Abstract
This introductory essay is part of the special issue Maya America, Volume 8, Issue 1, guest-edited and coordinated by the Mayan Languages Preservation Project. The 10 authors of the various research articles and commentaries represent eight of Guatemala’s 22 Maya languages. What brings these essays into relationship with each other are the pragmatic concerns of strengthening Maya languages, such as providing academic, professional, and social services contexts for using and not merely maintaining these languages but helping them thrive. Each author in this special issue has actively worked in various ways to promote Mayan language and cultural knowledge preservation. As background to the authors’ essays, Dr. Little in this introductory chapter reviews how, over the last 40 years, Guatemalan Maya scholars have increasingly been part of the academic conversation, although much of Maya scholarly production in ethno/history, cultural anthropology, and politics has been in Spanish and with limited circulation.
Publication Date
8-5-2026
Keywords
Mayan language preservation, Maya scholars, Guatemala, Maya advocacy
DOI
10.62915/2688-9188.1211
