Territorial community feminism : An approach in the music videos of Kaqchikel singers

Abstract

This thesis examines how the territorial community feminism concept is adapted to the music videos of Kaqchikel singers, Ch’umilkaj Curruchiche Nicho and Sara Curruchich, from San Juan Co-malapa, Chimaltenango, Guatemala. This concept applies the Mayan ancestral knowledge from a community point, which is intertwined with woman, body, and their territory, so it means that any harm committed to the woman, also affects the land and community. Mayan women in Guatemala have lived in violence from the colonialization period until today; thus, they used the territorial com-munity feminism concept which is interrelated with the Maya epistemology to overcome history and weave their future. The data for this study were gathered from five music videos and four interviews conducted face-to-face and zoomed in Guatemala. Combined they were analyzed using Multimodal Discourse Analy-sis Method. The data reveal that the territorial community feminism is depicted in the five music vide-os through six categories: traditional practices, clothes, location, women characters, music instruments, and languages. Each one is described and analyzed separately, but also an interrelation between them is drawed. These six dimensions are used to reinforce and make a stance of Maya identity and to raise awareness for stopping violence against women. Therefore, the Kaqchikel language plays an important role for the dissemination of the message. “The territorial community feminism is not part of the de-colonial theory”, said one of the interviewees. Sara and Ch’umilkaj performed in their surroundings, wearing their güipil, and singing in Kaqchikel language to heal the past and celebrate the present. These artists are using their ancestral knowledge to weave the history of their grandparents and build-ing a new path.