I
Children´s and Young Adult Literature in Guatemala: A mirror turned over to face the wall
By Frieda Liliana Morales Barco
Reading and the national education system
During
the period 1821-1847,
the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Guatemala began
the process of its transformation from a federal sociopolitical organization towards a Republic,
consolidating in1871. A revolutionary movement followed,
which helped set the economic, social
and cultural foundations of the country on liberal and positivist
pillars. The intention was to create a coherent discourse that bound the people together within a homogeneous culture, with a sense of unity and identity, and
enabled the establishment of national
symbols like the flag, the Himno Nacional (national anthem), the Coat of Arms, and so on. In other words, by
this way the imagined community of
the country called Guatemala[1] was became a real one.
Within this model of social organization, the
implementation of the educational system
was one of the key factor that ensured
the development of children, and contributed to the
entry into the power framework of a particular social group of
Guatemalan population: ladino or
mestizo[2]. The school thus played
an essential role in demonstrating good models for future
citizens, encouraging social trust
and conveying social values. For
these purposes, the national educational system was structured. The laws and regulations were created, primary schooling was declared secular, free and
compulsory[3], a
Ministry of Education was established under the Ministry of Foreign Relations (1872), schools for children
were established from 1875, and, finally, a range of methods and teaching materials
were developed to be employed within local public institutions.
In the case of reading practices, the
first book used at public schools was
the Constitutional
Political Catechism of the Mexican Republic written
by Nicolás Pizarro Suárez (1861), a text widely used in Mexico during the government of Benito Juárez.
Republished in Guatemala, it replaced the religious
textbooks in public schools. This book dealt with the rights and
duties of man, his guarantees,
property, family and individual freedom.
Many of the articles of the new Guatemalan Constitution were explained through
it. Because the book was written from a declared liberal and anticlerical
position, the author upholds individual freedom of petition, association,
press, religion and education (Traffano, 2011: 1052). In other words,
through the book the image of the modern state was outlined and disseminated to
the children, the republican institutions were explained, and organization and
expression of power were legitimized (Traffano, 2011: 1049). From this perspective Suárez’s book fulfilled the objectives of civic education that were being implemented in the country because of the Liberal Revolution
of 1871, and well suited the purpose
of making education the best vehicle for transmitting an ideal of freedom, norms, attitudes, skills, and
civic and moral values. At the same time, it helped to form the basis of a "Guatemalan identity", in accordance with the national project of modernization. The Catechism
thus reinforced the objectives of
the new Republic; subsequently, it was hoped that a
political revolution could be followed by cultural and social revolutions.
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century was
a sense that these revolutions could be made possible by means of the diffusion
and dissemination of diverse ideas, especially in Guatemala City, through
literary societies, education conferences. Prominent educators such as José
María Vela Irisarri, Santos
Toruño, Sóstenes Esponda, Rafaela del Águila,
Natalia Górriz de Morales and Concepción Saravia
de Zirión, promoted reflection and discussion of pedagogical work in the country and their
ideas influenced the structure of
the rising national education system.
The Catechism was replaced in 1884 by a collection of
literacy books written by Vela Irisarri;
along with the Element of Spanish grammar book (1885), as they met the requirements of
adaptation to the cultural identity
of Guatemala (Hernández, 1984: 34) required by
the Minister Antonio Bátres in 1887. These
books remained in use until 1930.
Later, during the government
That is, a kind of creation myth was developed, which represented a whole image of the newborn
country: it belonged to us and such
possession consequently gives
us the right to inherit, pass it from generation to generation so it will preserved, not be forgotten.
For this reason, there was no desire to adapt or import books from outside to facilitate the
understanding and learning of children. Instead, the classical literary
texts of Central America writers were chosen to
construct identity, because in their stories and poems breathed citizenship breathed and patriotic ideas.
At the same time, cultural products independent of school context appeared, such as the first
children's newspaper, Los
Niños (1890-1892), which was sold by subscription or single copies, every Sunday; and the first children's theater company organized by
Justo Soret and
Argimiro Valdivieso in 1897, with national amateur
actors. This company remained active until the 1920s.
