Dr. Giovanni Batz, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Native American Studies at UC Davis, will be speaking on "Ixil Maya Resistance against Megaprojects in Cotzal, Guatemala." Among the Ixil Maya of Guatemala, the arrival of megaprojects is referred to as the “new invasion.” This presentation examines a movement in Cotzal against the construction of the Palo Viejo hydroelectric plant built by the Italian company Enel on the finca San Francisco from 2008-2012. The struggle was characterized by peaceful resistance, a four-month blockade, and the arrival of the military. Batz argues that the arrival of megaprojects, such as Palo Viejo, continues the history of a colonial logic of extraction, and is an extension of the historical tensions between the Indigenous Peoples, the fincas, and the Guatemalan state.
Dr. Batz is currently a 2020-2021 President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis, where he is working on his manuscript tentatively entitled “The Fourth Invasion: Decolonizing Histories, Megaprojects and Ixil Resistance in Guatemala.” He began working on his book as a 2018-2019 Anne Ray Fellow at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Batz has also conducted research on Guatemalan-Maya youth in Los Angeles, and migration of K’iche’-Maya from Almolonga, Quetzaltenango.
