Utz Kaslimaal Collective

Natural Living, Indigenous Epistemologies and the Good Life What Is the Utz’ K’aslimaal Collective?

Almost all indigenous cultures around the world have a unique understanding of what it means to live the Good Life. For the Mayan Tz´utujil people of Guatemala, the Good Life, or Utz´ K´aslimaal, is characterized by a life of balance, of proper relationships with the community and the land which holds them, and the fullness of a simple life lived well. The Utz´ K´aslimaal Collective believes that

the indigenous concept of the Good Life and the inimitable worldview of the Mayan peoples from Guatemala especially, offers needed guidance, wisdom, and a practical path forward in the light of the multiple crises we collectively face on a global scale. Through our connections with the indigenous communities and territories around Guatemala, and through the ecological development of a small piece of land in Santiago Atitlan, we hope to offer a glimpse into how the Good Life might open pathways for the construction of sustainable, just, and balanced communities around the world. Our Story

We understand our privilege, and don´t try to hide the fact that, at the most basic level, we are in some ways continuing a history of dispossession and violence towards the Mayan people of Guatemala. The piece of land where Utz´ K´aslimaal Collective is located was originally forcefully appropriated from the Tz´utujil people by a coffee baron at the turn of the 20th century. The land was then sold off to some of the wealthiest families in the country who privatized the land in hopes of turning the land into an exclusive country club for the oligarchy. Today, thousands of foreigners come to the beautiful Lake Atitlan area and purchase the best pieces of land in order to create projects or businesses from the ample financial resources they have. In the vast majority of cases, these privileged foreigners never make an effort to belong to the reality of the indigenous communities around the Lake, but rather impose their values, ideas, worldview, and financial influence onto communities that struggle to maintain some sense of autonomy and sovereignty. We have seen time and time again that that the tendency for these types of local/non-local relationships is to be exploitive, oppositional and ugly; offering meager employment opportunities at the cost of a more fundamental and structural dispossession of indigenous communities and their ancestral territories. One of the guiding values of the Utz´ K´aslimaal Collective, then, is to purposefully and resolutely attempt to embody a new pattern and archetype of local/non-local relationships; one that first disgracefully acknowledges the historical privilege from which we´ve come in order to conscientiously construct relationships based on a profound respect and esteem for the community that has so graciously accepted us to form a part of their reality. As we develop an educational program around the themes of natural building, ecological design, indigenous epistemologies, and place-based development, we want to exemplify a different model of local/non-local relationship that doesn’t just passively benefit the community via menial part-time employment and periodic bursts of income, but actively seeks to create spaces for local decision-making, voice, profit-sharing, and power. This new model of local/non-local relationships is possible because of the way in which we have been formed over the years by indigenous communities and the real relationships that we have built. We don´t look at the indigenous communities of Guatemala and see Instead need, privation, and poverty. Rather, we admire and respect their wisdom and way of life, seek to learn from them, and build meaningful relationships of trust and justice.

Photos from Utz Kaslimaal Collective's post

11/11/2022

Trabajando con las chicas de Canadá en la cabaña de utz kaslemal en la Bahía

14/02/2022

Bienvenidos a al Colectivo Utz kaslimaal

09/12/2021

21/05/2021

10/09/2020

If you have been following you’ve seen that we’ve posted a few pictures from Utz K’s Covid relief effort. With this post we want to officially close our campaign. You all gave a total of $952.10 which was enough to distribute approximately 100 packages of foodstuffs and biosecurity supplies to families in our partner communities around Guatemala.

This video is of a group of families receiving aid in the community of Yalu, Sibinal. Yalu is a beautiul village, home to about 45 families that sets on the border of Guatemala and Mexico (picture included). Many of you know Juan Pablo Morales, some of you have even visited Yalu! On behalf of Utz K, Juanpa (as we call him) organized this small initative.

THANK YOU / MALTIOX!

25/07/2020

Gracias a los amigos una u otras formas que nos ayudaron para repartir 70 bolsas de viveres a las familias de panabaj y tzanchaj.

29/06/2020

Good morning friends of Utz K. We want to thank all those who have given to Utz K’s COVID-19 relief effort!

Please click below to make a donation through PayPal.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=info.utzkaslimaal%40gmail.com¤cy_code=USD&source=url

To date we have raised $591.76, which we estimate will provide foodstuffs and biosecurity supplies to approximately 40 families in situations of heightened vulnerability. We hope to send out a report with pictures and testimonies in the near future.

Gracias por tu solidaridad!

15/06/2020

Greetings friends of Utz Kaslimaal,

If you would like to support Utz K’s COVID-19 relief effort, please click below to make a donation through PayPal.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=info.utzkaslimaal%40gmail.com¤cy_code=USD&source=url

Like many places around the world, in the three areas of Guatemala where Utz Kaslimaal has strong presence (around Santiago Atitlan, the Ixil Region, and the municipality of Sibinal, San San Marcos), the lockdown measures taken by government authorities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are taking its toll on indigenous communities. Nearing three months into this pandemic, the government just recently started sending out the "bono familia," about $150 for families in need. However, eligibility for this program is determined and distributed through an incomplete census of the population that is based on levels of electricity consumption. Due to the fact that tens of thousands of families in the communities where we work do not have residential electricity, many families have been falling through the cracks and have subsequently not received even the limited government aid made available.

Latin America, which is now the “center” of the coronavirus outbreak, is expected to reach its peak of infections between July and September. As is often the case in Guatemala, the intentions of the government aren’t meeting the real needs in the densely populated rural-areas throughout the Guatemalan highlands. Recently, we have received appeals from our local partners to help with food donations, mostly corn and a few other basic food stuffs to support hundreds of families who have not been able to apply for the limited government aid being offered. Approximately $20 would pay for one standard food package for a family.

Though our mission is generally concerned with challenging paradigms and working on long term, sustainable projects, our focus has turned to the immediate needs of those in the communities where we have long standing relationships. We are beginning to coordinate with our friends locally to provide resources to those most vulnerable during this time.

If you would like to support Utz K’s relief effort, please click below to make a donation through PayPal.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=info.utzkaslimaal%40gmail.com¤cy_code=USD&source=url

All donations will be sent directly to our partner organizations in Santiago Atitlan, the Ixil Region, and Sibinal, San Marcos for the purchase and distribution of essential food supplies and biosecurity supplies.

You are welcome and encouraged to send this appeal to your contacts. We will do our best to provide pictures, testimonies and financial reports as donations are distributed.

Maltiox,
The Utz Kaslimaal Team

Photos from Latin American Studies Program (LASP)'s post

30/04/2020

08/03/2020

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