ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a broad perspective on the ethnohistorical, sociopolitical and economic context of nutritional vulnerability in Guatemala. Historical inequalities of ethnicity and class, discriminatory land tenure practices, commodization of food and food systems, uneven modes of development, rapid urbanization and migration are identified as creating a legacy of chronic malnutrition for children. Guatemala as a developing country shares with many other nations a series of social, economic, and political problems and historical circumstances that create an environment in which children are vulnerable to poor health and malnutrition and other development related maladies. Guatemala is a Central American republic characterized by economic vulnerability, a bicultural population, high rates of evangelical conversion, and low rates of literacy not untypical of the developing world. The people of Guatemala are made up of "Indian" and "ladino" populations. This system of sociocultural classification is complicated by conflicting interpretation and manipulation of these labels.
