their ancestors. The children were left

alone in poverty to fend for themselves and were forced to live without any aid

from the government.

D. Link to First point—How I get into my 1st main point.

As a result of this, many of them were left struggling with their physical health
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because of the environmental damage and lack of natural resources.

Furthermore, a great number of Mayan children disappeared or were kidnapped

the moment they were born. The trauma that they faced inevitably continues to

affect their mental health.

II. Body (3-5 Main Points)

A. Point #1 - Psychological trauma affected Mayan children because of the

way they were exposed to violence.

1. In the article, “The Effects of State Terrorism and Exile on

Indigenous Guatemalan Refugee Children: A Mental Health

Assessment and an Analysis of Children’s Narratives,” Kenneth E.

Miller shows how Mayan children took refuge in other countries to

be safer.

a. “Quote”

b. This shows how the violence for Mayan communities was

impacted during the war so they had to seek refugees in other

countries. The majority of the people who were seeking

asylum during this period consisted of mostly Mayan people.

This can also lead back to how because Mayan children were

obligated to run to different countries, they started adapting

to a culture that wasn’t their own. There are analytics in this

article that show how the Mayan children are dealing with

the trauma of what they experienced during the war and how

they are dealing with it.

2. In Children Who Survived: An Examination of the Effects of and

Responses to Armed Conflict in Guatemala and El Salvador, Cristina

Vega writes about the trauma Mayan children endured during the
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war.

a. This shows how many Mayan children were abandoned by

the government and left in poverty. Many of these children

were forced to take care of themselves with no basic

necessities and no family around them. Not only were they

struggling, but at the same time, they were dealing with the

losses of their own people, friends, etc. The government

ignored the community of indigenous people and focused

more on major city areas in Guatemala rather than the most

vulnerable ones.

3. In the article, “Terror, Silencing and Children: International,

Multidisciplinary Collaboration with Guatemalan Maya

Communities,” Lykes Brinton talks about the truth of what Mayan

children experienced during the war.

a. This shows how important it is to take into validation of what

children go through or how they’re feeling amid a war.

Several Mayan children were forced to be domestic workers

during the war. Media coverage tends to overlook what was

going on with Indigenous communities so there was barely

any information about what happened to Mayan children.

Many of these children were often silenced on what they

went through because they had no one to tell.

A. Point #2 - The destruction and displacements of Mayan communities/families

affected the cultural identity of Mayan children.

1. In Children Who Survived: An Examination of the Effects of and

Responses to Armed Conflict in Guatemala and El Salvador, Cristina

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Vega writes about how the murders of the Mayan community

affected.

a. This shows how the

2. In the article, “Guatemala’s baby brokers: how thousands of children

were stolen for adoption,” Rachel Nolan discusses how Mayan

children were adopted abroad.

a. This shows how Mayan children being forced to live in a

different country than their homeland affects how they

identify themselves. The children have no idea of their roots

and their culture. Culture plays a big part in figuring out your

identity and the children who were separated struggled

navigating their identity in a strange environment.

B. Point #3 - The lack of access to education and healthcare after the war in

Guatemala affected the development and opportunities for Mayan children.

1. In the article, “Children in Crisis: Maya Identity in Guatemalan

Children’s Drawings,” Felix Rodriguez talks about the struggles

Mayan children had because of their lack of no education.

a. This shows how Mayan children were struggling with the

limited education and opportunities they were offered after

the war. Many of them didn’t have the chance to acquire the

essential skills needed to adapt to the modern world. Their

absence of education forced them to not be able to pass down

their own cultural heritage to their future generation of

children and more to come.

III. Conclusion (Should be 1-1:30 seconds long)

A. Summary of Main Points

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An armed conflict has major effects on not only the country but their children

as well. Mayan children would go every day looking for safety and haunting

nights surrounded by the sounds of war. People overlook the trauma children

face during the war and the effects after.

B. Re-State Thesis

A war can have many aspects to it, but there will always be specific

attributions that affect a community the most.

C. Clincher—ties to attention device, “Tying the Bow on the Package.”

As the ashes of conflict calm, the effects of the war echo in the lives of Mayan

children. The wounds of war go beyond a battlefield and take a toll on the core

of generations and cultures.