Why Support an Intercultural Interchange?

HISTORIC DEBATE (top). Dario Moran listens with amusement as a local historian in Salcaja, Guatemala, emphasizes a point. Photo by Cheryl Woolsey Des Jarlais. FOLK ART. The Guatemalan people constructed the San Andres Xecul church in the typical colonial style, but they decorated the façade with their own art. Photo by Walter Fleming

In my country, Guatemala, we have 24 ethnic groups. We have been separated, united, and then separated again by the Spanish conquest, two revolutions, and a civil war. But even though we have suffered much, we are trying to work together and succeed.

I think that movements toward globalization and international trade treaties make it more urgent than ever that we improve relations between the peoples of the different countries of the world.

The American continents are our portion of this still-green planet, and it is here and now that we need to come to know each other better, to understand our virtues and our failures, and how these impact our lives and our futures together.

If we give credit to the Bering Strait theory, all of us in the Americas came from the same places and walked the same trails. Why not try to understand and know more of our commonalities? Life is too short to pass away without learning about our closest neighbors. Sometimes we don’t even learn about our neighbors across the street in our own city. It seems just as short-sighted to ignore other countries.

I believe in one America. All inhabitants of the continent could share our traditions and learn from each other by visiting and writing back and forth. By interchanging opinions, we can solve our problems. We can have peace, real progress, and grow in our love for all human beings.

We invite all American Indians from these continents to join in this struggle for a better, spiritual life with peace and respect between us, as well as respect for this earth.

Dario Moran was the guide for the Fulbright-Hays Seminar group throughout most of their travels in Guatemala. He also is a teacher, writer, photographer, and the director of a Mayan dance group, Danza Tradiciòn NIKTÈ, which in Mayan means May flower or flower of the jungle. To contact him, email danzatradicion@yahoo.com.