I've been reading lately for one of my English classes two important autobiographies by Latin Americans in Guatemala who have overcome INCREDIBLE adversity to tell their histories. One is Secrets of the Talking Jaguar, by Martin Prechtel, a half-swiss Mayan shaman, and I, Rigoberta Menchu, the internationally recognized Nobel Peace Prize-winning work by the title female, a then twenty-three year old Mayan who survived the attempts at extermination of her people in Guatemala's Civil War.
Both novels vividly highlight the Mayan culture and the factors that threaten to extinguish it, from the Guatemalan authorities and their jails and torture to Evangelical sects who feel that the Mayan lifestyle and religion is not only blasphemous and devilish, but also anti-Modernization because it values a corn-cultural agrarian lifestyle and harmony with nature rather than speeding roadways and breakthroughs in technology. If you aren't familiar with the plight of these Mayas, maybe you could learn a bit more about the fact that they are still persecuted today even in the advent of a ceasefire with the war, and that Protestant missionaries largely from the United States still impose their beliefs on these people in exchange for their monetary aid. In fact, 40% of Guatemala is now Evangelical, which is huge considering the former influence of the Catholic church and the fact that the vast majority of Guatemalans are of Mayan descent.
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I would just like to note that the two works you mention are not uncontroversial and should be used with caution.
Prechtel has been criticized for self-puffery, anthropology-bashing and blatant commercialization of Mayan rituals and belief. Dr. Nathaniel Tarn and Dr. Robert Carlsen published a notice disassociating themselves from Prechtel's work in the Nov. 1998 issue of The Guatemalan Scholars Network News:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/
GSN/1198nnews.htm
The controversy surrounding Rigoberta Menchu began ca. Jan. 1999, triggered by anthropologist David Stoll's "Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans" (Westview Press, 1999), which discovered factual inaccuracies in key details of her account. He proposes that it was specifically adapted to suit the purposes of the guerrilla insurgency with which she had become involved. New York Times reporter Larry Rohter corroborated Stoll's findings.
Although there is a fair amount of Web-based material on this controversy, much of it is ideologically based, highly opiniated and subjective. For a more balanced perspective, it would be worthwhile to consult "The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy" (U of Minnesota P, 2001), which presents not only primary documents relating to the debate but also a collection of essays by scholars with differing viewpoints.
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