Prospects for the ‘rule of law’ in the present are shaped by historical experiences of law by elite and non-elite groups in the past. In this article I explore changing conceptions and practices of rights’ and ‘justice’ as expressed in the legal and administrative encounters between indigenous people and state officials during the regime of Jorge Ubico (1931-1944). The extension of the state’s coercive and administrative apparatus to remote rural areas, new legislation and changes in public administration transformed relations between working people, coffee finqueros and the state in Guatemala. This implied new obligations and exactions for Mayans, but also provided them with new opportunities to contest and negotiate their conditions. Indigenous people strategically engaged with the law to contest the terms of their domination by elite actors and to mediate conflicts between themselves. As state ideologies of ‘moral behaviour’ led to increasing regulation of the private sphere, this was particularly important in the case of conflicts over gendered rights and obligations. Although formally excluded from the category of citizens, indigenous people used the official language and discourse of citizenship to further their claims, in turn reshaping Guatemalan nation-state.

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(2000) “Paz, progreso, justicia y honradez: law and citizenship in Alta Verapaz during the regime of Jorge Ubico”, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol.19 (3): 283-302.