Resumen

PETRICH, Perla. Guatemala, país de fronteras. Península [online]. 2010, vol.5, n.2, pp.122-144. ISSN 1870-5766.

The article focuses on the analysis of symbolic boundaries, the imaginary lines that separates, at a social, cultural, ethnic, economic, religious and political level, "us" from "them," and "what is ours" from "what is theirs." The result is a consolidation of the axis hegemony/subordination that distinguished between non-indigenous groups (ladinos) from indigenous ones. After establishing these categories we will go further, and reflect upon the boundaries that are delineated with the Maya world itself. In this respect, the adjectives that describe boundaries such as "symbolic" or "imaginary," allude to mental representations, and to an immaterial or invisible limit, but do not exclude an operative and tangible force that produces behaviors and actions. One of these is the impulse to organize social networks that can have the finality to allow or impede the exercise of power.

Palabras llave : frontiers; identitary processes; Mayas; Guatemala.