El gran debate historiográfico de 1937 en Guatemala: “Los indios fuera de la historia y de la civilización”. Dos formas de hacer historia

Abstract

This article focuses on a debate held within the Guatemalan press during 1937. The journalists and writers involved in that controversy were members of the main intellectual elites of the country. The debate dealt, from diverse intellectual approaches, with the situation of the indigenous peoples and, to a certain extent, arose from Vasconcelos’ comments on the Spanish conquest and colonization of America. What can be appreciated from reading the essays published during this controversy are two distinct ways of viewing the indigenous peoples and understanding the role of History and National Identity.