Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice
Project, in May 2015 student Nicolas Lake interviewed five Development with
Justice scholarship recipients at Rafael Landívar University’s (Universidad
Rafael Landívar) Zacapa campus: Analina Ramirez, Carla, Jose Gonzalez, Julio,
and Ignacio Ramirez. In this
interview, the five scholarship recipients talk about their scholarships, their
classes, and values in Guatemalan society.
Do you think the scholarship is an act of
charity or an act of social justice?
Julio: For me, it’s an act of social justice. We’re taking these classes to have a better life, to have the most possibilities available to us that we can in our society, and to progress from where we currently are.
Ignacio: I think it’s both things. I think it’s an act of social justice because it’s for people who can’t pay for their education. I also think it’s an act of charity, though, because it comes from the hands of the Germans [development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau] and Jesuits. If it wasn’t for this scholarship, we wouldn’t be studying. With this opportunity however, I have been able to study, and I’m now in my third year here. The university, the scholarship, the Jesuits, I really need all of it.
Jose: I see it as family support, not individual. We have three people in my house, and if I didn’t have the scholarship we would have many more problems. I wouldn’t be able to give much to my mom.
Guatemala has a large mix of different cultures. Do you think that there exists a form of discrimination between the different cultures in the university, or in society in general?
Julio: In the university, no, it doesn’t exist. Outside the university, I have seen discrimination among people of different ethnicities. Generally it’s people from one ethnicity discriminating against those from another ethnicity. It’s the same thing with discrimination of a man against a woman. Inside the university it doesn’t really exist, but outside the university there is plenty of machismo.
Analina: In my major there isn’t discrimination, but outside of the university it can be very hard for a man to be a nurse.
Jose: Culture isn’t the only reason for the discrimination; it’s a fault in education as well. For a man who lives in a rural town in Guatemala, when he’s having a kid the first thing he wants is to have a boy, and if he doesn’t have a boy, it’s the woman’s fault. He has pride in having a son.
Who has the responsibility to change these values?
Julio: Everyone has the responsibility. The whole university community certainly does, not just the scholarship recipients. Our programs and majors bring us to different places in life, but we all have the responsibility.
Jose: Institutions can have programs and events, but if we don’t take it upon ourselves to make a change we’re not going to progress. For example, I’m a teacher, and in my classroom there are men who want do something like carpentry, and they say the women can’t do that because it’s a man’s job. Women can do that work also, though. When I teach something, and the men say, “We don’t need to do anything because that’s a woman’s work,” I tell them that they do need to learn it, and women and men do the same work.
Analina: We have progressed. There are a lot of jobs that in the past were only for men, and now we have women doing a lot of them.
Ignacio: There are also many institutions that support women, and we have a number of laws that protect women specifically.
Do your classes here have an emphasis on critical analysis of the social issues that everyone faces here in Guatemala?
Analina: I think so. In my major we talk a lot about the rights that we should have and the rights that we do have. Ignorance hurts Guatemala a lot; a lot of times people say something without knowing if it’s true or not.
Ignacio: For me, they are teaching a lot of things to us that help us think critically, a little bit about everything. We need to take a wide variety of courses so that we can’t just focus on our major, and have a well-rounded education. There are a lot of people in Guatemala who don’t give their opinion, who just follow what the group says without thinking, and that’s a problem.
Julio: Here they create students who are critics, who are critical of issues, in a good sense, not in a negative sense. We learn that we can come to our own conclusions about issues.
What are your goals for the future?
Carla: My goal is to graduate from the university and work in a job in health care in a community of scarce resources.
Analina: I want to continue with my studies here, hopefully graduate, and then find a job.
Ignacio: First I want to finish my major here, and then find work.
Julio: For me, it’s an act of social justice. We’re taking these classes to have a better life, to have the most possibilities available to us that we can in our society, and to progress from where we currently are.
Ignacio: I think it’s both things. I think it’s an act of social justice because it’s for people who can’t pay for their education. I also think it’s an act of charity, though, because it comes from the hands of the Germans [development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau] and Jesuits. If it wasn’t for this scholarship, we wouldn’t be studying. With this opportunity however, I have been able to study, and I’m now in my third year here. The university, the scholarship, the Jesuits, I really need all of it.
Jose: I see it as family support, not individual. We have three people in my house, and if I didn’t have the scholarship we would have many more problems. I wouldn’t be able to give much to my mom.
Guatemala has a large mix of different cultures. Do you think that there exists a form of discrimination between the different cultures in the university, or in society in general?
Julio: In the university, no, it doesn’t exist. Outside the university, I have seen discrimination among people of different ethnicities. Generally it’s people from one ethnicity discriminating against those from another ethnicity. It’s the same thing with discrimination of a man against a woman. Inside the university it doesn’t really exist, but outside the university there is plenty of machismo.
Analina: In my major there isn’t discrimination, but outside of the university it can be very hard for a man to be a nurse.
Jose: Culture isn’t the only reason for the discrimination; it’s a fault in education as well. For a man who lives in a rural town in Guatemala, when he’s having a kid the first thing he wants is to have a boy, and if he doesn’t have a boy, it’s the woman’s fault. He has pride in having a son.
Who has the responsibility to change these values?
Julio: Everyone has the responsibility. The whole university community certainly does, not just the scholarship recipients. Our programs and majors bring us to different places in life, but we all have the responsibility.
Jose: Institutions can have programs and events, but if we don’t take it upon ourselves to make a change we’re not going to progress. For example, I’m a teacher, and in my classroom there are men who want do something like carpentry, and they say the women can’t do that because it’s a man’s job. Women can do that work also, though. When I teach something, and the men say, “We don’t need to do anything because that’s a woman’s work,” I tell them that they do need to learn it, and women and men do the same work.
Analina: We have progressed. There are a lot of jobs that in the past were only for men, and now we have women doing a lot of them.
Ignacio: There are also many institutions that support women, and we have a number of laws that protect women specifically.
Do your classes here have an emphasis on critical analysis of the social issues that everyone faces here in Guatemala?
Analina: I think so. In my major we talk a lot about the rights that we should have and the rights that we do have. Ignorance hurts Guatemala a lot; a lot of times people say something without knowing if it’s true or not.
Ignacio: For me, they are teaching a lot of things to us that help us think critically, a little bit about everything. We need to take a wide variety of courses so that we can’t just focus on our major, and have a well-rounded education. There are a lot of people in Guatemala who don’t give their opinion, who just follow what the group says without thinking, and that’s a problem.
Julio: Here they create students who are critics, who are critical of issues, in a good sense, not in a negative sense. We learn that we can come to our own conclusions about issues.
What are your goals for the future?
Carla: My goal is to graduate from the university and work in a job in health care in a community of scarce resources.
Analina: I want to continue with my studies here, hopefully graduate, and then find a job.
Ignacio: First I want to finish my major here, and then find work.
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