In The Mayan in the Mall, J. T. Way traces the creation of modern
Guatemala from the 1920s to the present through a series of national and
international development projects. Way shows that, far from being
chronically underdeveloped, this nation of stark contrasts-where
shopping malls and multinational corporate headquarters coexist with
some of the Western Hemisphere's poorest and most violent slums-is the
embodiment of globalized capitalism.
Using a wide array of historical and contemporary sources, Way explores
the multiple intersections of development and individual life, focusing
on the construction of social space through successive waves of land
reform, urban planning, and economic policy. His explorations move from
Guatemala City's poorest neighborhoods and informal economies (run
predominantly by women) to a countryside still recovering from civil war
and anti-Mayan genocide, and they encompass such artifacts of
development as the modernist Pan-American Highway and the postmodern
Grand Tikal Futura, a Mayan-themed shopping mall ringed by gated
communities and shantytowns. Capitalist development, Way concludes, has
dramatically reshaped the country's physical and social
landscapes-engendering poverty, ethnic regionalism, and genocidal
violence-and positioned Guatemala as a harbinger of globalization's
future.
