Blonde hair, trimmed nails, dazzling necklace rings, hip-hop-inspired tooth ornaments... These elements of global popularity have appeared in GenZ, which grew up in Guatemala, and unlike the bittersweet primitive communities of the past, Guatemala's young people are helping the country "renovate" its appearance.
Juan Brenner, an artist who has been in fashion photography in New York for a decade, decided to return to his hometown of Guatemala, turning his lens to peoples and lands that have endured centuries of colonization and war, documenting the enduring scars of "conquest." Unlike the orthodox indigenous observation of colonization, Juan decided to allow outside forces to break in when he was creating, and his project documents how a new generation of Guatemalan youth understood their origins and embraced new trends.
The writer Eduardo Galeano, in his book The Cut Blood Vessels of Latin America, bluntly exposed the turmoil and poverty in Guatemala, "In Guatemala, violence is always as natural as sweating... And the more covert slaughter, the daily deaths caused by poverty, has continued and become more severe." Ever since Columbus discovered the New World, colonization and war have been a nightmare the nation has struggled to break out of. From the conquests initiated by the Spaniards in the 16th century to the 36-year civil war of the 1990s, Guatemala's national identity has been likened to a cultural mosaic, and its real body has been overshadowed by a complex history of conflict, exploitation and natural disasters.
Portrait of Juan Brenner
Juan's teenage years coincided with Guatemala's civil war, and people were immune to violence, corruption and poverty. He decided to leave his hometown for New York at the age of 19 and couldn't wait to be a part of globalization. "When I was in my early 20s talking about my philosophy of photography, I swore I would never shoot in Guatemala, and I felt that photographing volcanoes, landscapes and smiling indigenous people was the most tacky thing ever done."
From the Tonatiuh project
In New York, Juan was overwhelmed by fashion aesthetics and commercial operations, and while approaching things that seemed cool, Juan felt lost like never before, "too many mechanized repetitions, I felt like I was doing a good job, but I realized I would never get to the top, especially as an immigrant". He found himself gradually losing the sense of social documentary he had originally taken on photography, and the problems he ignored at the age of 20: the origin of identity, racism became a reality that he could no longer avoid. He decided to stay away from New York.
From the Tonatiuh project
During his travels to Peru and Bolivia, Juan witnessed the indigenous forces of these countries and was drawn to this crazy energy. He looked forward to returning to Guatemala to conduct research on indigenous communities, to show the other side of Guatemala — the primitive charm of the reality of backwardness and poverty. While he was visiting and researching extensively, an anthropologist told him that it was a meaningless project and that Guatemala did not have such a thing as indigenous power. One reality is that most Latin American countries, including Guatemala, are still ruled by people of European descent, and whites are still a vocal group here. The details of conquest and colonization 500 years ago are still repeated here.
From the Tonatiuh project
Beginning with the Spanish invasion in the 16th century, local rule in Guatemala was suppressed and crushed, and obscurantism was imposed. "Conquest" is an inescapable theme here, and it has effectively influenced guatemala's cultural genes and shifted power to conquerors. Juan revisits "conquest" through an ancient story.
From the Tonatiuh project
Tonatiuh was his first photographic project for the Guatemalan Highlands. In 1524, the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado arrived in Guatemala, beginning more than 200 years of violent Spanish colonization of the land. It is said that when Alvarado arrived, the locals mistakenly believed him to be tonatiuh, the Aztec sun god, because of his blonde hair and red beard, and gave him the title of god. Juan followed Alvarado's conquest route, visiting more than 50 towns across the country. "Nearly 500 years later, I wanted to create a narrative, a perspective that would put together the past, the present, and the future we were looking forward to."
During the filming of Tonatiuh, Juan experienced a lot of the social rules and dynamics of the Highlands. As he got closer and closer to the highlands, he felt a new energy burst from the mountains—quiet and primitive photos often upset by the intrusion of a smartphone and a pair of Nike sneakers.
From the Genesis project
Post-colonization and globalization have brought about a new turn in the land, and young people on the Guatemalan plateau have been given unprecedented opportunities to interact with the world. "Genesis is the spark I capture that ignites a new generation of people with different mentalities about race and a whole new approach to globalization." Juan began to turn the camera to young people in the Guatemalan highlands. The girls wore mini and fancy skirts, the boys wore shiny fake luxury rings on their fingers, and the dental ornaments that were all the rage on the highlands...
