Guatemalan Culture

Effects on Guatemalan Culture As the globalization of foodways opened Guatemala to new markets it also closed the door to the main production of traditional crops. Traditionally many farmers would produce a lot of maize by “making milpa” (Isakson, 2014, p. 353). A milpa is a cornfield that can include “beans, squash, chilies, fruit trees, leafy greens, herbs, medicinal plants and edible weeds” (Isakson, 2014, p. 353). These traditional gardens provided for the nutritional diets and preparations including the ingredients for nixtamalization discussed earlier. As globalization decreased the production of maize within Guatemala, such traditional gardens diminished as other nontraditional crops were added (Isakson, 2014, p. 360). Guatemala, previous
As the Protestant Church was introduced to Guatemala during its civil war to counteract the influence of the Roman Catholic Church on the rebels, new nontraditional food ideas were a repercussion. The Guatemalan government wanted to “restrict the traditional role of the Catholic Church, while potentially providing a means with which to indoctrinate indigenous populations with a pro-Western and submissive ideology in the future” (Manewal, 2007, p. 50). The Protestants promoted the capitalist economy and its commercial agriculture as opposed to the traditional milpa-based economy and subsistence farming (Isakson, 2014, p. 355). As much as 30% of Guatemalans have converted to Protestantism and in turn accepted the new ideas (Isakson, 2014, p. 355). This changed the cultural preference of many Guatemalans drawing them towards the new export-oriented
Although the negative impacts on the nutrition of Guatemalan’s diet and the negative cultural impact hold truths, the strongest direct impact was that on the economy. Likewise, the scarcity of positive positions indicates that the effects are negative. The introduction of Guatemala to global competition was the most revealing position when they were introduced to globalized foodways. The multinational corporations dictate the profit that the farmers get and this is based on their own profit not taking into consideration the Guatemalan’s needs (Eakin, Tucker, & Castellanos, 2006, p.159). Competition has decided which crops are profitable to grow for Guatemalans due to the season of growth and their own cash crops of choice (Isakson, 2014, p. 355). This pushes Guatemalans away from traditional crops such as maize towards other crops to export, while competition in the United States exports maize back to Guatemala (Isakson, 2014, p. 355). The competition in the United States even broke down the barriers that protected traditional crops such as corn, which Guatemala once had high tariffs on (Isakson, 2014, p. 358). As Visser (1999) stated “those who have the power to move food around the world have power over life and death” showing how the competition’s control over Guatemala