During the administration of the dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera
(1898-1920) his staff introduced changes
in the liberal project,
mainly related to
search for other ways to construct identity through the national educational
system and teaching methods. To
do this, his political needs were sustained by the slogan
"order for progress",
which in practice supported the dictatorship. The model of the Nation was reinforced through a form of moral education with the introduction
of the text, Moral
razonada y lecturas escogidas (Rational Morality and Selected Readings)
written by Rafael Spinola (1899), advisor
to the president. This book, in the
author´s words, is not just a compendium enclosing universal
moral precepts, but
is also a READING BOOK, and as
such, could not consist of small
number of pages, given the diversity of
verse and prose pieces collected
within it (xxii). The purpose
behind this statement is clear:
first, because the project embarked
on the creation of Central American identity, the
formation of a Guatemalan identity through literature was interrupted; now the guidelines of
this formation would be grounded on norms, standards and
principles governed by a morality, whose
models were sought in the Greco-Roman classics. Second, the concept of "reading" is now to explain the meaning of words, to recite, to help
memorize the moral lesson and hold it [...] forever in the heart, as verses that learned in childhood, that
sometimes are not readily forgotten, or are
never forgotten (xxv). From here on, the concept of reading indicates only practical features:
it is utilitarian, and puts aside those emancipatory,
critical, significant and reflective qualities
proposed by literature.
Reading practices and the books for children were, thus, shaped by the
positivist state project of modernization
and progress as planned. The teaching of literature was also subject to the same pattern, which resulted in the
creation of books with historical and moralizing focus but devoid of recreational aspects and aesthetic originality. Further, because literacy education no longer
had the objective of creating better reading habits,
especially amongst children, its teaching created only functional literates who
could respond to the national liberal and economic project.
New models and the emergence of childen´s literature
During the 1920s there
were major social and cultural changes that favored the development of educational
reforms and creative writing in general, due to a crisis of the liberal project as a model to produce
a homogeneous Guatemalan society in which all had a place, and in addition to
achieve the ideal of citizenship previously aspired to. At this time, the quest
for a new model was based in the social-Catholic doctrine and agnostic spiritualism, whose confluence were
theosophy and heliosophy (Arzú Casaús, 2005: 292). The gaze of intellectuals also focused on indigenous
roots and afrodescendants and oral and popular traditional sources to try to
regenerate Guatemalan society. The intellectuals in education thought that, through art and education, in some
way, a social regeneration could be possible. Juan José Arévalo Bermejo,
for example, who became president of Guatemala
in 1944, published Método
nacional (para aprender simultáneamente dibujo, escritura y lectura) (1927), which was well received by teachers. Professor Daniel
Armas published a similar work to Arévalo’s, entitled Indohispano, método global silábico (1928). Then the Nobel Prize winner Miguel
Ángel Asturias, editor
of the newspaper El Imparcial Collection, a series of paperbacks, published an
anthology
The emergence of children´s literature is heralded in
this period with the publication of Mi niño, por el hogar, por la escuela by Daniel Armas (1929),
illustrated by M. Mazariegos Rosal and published by E. Cifuentes Typography
in the city of Quetzaltenango. The auther
met the entire cost of this publication. Then in 1932, the book was honored by the municipal corporation
of Quetzaltenango, and also affirmed
as a guide in elementary school by the Ministry of Education. Armas said about this book that was born
due to the urgent need to provide
parents and teachers with an instrument of initiation into the
field of literature, especially poetry,
because they had no suitable literature material to provide their children. Moreover, few
writers were concerning themselves with the genre of children´s literature. Armas
subsequently published Pepe y Polita
(1939), Barbuchín (1940) and Cascabel (1947),
because he felt that early readers
needed stronger knowledge of the alphabet, and through these
books he offered teachers better tools with which
to engage children's imagination and
creativity. It also gave them the opportunity to have good experiences with
their learning and the creation of
better reading and writing habits. For all of these
reasons, he became, formally, the first precursor of the Guatemalan children´s
and young adult literature (CYAL). His publications make it possible
to begin the outline the history of children´s literature, because from that
moment children´s books began to appear, most of them funded and distributed by
their own authors in small runs.
[1] The Constitutional Republic of Guatemala is
characterized as a multi-ethnic nation
(four villages: ladino
or mestizo, Maya,
Garifuna and Xinca), multicultural and multilingual (25 languages are
spoken, of which
22 correspond to the trunk Maya, Garifuna
and then follow the Xinca), these features
define it as a country with a unique heterogeneous culture.
The above-mentioned ethnic groups
make up a whole Guatemalan
nationality and from the legal
point of view, this national identity is supported by the fact they all live in a
limited geographical area and
be members of a regulated by a state company and a Constitution.
[2] Ladino, product mix between
Creoles and Indians, was an
uncomfortable early for the
[3]
The first primary school was
declared a secular, free and
compulsory by the State was
under President Mariano Gálvez (1832).
