Oral History Project

The oral history project was undertaken to document the changing lifestyle and cultural aspects of the Maya-Mestizo inhabitants. They are descendants of the Yucatec Maya Indians of the Yucatan peninsula. For many centuries they lived in harmony with nature and their environment. The introduction of sugar cane as a farm crop in the mid-20th century started a transformation from self-sufficient farming to dependence on job income to purchase food and livelihood requirements. With independence from England in 1981, lifestyle and cultural changes accelerated with the introduction of electricity. Older citizens who had grown up in the self-sufficient style began seeing the younger generation preferring a lifestyle of NikeTM tennis shoes, Reggaeton music and television. The oral history project was undertaken to record the disappearing knowledge of the older lifestyle.

Video and audio versions of the unedited interviews are found in this section.  Provision has been made to make verbatim transcripts of the interviews available.  Good oral history procedures require that transcripts be independently proofread before being made available.  Only five proofread transcripts are currently available.

During the course of conducting this project, opportunities arose to video tape special events that enhance or supplement the interviews.  These special videos will be made available shortly along with some photographs of interesting artifacts.