Through their music, Linaje Originarios seeks to address an issue that many indigenous cultures around the world are facing – the desire of younger generations to exchange their traditions, languages and lifestyles for life in urban areas where they have access to “modern” forms of culture, music and styles.

Located in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, Lake Atitlan is a tourist-friendly area rich in Mayan culture. [...] Panajachel, known as Pana, is home to several restaurants featuring local and international cuisine, coffee shops, street food vendors and more. 

There are also thousands of organizations and people all around the world engaged in positive nonviolent and collective action. There are hundreds of indigenous environmental struggles around the world, from the US and Canada to Central and South America and Asia and Africa, resisting fossil fuel and other corporations from building pipelines, mining terminals and other controversial projects.

The Canada Council for the Arts plans to create a separate granting stream for indigenous arts and artists and to use its programs and influence “to engender a new relationship between Canada’s indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.”

Francis’ visit comes amid strong challenges to the church in the southern state, including huge inroads by evangelical Protestants and grinding poverty in a region rich with coffee, Mayan ruins, pine-covered hills and jungles. [...] The challenges have always included the church’s relations with indigenous communities who have struggled for centuries to maintain their traditions and independence, sometimes embracing and sometimes clashing with the hierarchy.