Gladys Tzul Tzul

Tzul Tzul was born in a small K'iche' community in Totonicapán.{{Cite web|last1=Tzul Tzul|first1=Gladys|last2=Sebastián|first2=Sandra|date=June 15, 2016|title=Escucharnos decir: feminismos populares in América Latina|trans-title=Hear What We Say: Popular Feminism in Latin America|url=https://issuu.com/escucharnosdecir/docs/escucharnos_decir_-_e01_-_jun_16_-_|access-date=2020-08-03|website=Issuu|pages=130–136|language=en}} She is a descendant of {{ill|Atanasio Tzul|es}}, a K'iche' leader who led an Indigenous revolution in 1820.{{Cite web|last1=Hernández|first1=Oswaldo J.|last2=trans. by Sandra Cuffe|date=2014-02-10|title=Confronting the Narrative: Gladys Tzul on Indigenous Governance and State Authority in Guatemala|url=http://upsidedownworld.org/archives/guatemala/confronting-the-narrative-gladys-tzul-on-indigenous-governance-and-state-authority-in-guatemala/|access-date=2020-08-03|website=Upside Down World|language=en-US}}

She earned a master's degree from the Alberto Hurtado University in Chile and a PhD in sociology from Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in Mexico.{{Cite web|title=Gladys Tzul Tzul|url=https://creativetime.org/summit/athens-2017/gladys-tzul-tzul/|access-date=2020-08-03|website=The Creative Time Summit}}{{Cite web|date=2019-09-04|title="En Guatemala la tierra es indígena" [Interview with Gladys Tzul Tzul]|url=https://www.clacso.org/en-guatemala-la-tierra-es-indigena/|access-date=2020-08-03|website=CLACSO|language=es}} Her scholarly work focuses on the relationships of Indigenous women within their communities and with larger political structures, such as federal governments.{{Cite journal|last=Tzul|first=Gladys Tzul|date=2018-10-31|title=Rebuilding Communal Life: Ixil women and the desire for life in Guatemala|journal=NACLA Report on the Americas|language=en|volume=50|issue=4|pages=404–407|doi=10.1080/10714839.2018.1550986|s2cid=187142099|issn=1071-4839}}{{Cite journal|last=Tzul|first=Gladys Tzul|date=July 2016|title=Communal Strategies for Controlling Microfinance in Chuimeq'ena' Guatemala|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic-quarterly/article/115/3/625-631/3854|journal=South Atlantic Quarterly|language=en|volume=115|issue=3|pages=625–631|doi=10.1215/00382876-3608686|issn=0038-2876}} In many of her articles, Tzul Tzul describes how Indigenous women resist domination and exploitation through communal democracy in the Andes and Mesoamerica.{{Cite journal|last=Tzul|first=Gladys Tzul|date=2018-10-31|title=Rebuilding Communal Life|journal=NACLA Report on the Americas|volume=50|issue=4|pages=404–407|doi=10.1080/10714839.2018.1550986|s2cid=187142099|issn=1071-4839}}{{Cite web|last=Tzul Tzul|first=Gladys|title=La forma comunal de la resistencia {{!}} Gladys Tzul Tzul|url=https://www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/articles/7a052353-5edf-45fe-a7ab-72c6121665b4/la-forma-comunal-de-la-resistencia|access-date=2020-08-03|website=Revista de la Universidad de México|language=es}}{{Cite web|last=Tzul Tzul|first=Gladys|date=2020-03-12|title=El deseo que moviliza la lucha de las mujeres comunales en Honduras|url=https://www.clacso.org/el-deseo-que-moviliza-la-lucha-de-las-mujeres-comunales-en-honduras/|access-date=2020-08-03|website=CLACSO|language=es}}{{Cite book|last=Tzul Tzul|first=Gladys|title=Gobierno comunal indígena y estado Guatemalteco: algunas claves críticas para comprender su tensa relación|publisher=Instituto Amaq'|year=2018|isbn=978-9929-778-27-6|edition=1st|location=Guatemala|oclc=1048462006}} Indigenous land ownership is also one of her key beliefs.{{Cite web|date=2019-09-04|title='En Guatemala la tierra es indígena' ['In Guatemala, the land is indigenous,' an Interview with Gladys Tzul Tzul]|url=https://www.clacso.org/en-guatemala-la-tierra-es-indigena/|access-date=2020-08-03|website=CLACSO|language=es}}

File:Gladys Tzul Tzul at MX RC VOLUNTAD DE VIDA.jpg

One of Tzul Tzul's case studies is the Ixcán highland village of Santa María Tzejá, an Indigenous community that was destroyed in 1982 as part of the ethnic cleansing of the Maya during the Guatemalan Civil War.{{Cite web|last=Martin|first=Maria|title=Santa Maria: The Tale of One Village|url=http://joehoy.com/clients/ATW/segment01.html|access-date=2020-08-03|website=Despues las Guerras: Central America after the Wars}}{{Cite web|last=Pike|first=Scott|date=2015-02-19|title=33 Years Ago Today: February 15, 1982 in Guatemala|url=https://enfoqueixcan.org/33-years-ago-today-february-15-1982/|access-date=2020-08-03|website=Enfoque Ixcán|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Anderson|first=George M.|date=2005-06-06|title=Guatemala Nunca Ms!|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2005/06/06/guatemala-nunca-ms|access-date=2020-08-03|website=America Magazine|language=en}} As rebuilding efforts began in the 1990s, women in the village linked alcohol to increased violence and began to organize efforts to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Tzul Tzul describes the successful regulation of alcohol starting in 1994 and the accompanying decrease in domestic violence as a success of the "communal process of historical [and Indigenous] self-regulation," which could represent the intersectional concerns of Indigenous women in a way that federal governance could not.