From the Genesis project
Unlike Tonatiuh's colonial scar observations, Genesis seems to celebrate the emergence of a new aesthetic, even if it is formed by a colonial scarred land embracing external forces. "You might be surprised that the kids of the Highlands are enjoying the same thing as kids in the Spanish Quarter and even kids in First World countries, reggae and hip-hop are the 'kings' here, 'TikToker' everywhere every day!" Influenced by the internet and globalization, children in highlands are building equal dialogue with the world, establishing their identities at a very fast pace in both physical and virtual worlds.
The Genesis project captures the popularity of dental ornaments
Whether it is "Tonatiuh" or "Genesis", "gold" is always repeated, people's jewelry, shiny decorations on coffins, teeth ornaments of all ages... Both reflect a charming metallic sheen, and Guatemalans have always loved to dress themselves up. Gold, with a long and contradictory history in the region. Plundering gold was the original intention of the Spaniards to invade the Americas, and they did not know that there was no considerable amount of gold in the area, and the Mayan ancestors decorated their teeth with animal bones, conch, quartz and jade, rather than gold. It wasn't until the 1950s, when the economy of the Highlands began to shift, that people began to use gold as a more durable material for fixing teeth. According to local dentists, gold is not an affordable material, and most people actually have a pile of metal alloys in their mouths.
The Genesis project captures the popularity of dental ornaments
Even with fake gold, the locals were happy to decorate their teeth with various metals, which seemed like a return to the Mayan civilization, but Juan believed that the circular popularity of tooth ornaments was just an accidental example. In the 1990s, at the end of the 36-year Guatemalan Civil War, people began to wear gold dental ornaments as a symbol of power and wealth, and although the people of the Highlands had a high degree of identification with their Mayan roots, the decoration in the mouth had nothing to do with the Mayan cultural heritage, rather, it was a completely foreign aesthetic — a symbol of purchasing power. Young people in the Highlands are also obsessed with metal tooth ornaments, "in fact, some of these children may not know much about that history, reggae and hip-hop music is popular in the Highlands, and children wear tooth ornaments just to look cool."
Juan optimistically sees the loss of indigenous cultural purity as a situation long overdue for a newly liberated society, and Genesis uses rich brushstrokes to refute stereotypes of Indian poverty and backwardness. The images bear witness to the birth of a fascinating mixed cultural form, with girls dying their blonde hair and shortening the length of traditional long skirts, and boys becoming fascinated by designer sneakers and rings.
From the Genesis project
Their grasp of TikTok and pop culture, as well as global buzzwords, has reshaped a national image that confidently embraces the icons of modern society, a powerful counterweight to the arrogant prejudices of Indigenous peoples who adhere to traditional clothing and customs. "The timeline of a country like Guatemala is not the same as that of a country in the first world, and I think my generation is a bit backward, and these children are completely different now." At the intersection of postcolonialization, globalization, and Internet technology, young people in the Highlands are generating a new set of formulas for dressing, thinking, and talking.
From the Genesis project
Torn between ancient Mayan civilizations, vague colonial and war memories, and the rapidly moving tides of globalization and capitalism, Guatemala's younger generation has not faced much struggle in building their identity, and a traction force is helping them to put themselves in their place. Juan discovered during the filming that many families in the Highlands still converse with their children in their original language. "The children's parents and grandparents have done an amazing job in protecting and passing on Mayan ideas, and traditional matters are paramount. Although a new generation of young people has moved away from many traditional practices, in their brains, the Mayan worldview and connection to the land is the most important thing in their lives. At the same time, the key to understanding postcoloniality is to make every child understand why it is such a situation, "globalization cannot stop." I am constantly amazed by the children's grand understanding of reality."
From The Ravine, the Virgin, & the Spring – a project to explore why Guatemala is like this
Through images, Juan tries to portray the youth of the highlands as "containers of information, ideas, and possibilities, carrying a small part of the past, some of the present, and much of the future." As the first generation of Guatemalans to establish an equal dialogue with their contemporaries all over the world, they are the spark that has been ignited, the dawn of a new generation. Guatemala's beauty is always mixed with complex realities, and a new generation is giving itself tension between reality and vision.
Interview, Author: Ziyan
Edit: Ziyan
Image: From the artist