Op-Ed: What is 'Central America' and liberation for its people?

Something I have noticed in my conversations with Central Americans and observations of Central American social media is the increasing use of ‘Central American’ as an identity, sometimes in lieu of nationality. Personally, I opt for identifying as Central American, out of acknowledgement that the nation states that constitute Central America, including Guatemala (where my parents are from), are colonial states that were founded on the genocide of Indigenous communities. Furthermore, not only are these states centuries-old infringements on their sovereignty, but they continue to target and kill those who remain. However, the traditional definitions about Central America revolve around these same colonial borders; even discussions regarding whether Belize and/or Panama are part of Central America center the nation-state as its foundational unit. There is also another geopolitical term used by the Global North couched within the region: the infamous “Northern Triangle" made up by Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. As many of us participate in discussions that center Indigenous and Black folks, how useful is this? If we’re about decolonization, why center the colonial unit? Finally, the conception of a typical Central American person or mainstream Central American culture points to a thriving mestizaje where Black and Indigenous roots are erased and appropriated by a Spanish-speaking, Christian, “raza” population. How can we internally challenge these notions and start actively fighting against it?

This question is an urgent one for me as it dictates what I post about on The CentAm Collective’s platforms and what I need to learn more about. I purposefully opted out of doing a Latin-American/Latinx page but this is an issue relevant to the rest of Southern America and its diaspora.

Map found in Britannica’s entry of “Central America", defined as: “Central America, southernmost region of North America, lying between Mexico and South America and comprising Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize. (Geologists and physical geographers sometimes extend the northern boundary to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico.)”

The traditional definition of Central America is a so-called geographical one: from Guatemala and Belize to Panama. But soon enough, it’s obvious that there is a geopolitical meaning behind it with the self-exclusion of Mexico, which is considered to be part of North America. This is further reinforced with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which consists of the three countries that are considered to make up North America. The nation state of Mexico has invested itself into the neoliberal world order and desires to be part of North America—and to be differentiated from Central America. Their willful participation in migration agreements, deportations of, and xenophobia against Central America that has roots in anti-Indigeneity and racist sentiments, is another manifestation of that. Many fights on Mexican and Central American Twitter is about white and mestize Mexicans’ use of ‘Central American’ as an insult rooted in anti-Indigeneity and colorism such as “looking like a Central American.”

Dr. Jessica Hernandez, who is Zapotec and Maya Ch’orti’, has recounted how many Indigenous communities in southern Mexico welcome and help migrating Central Americans, especially Indigenous folks, including how her mother’s Zapotec family took in her father, a Maya Ch’orti’ migrating from Guatemala, into their community in Oaxaca. I have read about the identification that Oaxacans feel towards Central Americans due to the Mexican hegemony that excludes them and looks down on them, just as they do to Central Americans. Furthermore, there are transnational solidarities that exist with Central America’s many Indigenous communities that face similar settler and state-sanctioned violence. This is not to say that we should impose the Central American identity onto Indigenous communities in southern Mexico as many do not identify as such, but that if they do, we should welcome them. At the very least, it is valuable to include them in Central American discourse due to the many shared experiences that intersect with Indigenous communities in Central America.

from @sadgirldanny on Twitter, founder of The Central American Research Collective

Looking at Black and Afro-Indigenous communities in Central America highlights the transnational nature of many of their struggles. The Garifuna people exemplify the strong influence that the Caribbean has had on Central America. An Afro-Indigenous group that are descendants of shipwrecked West Africans who escaped enslavement at St. Vincent’s and intermarried with the Indigenous Arawak population, they have brought their Afro-Carib culture to the isthmus. The fights between white and mestize Hondurans and Garinagu people over whether Punta is Garifuna or Honduran (it’s Garifuna) exemplify how the white and mestize population see such aspects of Afro-Carib culture as essential to their national (mestize) culture. Along the lines of having to disrupt nationalism, Garífuna communities transcend borders and the nation-state, along with other Indigenous groups. Furthermore, looking at the extensive displacement and migration that occurred in the eighteenth century onwards from the Caribbean islands, such as Cuba, Jamaica, and the Grenadines, it is only natural that Central American culture includes many aspects of Afro-Indigenous Caribbean and African culture from music to cuisine. After all, a crucial stage of reggeaton’s history took place in Panama when Jamaican workers came to work on the Panama Canal, resulting in the ‘reggeaton en español’ genre, and it is said that horchata has African origins. There is also the simple observation that Central America is part of the Caribbean with a whole Caribbean coast shared by six out of seven countries. Finally, there were hundreds of African enslaved people from the Congo-Angola region and eastern Nigeria forcibly brought directly to the Kingdom of Guatemala, which encompassed current-day Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and the Mexican state of Chiapas between the 16th and 18th centuries, and their descendants are part of our contemporary societies, albeit their Afro-ancestry socially and politically erased.

