ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a Guatemalan movement that does not fit the dominant grassroots paradigm in order to argue for a widening of the range of movements social observers see as progressive in the face of Guatemala's social inequities and injustice. It considers the ways in which Pan-Mayanism raises important issues for how social scientists conceptualize class, capital, and politics. The chapter challenges the proponents of the unified theory of oppression by exposing some of the assumptions that guided their early dismissal of other forms of dissent and alternative struggles for social change. It describes the ways in which movements with antagonistic histories nevertheless continue to influence each other's sense of purpose and to collaborate on issues of common concern. This has certainly been the case through the period of the peace negotiations and has caused some analysts to argue that the recent convergence transcends these movements' divisive histories.
