Brand “piracy” and Postwar Statecraft in Guatemala

In this article, I analyze significant gaps between what branding means in Guatemalan Maya communities and how brands are understood in international projects of legal harmonization that are also about rebranding the Guatemalan nation. Following Guatemala’s internal armed conflict, neoliberal statecraft has involved policy approaches that amplify the presence of global brands while compounding conditions of socioeconomic inequality that limit Maya men and women’s access to authorized goods. Meanwhile, Maya people are invited to participate in a modernist vision of citizenship and social progress that encourages a privatized model of indigenous identity mediated by branded commodities and formal market transactions. In this context, the brand is a powerful medium through which claims to legitimacy and authority are negotiated at national and local levels. [brands, piracy, intellectual property, trademark, fashion, Guatemala, Maya] NOTE Acknowledgments. Thanks to Peter Benson, Steven Caton, Andrew Graan, Kimberly Theidon, and Brent Luvaas for helpful comments on earlier drafts and to Constantine Nakassis for his insightful guidance. I am also grateful to Anne Allison and Charles Piot and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments and suggestions. 1. This research began in 2006 and includes a yearlong investigation in 2009, when I interviewed, in Spanish and Kaqchikel Maya, more than 100 workshop owners, employees, and others involved in the industry (and had informal conversations with many more). In addition, I surveyed 250 market vendors, and worked on an unpaid, flexible basis in two workshops. Names and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect informants’ identities.