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Discussion & Study Guide for "If the Mango Tree Could Speak"
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Central America: Roots of Conflict

...without the guerrillas it would have continued on the same as before, when the rich people didn't want to share with the poor. The rich people wanted everything. So the peasants formed the guerrillas and among them was my father. At least he did something.
-- Juan

Dating from the time of the conquest, certain societal relations developed that are helpful in understanding the current conflicts in Central America.

A Dependent Economy: Spain viewed its colonies primarily as producers of raw materials for sale or consumption in Europe. They saw the people of Central America largely as a source of cheap labor rather than as potential consumers of their products. Multinational corporations from the developed world continue this practice today.

The Oligarchy: The Mayas did not have a concept of private ownership of land. They owned and worked land communally. After the conquest, a small handful of conquerors divided up the land, creating a system of private land ownership which continues in Central America. They created an oligarchy, a ruling class of wealthy families whose power derived from control of land. A parallel version of the power and wealth of the oligarchy in Central America is that of the multinationals in the U.S., where a small part of the population holds the vast majority of the wealth.

The Role of the Church: Under a system known as the encomienda (meaning "to be in charge of"), large landowners were put in charge of converting the Mayas to Catholicism. In exchange for the "opportunity" to be converted they had to work on the landowners' property for little or no pay. Although much of the church perpetuated and even benefitted from the conquest, a few Catholic priests did speak out against the worst abuses.

The Role the of the United States In the introduction to If the Mango Tree Could Speak, the narrator says "guerrilla movements seeking economic and political reforms took on military governments supported by the United States." Later she explains the two sides in the civil war in El Salvador: "On one side were the guerrillas: peasants and workers outraged by years of economic and social injustice. On the other side was the government, backed by the United States."

The United States has been a key player in the political, economic and military history of Central America. Over and over during the 20th century the United States has intervened directly and indirectly in Central America. The U.S. government saw it in their national interest to side with and finance the military dictators and conservative forces blocking reform, often in the name of anticommunism. For example, that is what they used to justify the 1954 CIA sponsored coup in Guatemala and the $6 billion that the United States spent in El Salvador trying to prevent the FMLNo guerrilla movement from attaining power.

Past and current U.S. policy has consistently opposed efforts in Latin America to achieve a more equitable distribution of land and resources The U.S. government has often turned a blind eye to human rights violations. Congress gets very little feedback from its constituency about foreign policy, so their decisions are often influenced more by organizations and corporations with special interests who help finance their elections. Discuss the connections between the United States and Central America with your students after watching If the Mango Tree Could Speak.

Racism: When it became clear that Central America did not have much gold, the Spanish conquerors focused on growing crops to be exported to Europe for profit. However, since the conquerors were unwilling to do the hard work of growing the crops, they enslaved indigenous people and later Africans. They justified the brutality of slavery with the claim that the indigenous and African people were the equal of animals. Widespread prejudice against indigenous people persists in Central America today, even as many indigenous people are now asserting pride in their heritage.

The Military as a Privileged Caste: The military was invested with a power known as Fuero Militar, meaning they are outside of or above the law. Their duty was to protect the interests of the large landowners. The military became a privileged caste, isolated from the rest of society.

Armed Opposition: Only two years after Pedro de Alvarado's arrival, the Cakchiquel Mayas created the first guerrilla force in the Americas to oppose the conquerors. They began the Central American tradition of citizens taking up arms against a tyrannical regime. Many people in Central America in recent years turned to armed struggle as a way to effect change only after their legal and non-violent forms of protest were met with violence.