ABSTRACT
La Fiesta de Santo Tomás of Chichicastenango, Guatemala, represents an opportunity to study two aspects of the emergence of the Hispanic Baroque: first, it allows for an examination of the ways that different forms of representation reflect modes of domination. We employ Bakhtin’s theory of the carnivalesque to examine how the fiesta portrays, questions, and reverses power struggles stemming from Guatemala’s colonial reality, hacienda work relations, and immigration that continue to shape Guatemalan modern identity. The second aspect of the Hispanic Baroque that La Fiesta de Santo Tomás allows us to trace and assess is the process of syncretism and cultural parallelism between various social and ethnic groups in modern Guatemala. This chapter will argue that the festival serves as a technology of culture, as it embodies and perpetuates past traditions and belief systems that continue to co-exist during the festival in a modern city.
