Mirna Aguilar Paz, a researcher at the Dr. Hideyo Noguchi Regional Research Center of the Autonomous University of Yucatan UADY, said that “the Maya Culture has become a commercial issue instead of a cultural asset.”
“The Maya is no longer thought of as a cultural element of an identity that differentiates us, but as merchandising a commercial product, a commodity,” she said.
In the anthropologist’s perspective, governments have found in the Maya culture a niche that allows them to market anything, with the stigma that the product sold is ‘Maya’, when in reality, those items or productos do not actually belong or represent the culture.
Aguilar Paz also points out the discrimination suffered by the Maya people occurs inside and outside their own communities, since for decades, they have struggled against governments that do not give importance to the culture, knowledge and wisdom of the Maya people.
She also stated that public policies have made a serious mistake, making people think that speaking Maya is of no use, instead of promoting and preserving the language as a valuable cultural asset.
‘We are trying to revalue the Maya culture, language, customs and all what has to do with the magical, religious thinking of this ancient civilization.
The loss of the Maya culture is not only due to the marketing effect that governments have created, but to the disinterest of young people on general culture as well.
“The Yucatecan new generations are not showing any interest on their own roots, they disdain their grandparents and the fact that all that has to do with the Maya is useless. This is a serious problem that could lead to the extinction of the true Maya culture,” researcher Mirna Aguilar Paz concluded.
The Yucatan Times Newsroom
