Marxism and Urban Culture by Fraser Benjamin; Roberts Les; Compitello Malcolm Alan

Author:Fraser, Benjamin; Roberts, Les; Compitello, Malcolm Alan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

The remainder of the editorial was a play on a classic USAC student polemic, entitled “Somos los mismos” (“We are still the same”), written in 1922, and circulated in 1944, 1955, and then again in 1966. As in the 1956 Informador Estudiantil editorial discussed above, the students wrote that they would “do a little history” and demonstrate how the status quo had been preserved throughout Guatemala's history. The popular text detailed the ongoing and historic struggle of students against tyranny. It also affirmed what students referred to as a political obligation to fight the chafarotes who wished to “screw over the pueblo” (Editorial [1] 1966: 9).

The students wrote that the chafarotes remained the same “que tanto durante el Tiempo en que fuimos Colonia de España como durante el Tiempo en que venimos siendo Colonia de los Estados Unidos” (“from the time when [they] were a Colony of Spain, to the time when [they] became a Colony of the United States”). Chafarotes were, in the students” words, “a caste of the insatiable “new rich”,” who would “reniegan de su origen humilde para convertirse en choleros de la Oligarquía criollo, aliados de la Clerecía reaccionaria y marionetas del Imperialismo, para todos juntos ahogar su Soberanía y asfixiarte” (“deny their humble origins in order to become the foot soldiers of the creole Oligarchy, allied with the reactionary Clergy and marionettes of Imperialism, willing to drown and asphyxiate their Sovereignty”). Against the chafarotes stood the students: “Siguen pues, siendo los mismos . . . pero también Nosotros . . . ¡NOSOTROS LOS ESTUDIANTES, TAMBIEN SEGUIMOS SIENDO LOS MISMOS!” (“They continue being the same . . . but We . . . WE THE STUDENTS, ALSO CONTINUE TO BE THE SAME!”) (Editorial [1] 1966: 9).

And so students drew the battle lines: the duplicitous chafarotes against the authentic, dignified students. The students were the same as those who defeated the Cabrera and Ubico dictatorships, and who opposed the traitorous counterrevolutionary, Armas. These students were the same as those who “gave a tribute of youthful blood” in street protests that erupted in June 1956 and March and April 1962. These students were the same as those who led “la resistencia al ydigorismo corrompido, en Marzo y Abril de 1962, con otro tributo de sangre joven, que ensucia las manos de chafarotes ‘absueltos’” (“the resistance against the corrupt Ydígoras government in March and April 1962, with another tribute of young blood that dirtied the hands of the ‘pardoned’ chafarotes”) (Editorial [1] 1966: 9).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.