El Pueblo Xinka, Presente!: Key Learnings from Our Presentation at the 2025 International Indigenous Voices in Social Work Conference

Abstract

In 2011, the Indigenous Xinka people of southeastern Guatemala emerged on the national and international stage as thousands of community members protested against the Escobal mining project—the second-largest in Guatemala’s history. Xinka activism is deeply rooted in their cosmology, which emphasizes living in harmony and balance with Nuestra Madre Tierra (our Mother Earth). Within this worldview, Xinka are bound to the protection and defense of the natural world, understanding that humans are sustained by Madre Tierra, the giver of life, and thus must maintain a careful balance in their way of life, resource use, and reciprocal care for her.

The Escobal mine is a devastating example of how colonial and imperialist projects engage in extractivism, plundering natural resources for profit. Indigenous Xinka bodies are continuously targeted by a racist, capitalist system that exploits their labor in agriculture while simultaneously destroying the land through mining. Since the Xinka community began resisting the mine, numerous organizers have been killed. This brutality is part of a historical pattern: during the Guatemalan Civil War, over 200,000 Indigenous people were murdered and 40,000 disappeared.

This presentation examines the last 15 years of Xinka struggle, specifically highlighting the intersection of extractivism and the exploitation of Indigenous bodies—particularly Indigenous women and children. It argues that decolonization must also mean depatriarchalization. Through examples of Xinka organizing, it explores how their movement protects both land and community, offering critical lessons in the ongoing dignified struggle for autonomy over ancestral lands, and Indigenous bodies.