The Mayan Apparatchiks

The office of fugitive Mayan Indians called Community of Population in Resistance (CPR) has mixed influences: the filing system is Western-style, but the names and categories seem copied from a Politburo manual.

Political posters on the Coordinating Commissioner's office in the Guatemalan village of Caba.

The Mayan version of the hammer-and- sickle is an ax-and-machete. The comrades of the CPR like outsiders to believe the symbol is an old Mayan motif.

Two Ixil Indians from Caba walk with a Spanish acompañante, who is a member of a foreign solidarity group. Originally, the acompañantes flew to Guatemala to protect local revolutionaries from army forces. The need for protection has lessened and this foreign visitor is walking with the Indians to a nearby folk holiday.

An Ixil from Caba, Guatemala carries his son and 20 pounds of luggage to Chajul for a folk holiday.

Men in Caba seldom wear traditional clothes, apart from their hats. But a soccer t-shirt and transistor radio are a must.

Ixil women stand in line in Caba to have corn ground.

Domingo Santiago Chel is a member of the projects committee at Caba's Community of Population in Resistence.

A map of civil war activities in the territory where CPR is active shows a cannon in Chajul, where the Guatemalan army has a detachment.

APF Fellow