AWASQA

  • Tienda de cerámicas del pueblo Poqoman

    Women Defend the Ancestral Art of Ceramics in Santa Cruz Chinautla, Guatemala

    High above in the Guatemalan mountains, among its majestic lakes and rivers that nourish the earth like living veins, there is a land that safeguards the millenary memory of ancient populations. The Poqomam people, and their territory, have lived and survived there through their art, through clay, which is an essential resource for the creation…

  • Meet the First Generation of Awasqa Youth Scholars

    It is with great joy that we want to introduce the first eight young Awasqa Youth Scholarship recipients! The main objective of the Awasqa Youth Scholarship is to create networks across Latin America and to give visibility to the work of Black and indigenous youth who are leading in the fields of community journalism, communication…

  • Community Journalists Condemn Police Attacks on El Estor Maya Q’eqchi´ People

    FGER [Guatemalan Federation of Radio Schools] MAYA K´AT  Red de Comunicadoras Indígenas Jun Na’oj. Source: https://www.facebook.com/crfger/posts/3107980039482472  We repudiate the actions of the National Civil Police (PNC) and tear gas attacks against members of Maya Q’eqchi´ communities from the municipality of El Estor, who organized a peaceful resistance to show their disagreement with the operations of…

  • Mural por Andrew Morrison en Seattle. Foto Joe Wolf.

    Truth Commissions, Lessons Learned from Initiatives in Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala

    Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced in June the Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative at the Department of the Interior to investigate human rights violations at these institutions. According to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is also expected this summer to reintroduce legislation in Congress…

  • Guatemala: Freedom for Bernardo Caal and for all water defenders

    FROM THE EDITORS: Bernardo Caal Xol has become a symbol of resistance in Guatemala, as well as of the criminalization of people defending Mother Earth. Caal is Maya Q’eqchi and together with his community organized a campaign against Oxec S.A., a transnational in charge of the construction of two hydroelectric dams on the Cahabón River,…

  • Anastasia Mejía y Petrona Siy

    Guatemala: Freedom for Anastasia Mejía and Petrona Siy

    FROM THE EDITORS: Awasqa joins the international call about the unjustified detention of the Xol Abaj Radio and TV’s director, Anastasia Mejía Tiriquiz, who has been in prison since September 22 in Guatemala. We have translated below a communiqué of Guatemalan organizations that are demanding her freedom, as well as that of the social leader…

  • 200 Years Later Mayan People Reclaim their History of Independence

    FROM THE EDITORS: In Guatemala, people are celebrating the memory of Atanasio Tzul, the first indigenous mayor of the country who, in 1820, led an indigenous uprising against Spanish colonialism, as well as a living example of the struggle for the people’s self-determination. The document below was originally published by Prensa Comunitaria from Guatemala, a…

    Singing Hip Hop in Native Languages to Reclaim Identities

    Musical expressions are liberating and help build resilience. Some musical expressions have managed to unleash social change and others, to shape identities and resistance, but above all music is contributing significantly to keeping Native languages ​​and expressions alive. Indigenous languages ​​are living, active languages ​​that grow and are renewed, for example, when young people take…