{"id":53782,"date":"2026-04-06T16:40:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/?p=53782"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:40:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:40:29","slug":"learning-from-indigenous-communities-in-guatemala-student-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/2026\/04\/06\/learning-from-indigenous-communities-in-guatemala-student-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning from Indigenous Communities in Guatemala [Student Reflection]"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest blog post from our student social media ambassador, Alannah. Currently studying abroad on the semester program,\u00a0\u201cNew Activisms, Human Rights and Social Justice\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that travels to both Guatemala and Costa Rica during the semester.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first half of Augsburg\u2019s CGEE New Activism, Human Rights, and Social Justice semester program took place throughout many different places in Guatemala. Our program has been filled with lots of fun and educational excursions. These activities have helped us become more knowledgeable about the Indigenous communities in the country and the struggles that they have prevailed through and continue to face. The program is specifically built in a way where we don\u2019t just learn about the history of Guatemala through books, but through discussions with local community members, activists, artists, and families. Our Spanish classes that took place in the beginning of our program helped contribute to this and allowed us to develop our communication skills with our speakers so we wouldn\u2019t have to purely rely on a translator.<\/p>\n

Thanks to so many people willingly taking time out of their days to educate us, we were able to learn and gain an understanding of the historical impact of colonization, as well as how it is still very much alive and deeply rooted in our societies. Due to these deeply touching experiences, we (the students) have been able to incorporate a more decolonized mindset into our day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n

It was incredible to hear the different topics each person in our group took away based on their own personal interests and backgrounds. For me personally, as an artist from Los Angeles, I felt such deep emotions when listening to many different Indigenous artists and learning about the importance of their work. Not only are their practices so deeply rooted in culture, such as Mayan Indigenous textiles, but they also use their art to uplift, support, and stand up for their community. It was truly a refreshing look at art as a whole, especially when compared to the elitist construct of art that is often seen in mainstream media. No question went unasked during our time there, and no story will be forgotten.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest blog post from our student social media ambassador, Alannah. Currently studying abroad on the semester program,\u00a0\u201cNew …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":53783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53784,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53782\/revisions\/53784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}