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The present article examines the functions of indigenous advocates whose position as ward leaders (chinamitales) in K'ichee' societies existed in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and continued into the colonial nineteenth century in Guatemala. This was a hereditary legal and administrative position that elites in K'ichee'an society enjoyed as a result and reward of military conquest in the Pre-Columbian era. Chinamitales advocated for the inhabitants of their wards who were both elites and non-elites in land disputes and in criminal matters. They persisted in indigenous communities from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century as officially unrecognized legal advocates who participated in tribunals in indigenous communities at the local level and advocated for their constituents before their indigenous town councils. They also acted in a similar capacity as the indigenous municipal council, making last testaments, nominating candidates for local town council elections and positions in the church laity, collecting tribute, and choosing laborers for the repartimiento. Their advocacy spilled over into colonial judicial proceedings at the regional and high court levels when disagreements arose within indigenous communities over land disenfranchisement and whenever they sensed that the indigenous municipal council was not protecting their interests. ; El presente artículo examina las funciones de los defensores indígenas cuya posición como líderes de parcialidades (chinamitales) en las sociedades k'ichee's existió en Mesoamérica precolombina y continuó hasta el siglo XIX colonial en Guatemala. Esta era una posición legal y administrativa que las élites en la sociedad k'iche'ana heredaban gracias a las conquistas militares de sus padres y abuelos en la época precolombina. Los chinamitales defendieron a los habitantes de sus parcialidades, tanto a las élites como a los plebeyos, en las disputas de tierras y en casos criminales. Estas figuras persistieron en las comunidades indígenas desde el siglo XVI hasta el siglo XIX como defensores legales no reconocidos oficialmente, participando en tribunales en comunidades indígenas a nivel local y defendiendo sus distritos ante los Cabildos indígenas. También actuaron en una capacidad similar al Cabildo indígena al producir testamentos, nominar candidatos para las elecciones del Cabildo y del convento, colectar tributo y escoger trabajadores para el repartimiento. Su defensa llegó a afectar procedimientos judiciales coloniales a nivel regional y de la Audiencia de Guatemala cuando surgían disputas sobre la adjudicación de tierras en comunidades indígenas y cuando percibían que el Cabildo indígena no estaba protegiendo sus intereses.

In "Colonial K'iche' in Comparison with Yucatec Maya: Language, Adaptation, and Interethnic Contact," I examine K'iche' and Yucatec Maya language and literacy and its relationship to the development of indigenous social, religious, and political structures in the period from the 1540's, when indigenous literacy using Latin letters began, to 1825, the end of Spanish colonialism. It focuses on how native peoples in Guatemala and southern Mexico were able to adapt Spanish imposed institutions according to ideologies of community structure from their common Mesoamerican culture. It reveals Spanish colonialism from an indigenous perspective and highlights the adaptive conservatism of native societies in Mesoamerica.K'iche' government provided protection from exploitation - the family protected its interests with the aide of chinamitales who protected them as their vassals from the indigenous governor and municipal council who protected the tinamit amaq' from colonial officials. The K'iche' people were the creators of the Popol Vuh, "The Book of the Mat," the mat being a symbol of marriage and the adjective "popol" a metaphor for an elite lineage. The family and its extended lineages were the basis for K'iche' and Yucatec Maya social structure. Even though Spanish colonialism aggressively attempted to impose the Spaniards' preclusive religion the K'iche' adapted and grafted in Christianity to their inclusive religion. Male town council members, indigenous lay religious leaders, and moiety leaders received a title, the q'a chuch q'ahaw, "our mothers, our fathers," which identified them as diviners and made them mediators between their communities and the outside world as well as mediators between their living charges and the community's ancestors. K'iche' ideologies of land conjoined the concepts of their community's sacred space with the practical life-giving sustenance of the cornfield. Elites protected the right to work it and allowed commoners usufruct rights and familial possession. Community leaders made ritual processions to measure lands and marked off terrain with border markers, calling them by the name of individuals, families, saints, or chinamitales. It identifies the adaptation of colonial K'iche' and Yucatec Mayan languages to Spanish and Nahuat. The K'iche' language in colonial texts is somewhere between "Modern" and "Classical" K'iche'.

Argues that US alliances with Middle East monarchies is an investment in stability and security and a prerequisite for development of democratic processes, not a betrayal of American interests in the region. The old guard and new generation monarchs and the republics; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, and Jordan.

THE AUTHOR REVIEWS "HANGING TOGETHER: THE SEVEN-POWER SUMMITS", BY ROBERT PUTNAM AND NICHOLAS BAYNE, WHICH TRACES THE PATH TO THE 1984 LONDON SUMMIT VIA RAMBOUILLET, PUERTO RICO, LONDON, BONN, TOKYO, VENICE, OTTAWA, VERSAILLES, AND WILLIAMSBURG. THE MAIN THEME OF THE BOOK IS THE CONTRAST BETWEN WHAT ARE CALLED THE "LIBRARY GROUP" AND THE "TRILATERALIST" ATTITUDES TOWARD THE SUMMITT.