Ethical Tourism in Guatemala: Honoring Indigenous Maya Peoples

[@yakultsoju]

Thank you so much for this informatively critical video. I am from Korea and married to a Guatemalan and read the same book by Rigoberta Menchu Tum. And the more I learn about Guatemala's history, the more heaviness I feel due to its brutal colonial history and its sobering racial and realities of its legacies. And as a Korean with colonial victims as my grandparents myself, I try to understand all of it as best as I can. Indigenous people are still getting displaced and being suppressed. But videos like this really help my education as am outsider spouse. Thank you!

[@jinx111]

thank you for this video! you are wonderful

[@hallotschuss4177]

I enjoy travel content because I like travelling myself and seeing new things, watching others document their travel is easy and accessible for me BUT I always feel like something is off when travel vloggers try to give some political or historical context on the places. I know they have good reasons to keep it short and unopionated most of the time, but as you said, it sometimes feels like history just ended and the people all disappeared into thin air.

[@KayleyWhalen]

I think it's hard to fit a detailed history into a short travel vlog that will perform well on a KZbin algorithm, and that's part of the problem, lol. Making a 30 minute video may not perform as well but I felt someone had to make a video that included the Guatemalan Civil War. So few people know about it

[@hallotschuss4177]

Thank you for your video and your insights

[@KayleyWhalen]

Glad you liked the video!

[@IfLifeIsALeaf]

Great video, and valuable. Beyond this, if you go anywhere, be aware of the huge industry that is "development" and "aid". So much "aid" serves capitalist interests, and destroys traditional community. Also be aware that "traditional community" always involved change and evolution to changing circumstance. They are not "museum cultures". The difference between good and bad "development" generally can be seen in the level of not only local *participation* in development, but in local *control* of both the goals and implementation of "development"/change. The Annapurna Conservation Project is an example of attempts at community development. Being aware of how tourism , even indigenous-owned tourism, can take more or less socialist forms, is an important aspect of looking at our personal impact and interaction. The Grihasthashram movement of western Nepal where there is little tourism is an even more grass-roots example. The Buddhist Development Movement of northern Thailand, like the Grihasthashram movement, not only work on some elements of economic development, but seek to do so from within the culture, using that culture and maintaining it, so that increased economic well-being does not simply translate into greater participation in capitalism.

[@KayleyWhalen]

Thank you for making some excellent points here. I very much am aligned with your skepticism around "development" and "aid." I couldn't go too far in depth in this video, but I definitely touched on the topic with discussing the IMF and World Bank. I also appreciate your thoughts on how yes, traditional communities always have and will change. Glad you liked the video, and thanks for your insights.