The Good Father Finquero: Ethnography, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, and the German Diaspora in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, 1889–1930

This paper examines how German immigrants to the coffee growing frontier of Alta Verapaz, in northwest Guatemala drew upon ethnographic knowledge, representations and practices to define authentic German identity abroad. Drawing upon the region’s often romanticized history of “peaceful conquest” at the bequest of Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, some Germans in the region, including the famed geographer and ethnographer Karl Sapper, argued that this history was evidence of the Q’eqchi’ Maya’s racial essence. The ultimate failure of the colonial civilizing mission to convert Q’eqchi’s, however, Sapper argued, was a result of the Spaniards’ inability to understand the Q’eqchi’ on their own terms. In contrast, Germans in Alta Verapaz claimed the natural ability to think ethnographically, and their superior ability to penetrate and understand Q’eqchi’s essential nature meant that they were best suited to transform an unruly indigenous population into a hard-working labor force. As such, authentic German identity in the region was defined by the ability to become ethnographers and go-native by learning Q’eqchi’ and living among them. Their claims to ethnographic knowledge and their self-styled likeness to Fray Bartolome de las Casas constrasted with the “corrupt” and racially degenerate Ladinos,  granting Germans a special place in a foreign nation, and allowing them to imagine themselves as akin to German settler colonialists in Africa. The paper reflects specifically upon the role of scientific knowledge in the creation of a diaspora, and how the practice of ethnography or anthropology in these spaces had broad implications beyond the representation of cultural difference. It will dialogue with recent literature on the role of anthropology in nineteenth and twentieth century colonial enterprises from the distinct postcolonial context of Latin America.