David Carey Jr. is a man with a determination to speak, or in this case write, the truth. Carey, an assistant professor of the History Department, has spent the past seven years traveling to Guatemala to give a little-known indigenous Mayan language an everlasting voice.
After spending several summers and one complete year studying Mayan culture and the Kaqchikel language in the state of Chimaltenango, Carey wrote a book recording the histories of Mayan people preserved through their own oral history traditions, written entirely in Kaqchikel.
While Carey was a graduate student at Tulane University, New Orleans, he began to realize that the Mayan Culture was not only grossly underrepresented, but essentially not spoken of at all. It concerned him that English and Spanish written books excluded the Mayan people who represent 70 percent of the Guatemalan population.
“There’s always a fear on an international scale of losing our indigenous languages at a rapid rate,” Carey said.
While at Tulane University Carey participated in a program where he began traveling to Guatemala, lived with Mayan families, and learned Kaqchikel. After he received his doctorate in Latin American studies he began applying for federal grants to continue working with Mayan people. After conducting hundreds of interviews, where he spoke Kaqchikel, Carey completed his first book, a textbook written in Kaqchikel at a sixth grade level. He photocopied and distributed it to teachers and elders to share in local schools and the community. He wanted Mayan people to be able to express their own perspective of history in their native language.
“My goal with this project was to give something back to the community,” Carey said.
The declined of native tongues stems partially from political turmoil as a result of the Spanish invasion in 1524, Carey said. Mayan people were viewed more as a labor source rather than independent people after the invasion. They were forced to adapt or change their lifestyles, including their language, Carey explained. About 400,000 Mayans still speak Kaqchikel today and it is one of three widely used indigenous languages in Guatemala. But like many languages in Guatemala that are currently in their last generation, Kaqchikel is not being taught to younger people. There are 21 Mayan languages and 50 to 60 percent of Mayan people are bilingual, with Spanish being one of the dominant tongues. Spanish is considered the national language in Guatemala, and although many Mayan teachers speak Kaqchikel, most classes are taught at least half of the time in Spanish.
Last month, Carey completed the second part of his Mayan studies, with another book written in English titled, Our Elders Teach Us: Maya-Kaqchikel Historical Perspectives, printed by the University of Alabama Press. This book is a history of the last 500 years in Guatemala, focusing on 1870 through the twentieth century, based on the oral histories he collected, Spanish-language government archives, and newspaper articles. But, because of the 414 interviews he conducted, many with common people who have a third grade learning level, “.but had tremendous amounts of intelligence without a formal education,” Carey’s book offers a more broadly based perspective that captures Mayan accounts of history omitted from official national histories.
Carey is currently working on two more projects. He is seeking funding to distribute his Kaqchikel textbook more widely throughout Guatemala and has begun researching the oral histories of women. He has begun interviewing and hiring women from the indigenous population to learn how their historical perspective differs from other cultures and how “.they use different methodologies and theories surrounding history, and how they make sense of it.”
Carey has taught two classes related to his field of study here at USM, the History of women in Latin America and indigenous peoples of Latin America and is currently teaching this semester the oral history of African and Latin America. Carey greatly enjoys researching and learning about minority cultures. He takes pride in how his work is assessable and relevant to the people he works with, giving those who are underrepresented a chance to preserve and share their lives. “What excites me most about history is giving minorities in the cultures a voice,” Carey said.