McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020
This presentation marking the publication of The Fourth Invasion by Giovanni Batz (Chicana/o Studies) will feature commentary by Charles Hale (Dean of Social Sciences) and Javiera Barandiarán (Global Studies), moderated by Daina Sanchez (Chicana/o Studies). Special analysis will be offered by Concepción Santay Gómez (Ancestral Authority of Cotzal / Alcalde Indígena de Cotzal).
Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research, The Fourth Invasion examines the movement of the Ixil Maya community of Cotzal against the construction of the Palo Viejo hydroelectric plant, which locals referred to as the “new invasion” or “fourth invasion”, after Spanish colonization, the creation of the plantation economy, and the state-led genocide during the Guatemalan armed conflict. Through a historical account of waves of these invasions and resistance, Giovanni Batz argues that extractivist industries are a continuation of a colonial logic of extraction based on the displacement and destruction of Indigenous Peoples' territories and values that has existed since the arrival of the Spanish in 1524.