For Abiayala to Live, the Americas Must Die: Toward a Transhemispheric Indigeneity

We don't need permission to be free.

—ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION

FOR THE READER not yet familiar with the category of Abiayala,¹ it comes from the cosmogony of the Guna population, an Indigenous nation in the region of Guna Yala (or the land of the Guna), formally known as San Blas in present-day Panama.² Abiayala in the Guna language means "land in full maturity" or "saved territory" (Aiban Wagua, 342). According to Guna cosmogony, up to the present, four historical stages have occurred in the evolution and formation of Mother Earth. Each stage is designated by a different name. The first is Gwalagunyala. At this stage, after being created, the earth was consequently hit by cyclones. The second, Dagargunyala, is characterized by being a stage of chaos, disease, and fear that culminates in darkness. In the third, Dinguayala, Mother Earth is tormented by fire. Today we live in the fourth stage: Abiayala, that of the "territory saved, preferred, and loved by Baba and Nana" (Aiban Wagua, 342). Abiayala is also the name that the Guna use to refer to what for others is the American continent as a whole. The concept came to have continental repercussions after the Aymara leader Takir Mamani, one of the founders of the Tupaj Katari Indigenous rights movement in Bolivia, arrived in Panama. He heard about the conflict between Guna authorities and the American investor Thomas M. Moody, who in 1977 had "bought" the island of Pidertupi in the Guna Yala territory and who since then has begun to exploit tourism in the region. Moody consequently prohibited the Guna from fishing around the island, which created a deep tension between the Indigenous people and the American. The Guna then "requested the intervention of the president of the republic [Omar Torrijos Herrera] to eliminate Moody's tourist enterprise and also requested his support to establish tourist hotels operated by the Guna themselves" (Pereiro et al., 82). When the Indigenous demands were ignored, young Guna attacked Moody and his wife, burned their hotel and their yacht, and killed two policemen. Moody subsequently took refuge in the U.S. embassy and accused the Guna of being "communists" who sought to take over the country and do away with the "Yankees." The news was widely disseminated by newspapers and television news programs in Panama. But in the end, the Guna were victorious in winning a legal claim against Moody for the defense of their territories and autonomy, which forced Moody to leave Guna Yala. The island of Pidertupi consequently passed into the hands of the General Guna Congress (CGK).³

After hearing about these conflicts and the struggles for their territorial autonomy in the Guna Yala territory, Mamani met with the saylas or Guna authorities on the island of Ustupu. There they told him: "Everyone uses the name of America for our continent, but we hold the true name Abya Yala" (in Quillaguamán Sánchez, 3). Given his ability to travel to international forums, the saylas then entrusted Mamani to disseminate this message to leaders and representatives of other Indigenous nations with the goal of using the "real name" of the continent. Mamani followed the saylas' advice and spread the message in various gatherings and international forums, asking Indigenous representatives and organizations that instead of using the names of "America" or "Latin America" they use Abiayala to refer to the continent in their official declarations. Mamani argues that "placing foreign names on our villages, our cities, and our continents is equivalent to subjecting our identities to the will of our invaders and their heirs" (in Quillaguamán Sánchez, 3, my translation). Therefore, renaming the continent would be the first step toward epistemic decolonization and the establishment of Indigenous peoples' autonomy and self-determination.⁴ Since the 1980s, many Indigenous activists, writers, and organizations have embraced the Guna people's and Mamani's suggestion, and Abiayala has become a way to refer not only to the continent but also to a differentiated Indigenous locus of cultural and political enunciation (Muyolema, 329...