Indigenous archives: the Maya diaspora and mobile cultural production

Indigenous Archives analyzes the modes through which young Guatemalan Mayas in Los Angeles and Guatemala make sense of and respond to transnational structures of settler colonialism. Drawing on in-depth analysis of cultural production and interviews with Guatemalan Maya youth and young adults, Floridalma Boj Lopez examines how Mayas in diaspora craft and circulate narratives about their experiences across borders. Citing a more active practice of “archives in formation,” Boj Lopez depicts Indigenous archives as a cross-generational, collective conversation rooted in memory, survival, and cultural expression where Indigenous cultural practices and artifacts move, adapt, and assert their presence in the contemporary. Indigenous Archives invites readers to consider Indigeneity as a process, lived experience, and historical perspective, rather than as a static identity, and shows how extending analysis across borders is critical to understanding Latinidad and Indigeneity.

Postcolonial Digital Humanities focuses on how digital technology can either reinforce or undermine colonial legacies in scholarly study, archiving, and cultural production. This study shall discuss how DH tools, platforms, and methodologies are used to address representation, power relations, and knowledge formation in postcolonial contexts. The other main focus of this study is the idea of digital-age decolonization, which comprises critiquing the biases found in digital infrastructures and proposing alternative frameworks that give priority to under-represented voices and non-Western epistemologies. This study shall illustrate how DH can either support Eurocentric narratives or serve as a platform for decolonial praxis by taking into account a number of important PDH initiatives, including digital indigenous archives and postcolonial literary databases. At the core of this inquiry is the question of who has the power to preserve, interpret, and disseminate information. The report shall conclude by outlining PDH's potential as platforms for activism, resistance, and rethinking global knowledge systems. Reorienting the DH profession towards an ethics of justice, equity, and inclusivity in the development and dissemination of information is one of the ways they advocate for a certain amount of engagement with digital tools and platforms.