Recomendaciones

Out of Belize’s six districts, Toledo is the southernmost and is often referred to as the forgotten district because of its geographical distance from the capital (Crooks 1997), and perception that resources allocated to the district are limited, relative to other districts in Belize. Toledo has the largest indigenous population and the lowest population density, the largest average household size and the least access to electricity and public water in the country, as well as many other indicators of disadvantage among the Belizean population. Furthermore, Toledo has the greatest disparity between males and females with regard to education levels and employ-ment rates (Statistical Institute of Belize 2007). The lives of Q’eqchi’ Maya women in Toledo differ considerably based on factors including their age, education level, whether they live in one of the remote villages of the district or in the district town of Punta Gorda, and how traditional their family life was, among other variables.

Q’eqchi’ women often say that their greatest struggle is finding employment with limited English and employable skills, and their greatest hope for their daughters is that they will be able to obtain better education and have more career opportuni-ties than they did themselves. However, likely by necessity, many Maya daughters spend considerable time helping their mothers with housework and caring for their younger siblings (Fig. 4.1).

In Q’eqchi’ villages, there are gender-based divisions of labor, with women’s work being mostly in the domestic realm. Women take care of cooking, cleaning, childcare, food processing, drying grain, tending to animals, and growing small crops around the house. Men maintain the milpa and other agricultural tasks, hunt-ing, and forest-based activities far from the home. There are a number of other family tasks for which there are gender preferences, but there is some room for negotiation, choice, or sharing of responsibilities (Wilk 1997). Gender roles and gendered knowledge are taught to young Q’eqchi’ boys and girls by their parents in part through the chores that young people carry out. According to Zarger (2002),

“Girls learn to bake tortillas ( xorok), wash clothes ( puchuk) and dishes, sweep ( me-subk), and prepare food, while boys learn to “chop” bush in preparation for milpa ( k’alek), cut firewood ( tsibk), plant ( awk), and fish ( karabk)” (Fig. 4.2). Both girls

88 4 Q’eqchi’ Women’s Lives, Healthcare and Cultural Loss

and boys are expected to find, identify, and harvest cultivated and wild food plants.

Q’eqchi’ youth typically learn these skills from family members of the same gender (Zarger 2002).

Early marriage, when girls are in their teenage years, is still fairly common in the Q’eqchi’ communities, especially in the most remote villages. This means women have long reproductive lives, in some cases having 10–15 children. It is not uncommon for 20 years or more to separate the ages of a Q’eqchi’ woman’s young-est child and her oldest (Wilk 1997). According to Wilk (1997), living in multiple-family households can ease the burden of caring for so many children by spreading the workload out across the household. He explains that early marriage and high birth rates used to be balanced by an unfortunate high infant mortality rate, and that in the past, older children helped even more with the childcare. While infant mortality remains high it has decreased in recent decades. Furthermore, primary schooling has become mandatory in the villages of Belize. Wilk explains that the changes in these two factors—decrease in infant mortality and school becoming mandatory—has increased the burden on Q’eqchi’ Maya mothers. The only way

Fig. 4.2  Q’eqchi’ boys returning to the village after chopping firewood Fig. 4.1  Q’eqchi’ girl car-rying her baby brother in a lepob’

89 4.1 Q’eqchi’ Maya Women’s Lives in Belize

to reduce this domestic workload is to share with other women, usually in familial groups or households.

An elder female herbalist who participated in this research was born to a moth-er from Belize, from the forested area outside one of the villages in Toledo, and a father from Guatemala. They were both Q’eqchi’. He was a soldier and ran from the service and came to Belize where he met her mother. She was their only child that survived past 7 months. Her other siblings died before that age. She lived in the forest there until she was 12 years old. At the age of 8 her mother died, and when she was 12 her father died as well. She had no schooling. Orphaned and alone, she moved out of the forest at the age of 12 to live with her uncle.

Her uncle made her move in with a widower when she was 12 years old, so that his family would not have to take care of her. She is now 75 years old and has been widowed herself for the last 50 years, so has lived alone for a long time.

She gave birth to 14 children, 6 are alive today. She has many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Her father and husband were both traditional healers, but both died while she was young. She herself had raised livestock, grown food to sell, and helped other people cook and wash to make money to support herself and her children.

Circumstances for many women of her generation may have been particularly difficult. Today life is still hard for many, while others find opportunity through ed-ucation. Q’eqchi’ women who live in Punta Gorda Town, or areas close by, are more likely to attend and complete high school, to speak fluent English comfortably, pur-sue an Associate’s degree from the local campus of the University of Belize, and find employment, such as office work, teaching, and tourism, like my Research As-sistant Maria (Fig. 4.3). In Belize, high school education requires that parents pay tuition and registration fees, and buy uniforms and books. In Toledo’s remote areas, where many parents may live off of subsistence farming and have large families, parents may have to decide which children will be able to attend high school, and which will not, based on their limited budget. This decision often does not favor the female children, though, of course, every family is different.

Fig. 4.3  My Research Assis-tant Maria with her grand-mother, grand-mother, and daughter

90 4 Q’eqchi’ Women’s Lives, Healthcare and Cultural Loss