Reimagining National Belonging: Post-Civil War El Salvador in a Global Context

3. Envisioning Indigenous Participation: State Ambivalence, Local Activism, and International Influences

63 3 Envisioning Indigenous Participation State Ambivalence, Local Activism, and International Influences postwar efforts to define El Salvador’s national uniqueness emphasized archaeological and historical pasts. These new projects, some of which I described in the previous chapter, valorized preColumbian and historical indigenous heritage for a purportedly culturally homogeneous contemporary nation. The Salvadoran public responded in diverse ways to this approach to national culture and identity, ranging from the embrace of indigenous ancestry to ambivalence and even rejection of any such inheritance. Regardless of the public’s response and the goals of the state, nation-building projects that promoted El Salvador’s indigenous past perforce brought attention to the present-day status of El Salvador’s indigenous Lenca, Nahuat, Cacaopera, and Maya populations. While most state-led promotions continued to relegate El Salvador’s indigenous populations to the past by ignoring present-day concerns, I watched native minorities organize to demand recognition and representation, and noted how sympathies and alliances both within and outside El Salvador bolstered their efforts. reimagining national belonging 64 This chapter discusses postwar engagements between UN entities, the state, and indigenous organizations and populations in El Salvador . The participation of UN entities illustrates the global context of contemporary nation-building. In chapter 1 I criticized the UNESCO Culture of Peace Program for trying to create sameness across national borders by introducing a values project that was interchangeable from one postconflict nation to another, and for promoting individualism that served the logic of neoliberalism. However, UN interventions in postwar El Salvador were also about long-standing UN campaigns to articulate and defend human rights, including the collective rights of indigenous people. I will explore the tension that I observed between the ways the UN, a global agency, attempted to produce sameness and support differentiation. This chapter is also about the tension and ambivalence in new state-led practices in El Salvador toward indigenous populations as the slow shift is made from denying the presence of El Salvador’s indigenous ethnic minorities to recognizing and engaging them. In the postwar period the state established a government office to specifically address indigenous peoples’ issues and began to create new policy to address Indian and nation-state relations.1 The process was emergent and uneven, and certain policies and practices continued to marginalize native populations. State practices simultaneously recognized anew yet continued to minimize the importance of native people vis-à-vis national society. Below I explore why the state is taking a new interest in indigenous populations after decades that sought to define national belonging by absorbing indigenous cultural difference. This chapter is about the dynamics of Indian and nation-state relations, and how including Indians in ideas about the postwar nation is a vital facet of postwar nation-building in a global context. El Salvador is not unique among nation-states grappling with tensions of race, ethnicity, and nation. The ability to recognize and celebrate social and cultural diversity is a pressing problem for many societies today. However, descendants of original and colonized populations can make particular claims on states that other minority groups cannot. The recent decades have seen increased international efforts in defense of the world’s indigenous populations. The UN has played a pivotal role in creating forums to examine the effects of racial Envisioning Indigenous Participation 65 discrimination on the social and economic situation of indigenous people. Coinciding with UN attention to postwar El Salvador was the quincentenary of 1492, a historic commemoration that raised regional and international awareness about contemporary indigenous peoples worldwide. The UN had declared 1995–2004 the “International Decade of Indigenous People.” This designation influenced the funding and program priorities of international governments and nongovernmental organizations that supported postwar El Salvador . Also helping to draw attention to the status of El Salvador’s indigenous populations were post–civil war democratic openings that enabled Indians to publicly challenge ongoing discrimination and exclusion more safely than they had been able to in the past. The post–civil war state slowly responded to these external and internal dynamics to address its indigenous ethnic minority populations. Brief Cultural History In postwar El Salvador some nation-builders looked to the region’s ancient past for clues about national history, culture, and identity in order to represent a unique and primordial cultural core. Their projects recognized that for centuries the territory of present-day El Salvador was a frontier zone, where heterogeneous indigenous nations likely...