Furthermore, Central America is very much tied to several countries due to contemporary emigration, notably the United States. With over 6.6 million Central Americans in the US, there are many strong cultural, familial, and economic relationships that have been formed in the past few decades. With transnational organizations such as CISPES or NISGUA, activists in Central America have invested efforts in mobilizing the US-based diaspora to lobby their legislators. Of course, this stems from US intervention in the region, which has imported their own influences into the region, such as military arms and training, CIA-backed authoritarian leaders, and neoliberal reforms. 

Furthermore, there are another 4.4 Central Americans spread out across Canada, Europe, (especially Spain, Italy, Belgium, and The Netherlands), Australia, and South America. Including those in diaspora, the global Central American population when counting the seven nationalities of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama amounts to 60.8 million. The 11 millions of those in diaspora represent around 18% of the Central American global population. Clearly, there are strong ties in the Global North that have been forged by those who have been displaced, placing an urgency on developments occurring in host countries as well. 

Current president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, descends from Christian Palestinian immigrants from Bethlehem, part of a larger wave of migration of Christian Palestinians to Central America

Going back to immigration to Central America, it is clear the region has experienced diverse incoming streams of migration. Besides the presence of Indigenous and Black communities in the region, there has been high levels of migration not just from Europe, but places such as Palestine, China, and South Korea. There are significant Jewish and Muslim communities that can be found. With many cultural practices and identities preserved in Central American found around the world and with many of us found in the Global North, does that significantly expand what is relevant to Central American culture and liberation? When looking at global experiences of migration, imperialism, and colonialism, what ties can be forged with other groups experiencing similar events? With so many intersectional identities and influences, does the U.S. embargo on Iran and Cuba affect us? Should we care about Western arms sales to the Arab Gulf? Does Indigenous liberation in Brazil affect us? Is migrant labor policy in Spain relevant? What can we learn about protests in Poland against the total abortion ban? Are the disappearances in other authoritarian states of importance to us? Is police brutality and the prison abolition relevant to Central American governance?

In short, yes. As a region affected by colonialism and imperialism, we must be in solidarity with others confronting similar legacies. As a region that has experienced Indigenous genocide, we must stand in solidarity with all Indigenous struggles for liberation. As a region exploited for capitalistic projects, we must protest similar extractive projects elsewhere while, of course, centering the frontline organizers. As a region rampant with anti-Blackness, we must fight for Black liberation worldwide. As a region that experiences anti-semitism, islamophobia, xenophobia, fatphobia, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and more, we must stand with those experiencing the oppression in other regions of the world and in the ones we inhabit. While Central America is home for many of us, we must form solidarities with other communities to teach and learn from in the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation from capitalist white supremacy and the neoliberal world order. We must remember that Central America’s history and people have been impacted by global trends; we are connected to many other regions’ and peoples’ histories. Central America is informed by its Indigeneity, the Caribbean, Africa, and other parts of the world discussed in this op-ed. Central America, in my vision as a fluid and inclusive region that centers historically oppressed communities that have been ignored by the white supremacist neoliberal mestize state, is only one part of the world that is fighting for liberation, and our solidarity is a powerful step that takes us closer to collective, international liberation.

Sussan García is the founder of The CentAm Collective. This article first appeared as a draft op-ed on her Patreon for those who pledge $10 or more per months, one of many exclusive benefits that supports receive, such as newsletters, exclusive merch, and more. You can follow her on Twitter.