A key part of her activism is the idea that individual Indigenous communities best understand their own needs.{{Cite web|last=Abbott|first=Jeff|date=Apr 27, 2020|title=Reviving Indigenous authorities in Guatemala|url=https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/reviving-indigenous-authorities-in-guatemala|access-date=2020-08-03|website=briarpatchmagazine.com|language=en}} She is influenced by the work of Michel Foucault and Silvia Federici, and has argued that Indigenous communities can resist political domination through language and through their continued existence.{{Cite journal|last=Tzul Tzul|first=Gladys|date=March–August 2015|title=Mujeres indígenas: Historias de la reproducción de la vida en Guatemala. Una reflexión a partir de la visita de Silvia Federici|url=https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/286/28642148007.pdf|journal=Bajo el Volcán|language=es|volume=15|issue=22|pages=91–99}}{{Cite journal|last=Picq|first=Manuela L.|date=2017|title=Indigenous Politics of Resistance: An Introduction|url=https://newdiversities.mmg.mpg.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/2017_19-02_01_Introduction.pdf|journal=New Diversities|volume=12|issue=2|pages=1}}

In 2012, Tzul Tzul faced persecution for her efforts to bring light to the massacre of Indigenous leaders; she was an expert witness in the 2016 trials that saw the exoneration of community leaders.{{Cite web|title=GSN MONDAY MAILER NOVEMBER 04 2013|url=https://www.vanderbilt.edu/gsn/2013/11/05/gsn-monday-mailer-november-04-2013/|access-date=2020-08-03|website=Vanderbilt University|language=en|archive-date=2021-01-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126063937/https://www.vanderbilt.edu/gsn/2013/11/05/gsn-monday-mailer-november-04-2013/|url-status=dead}}{{Cite journal|last=Nelson|first=Diane M.|date=2019-02-01|title=Low Intensities|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=60|issue=S19|pages=S122–S133|doi=10.1086/701040|issn=0011-3204}}

She has written that Indigenous communities have responded flexibly to the COVID-19 pandemic despite government neglect because of Indigenous authorities' use of native languages and support for communal markets.{{Cite web|last=Tzul Tzul|first=Gladys|date=2020-04-18|title=Archipelagos and the desire for life|url=https://towardfreedom.org/story/archipelagos-and-the-desire-for-life/|access-date=2020-08-03|website=Toward Freedom|language=en-US}}

File:MX RC VOLUNTAD DE VIDA - 43718725394 Gladys Tzul Tzul.jpg

She is also the founder of Amaq', an organization that provides legal guidance to Indigenous peoples.{{Cite web|last=Jung|first=Karina|title=Award Recipient for 2018|url=https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/voltaire-preis/award-recipient-for-2018|access-date=2020-08-03|website=Universität Potsdam|language=en-GB}}

In 2017, she received the Berta Cáceres scholarship, named in honor of the Honduran Indigenous activist.

Tzul Tzul received the 2018 "Voltaire Prize for Tolerance, International Understanding and Respect for Difference" from the University of Potsdam in Germany.

Tzul Tzul is a member of the Indigenous photographers' collective “Con Voz Propia" (English: "In Their Own Voices" or "In Her Own Voice"). The organization was established in response to federal programs to "liberate" Indigenous women; instead, Con Voz Propia empowers Indigenous women to represent themselves through photography.

• Sistemas de gobierno comunal indígena: Mujeres y tramas de parentesco en Chuimea'ena (Systems of Indigenous Communal Government: Women and Lineage in Chuimea'ena). Guatemala, Editorial Maya' Wuj and the Sociedad Comunitaria de Estudios Estratégicos / Tz'i'kin, Centro de Investigación y Pluralismo Jurídico, 2016.
• Gobierno comunal indígena y estado guatemalteco: Algunas claves críticas para comprender su tensa relación (Indigenous Communal Government and the Guatemalan State: Some Critical Perspectives to Understand their Tense Relationship). Guatemala: Instituto Amaq', 2018.

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Category:1982 births

Category:Guatemalan women activists

Category:Guatemalan women's rights activists

Category:Indigenous activists of North America

Category:21st-century indigenous women of the Americas

Category:Living people

Category:K'iche' people

Category:People from Totonicapán Department

Category:Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla alumni

Category:Guatemalan photographers

Category:Guatemalan women photographers

Category:Indigenous photographers of the Americas