Thelma Cabrera, former Guatemalan presidential candidate will speak in New Bedford
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NEW BEDFORD — The Whaling City will, for a brief moment, be at the center of one international political race when Thelma Cabrera comes to town on Oct. 26.
Cabrera, an indigenous woman of Mayan Mam ancestry, will speak at the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores on Acushnet Avenue at 6 p.m.
"We are not bringing her here to get votes or fundraise," Adrian Ventura, director of CCT, said in Spanish. "We want her to motivate our youth."
Cabrera is widely expected to run in the nation's 2023 general elections; her second attempt for the office.
The first indigenous candidate to run for the office was Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, who won 3% of the vote when she ran in 2007.
According to Ventura, power has generally been held in the hands of European descendants in Guatemala.
He added that Cabrera's ability to supersede expectations is a sign of changing politics in the Central American nation.
"She promotes human rights and has focused on indigenous rights and the rights of women," he said.
Indigenous candidate made headway
Cabrera made waves when she placed fourth in the 2019 Guatemalan general election, the best finish ever for an indigenous candidate in a nation where 45% of the population identifies as indigenous; mostly Maya.
"This is about a genocide that began when Christopher Columbus landed on these shores," he said.
He also said that given the context of recent Guatemalan history, with widespread gang violence, corruption, and a genocide, her presence on the political scene carries particular weight.
"She's an indigenous woman who carries the same suffering on her shoulders that I have," he said.
Among those expected to announce their candidacy for the presidency is Sury Rios, the daughter of Efrain Rios Montt, a military dictator whose anti-communist crusade in the 1980s led to the Silent Holocaust, where hundreds of thousands of ethnic Maya were killed in an ethnic cleansing campaign.
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Guatemalans in New Bedford
According to a study from the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Guatemalans are the third-largest group of foreign-born residents in the city with about 1,511 people.
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Most believe that number is a severe underestimation, as many are among the 10,000 undocumented living in the city, according to the Immigrants' Assistance Center.
The most recent estimate of the city's Mayan population was in a 2016 paper published by the now-defunct Public Policy Center at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which said it was about 7,000 people.
Ventura said Cabrera will speak in Spanish and there will be English translation. The event is free and open to the public. Pupusas will also be served.
Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@s-t.com and follow him on Twitter: @KevinGAndrade. Support local journalism and subscribe to the Standard-Times today!
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Former Guatemalan presidential candidate to speak at CCT
