Page 69 - tesis

express their demands for respect, to be recognized and included in the way that corresponds in the social, economic, political, cultural and religious life of the country (Solares 1993).22 The Evangelical pastor Vitalino Similox of the kaqchikel ethnic group underscores that only after many years the missionaries have realized that they were \u2018working with the indigenous people instead of for them\u2019 (Solares 1993:120-21). From the Mayan perspective, Blanca Estela Alvarado de Saloj points out the virtues of Mayan religion and that there are very great differences with Christianity (in Solares 1993: 142). Both cases focus on the negative criticism of the presence and inroads of Christianity.\u000AThe analysis of sociologist Luis E. Samand\u00FA shows two sides of the issue.23 He observes \u2018apart from seeking the objective of evangelizing the indigenous people, the strategies in themselves have offered benefits to the indigenous believers, some more than others, such as the case of the training of the indigenous people and bible translation\u2019. Later he adds, \u2018but at the same time these benefits were accompanied by negative effects for the communities, such as local fragmentation [...] absorption into western culture of the leaders and the visceral negation of indigenous worldview and culture\u2019 (1990:106). Other analysts such as Garrard-Burnett (1989a) and Montes de Oca (1979) express some of the reasons why Evangelical indigenous peoples reject certain traditions and beliefs as well as popular Catholicism.\u000ABible translation and the formation of churches among the indigenous people are seen as a contribution to their communities (Tom\u00E1s Gutti\u00E9rez 1997: 85-104). In spite of paternalism of the westernized Protestants and the rejection of certain Mayan traditions,\u000A22 Israel Ortiz, in his article \u2018Dignidad e Identidad Ind\u00EDgena: una cr\u00EDtica evang\u00E9lica sobre los 500 a\u00F1os\u2019, analizes the indigenous people\u2019s critical situation since the conquest of America, pp.157-185 in Bolet\u00EDn Teol\u00F3gico Revista de la Fraternidad Teol\u00F3gica Latinoamericana A\u00F1o 24, No. 47/48 December 1992.\u000A23 Luis E. Samand\u00FA shows that Evangelical churches in the first half of the twentieth century used the following strategies aimed at weakening the resistance of the indigenous world: 1) The translation of the New Testament into autochthonous languages; 2) the training of indigenous leaders as evangelizing agents to the people of their own ethnic groups; and 3) a frontal attack on the indigenous customs and traditions. Samand\u00FA says that the third strategy included the following components to introduce the Christian faith. Eradicate all practices which involved another concept about the nature of God different to the Christian view and introduce other forms of Protestant worship. In second place, substitute practices, situations, persons, places, and symbols of the day to day life of the indigenous people and replace them with beliefs and Evangelical and especially Pentecostal practices. And, in third place, they were tolerant with some practices which did not signify a direct danger to the Evangelical perspective and worldview (1990: 82-105).\u000A56\u000A