Talk:Maya Americans

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Lynnw1234.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 15:36, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Mayan vs Maya
As I understand it, the people are "Maya," collectively, not "Mayan," which refers to a group of languages (which includes the Maya language). "Maya" is used as an adjective as well, when referring to the group of people -- thus, it should be "Maya Americans," not "Mayan Americans." Cacarr (talk) 21:57, 15 February 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: This is America
— Assignment last updated by Mckenziegreen (talk) 20:16, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Having Jessica Alba as the "face" to represent all Maya Americans
Just because Jessica Alba has distant Mayan ancestry does not mean that she is a good fit to represent Maya Americans. Indigenous American identity is much more about maintaining links with an indigenous community, maintaining links to an indigenous culture, and perhaps speaking an indigenous language than ancestry alone (especially distant ancestry). Jessica Alba does not meet the criteria for any of that. Trust me I am an expert on indigenous Latin American immigrants in the United States and have met Maya Americans myself. Besides having a single person let alone a celebrity with distant roots to an ethnic group represent an entire ethnic group (especially one that is indigenous) is extremely ignorant, unethical, and just overall a poor decision. Stop adding Jessica Alba's image and I will replace it with a collage more representative of Maya Americans. Whoever keeps adding her image back is clearly very ignorant about Maya Americans; indigenous American identity; indigenous identity in Guatemala; indigenous identity in Mexico and the complexities of race, ancestry, ethnicity, and skin color in Latin America especially indigenous identity versus Mestizo identity. Having Jessica Alba be the sole face of Maya Americans is not much different from having an image of Elizabeth Warren be the single image representing Cherokee people on the Cherokee Wikipedia page. If her image continues to be added I will keep removing it and I will eventually replace it with a collage of everyday Maya Americans or an image that is much more representative of Maya Americans (including people who maintain community links to their indigenous roots and maintain their indigenous Mayan culture) that is a much more accurate and representstive image of Maya Americans such as this image: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fc13c2_fe25b7ddaa12434eb4dc054ad7910e81~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_640,h_382,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/fc13c2_fe25b7ddaa12434eb4dc054ad7910e81~mv2.jpg or this image https://i0.wp.com/eltecolote.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Mam_07-WEB.jpg?w=864&ssl=1 rather than some celebrity who does not maintain links with her indigenous Mayan heritage, did not grow up in an indigenous Mayan community, and did not grow up learning an indigenous Mayan language (though being fluent in an indigenous language is not necessary to be accepted as a member of an indigenous community it certainly helps). Besides I myself have significant indigenous Mesoamerican heritage so I am much more fit to make choices here than the ignorant (likely Anglo White American) people who keep adding her image. Let people with significant indigenous heritage decide indigenous representation not settler colonizers on stolen land.67.6.128.161 (talk) 20:30, 16 March 2024 (UTC)


 * By continuing to post Jessica Alba as the "face" of Maya Americans you are supporting settler colonialism of the Americas, racism against Maya Americans, and White Supremacy with your extreme ignorance. 67.6.128.161 (talk) 00:02, 17 March 2024 (UTC)