Livingston, Guatemala, also known as Labuga in Garífuna, is a historically Black town shaped by colonial displacement, Garífuna resistance, and state neglect. Located on the Caribbean coast and accessible only by boat, Livingston became a key settlement for the Garífuna people after their forced exile from St. Vincent in 1797. Over generations, Garífuna communities built a distinct cultural and spiritual life rooted in ancestral memory, language, and land. Despite this, Livingston has long been marginalized by the Guatemalan state, excluded from national infrastructure and subject to economic abandonment and racial discrimination. While the town is often commodified as a site of Afro-Caribbean culture for tourists, local struggles center on land defense, youth migration, and cultural preservation. Today, Garífuna residents resist erasure through political organizing, diaspora ties, and artistic practices that affirm Black Indigenous presence on Guatemala's Caribbean coast.
Located on Guatemala's Caribbean coast and accessible only by boat, Livingston, or Labuga in the Garífuna language, has emerged as a significant Afro-Indigenous community shaped by centuries of migration, cultural resilience, and political neglect. The town's founding is attributed by some scholars to Marco Sánchez Díaz, a Haitian man whose legacy places Livingston within a broader Black diasporic context and underscores the town's formation as a space of African-descended identity. Throughout the twentieth century, Garífuna and Afro-Caribbean residents built strong cultural networks in the region, even as the state offered limited support. During Guatemala's civil war, from the late 1970s through the early 1990s, Garífuna communities faced forced military recruitment, loss of land, and deepened economic instability. While not targeted by mass killings, many Garífuna were conscripted into the military, endured state violence, or were forced to migrate. The war and ongoing poverty spurred an exodus of young Garinagu to other parts of Central America and cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Houston. Gendered labor and caregiving by Garífuna women sustained cultural life at home and abroad, linking Livingston to broader transnational networks. Although the Garífuna population in Livingston has declined to roughly 1,675 according to the 2018 census, the community continues to preserve its language, rituals, and ancestral practices. Despite the visibility of its cultural heritage, the town still grapples with structural inequalities, including limited access to land, racialized development, and state neglect. Local institutions such as the Organización Negra Guatemalteca (ONEGUA) and the Garifuna Cultural Center remain vital to community advocacy, cultural education, and political resistance. Today, Livingston represents not only a site of Garífuna heritage but also an active space of Afro-Indigenous struggle, memory, and cross-border solidarity.
Black political activism in Livingston, Guatemala, gained momentum with the formation of the Organización Negra Guatemalteca (ONEGUA) in 1995, an extension of the broader regional network ONECA (Organización Negra Centroamericana). ONEGUA emerged in response to the long-standing marginalization of Afro-Guatemalans, advocating for racial justice, cultural recognition, and greater inclusion in national narratives. Its creation marked a pivotal moment in both Guatemalan and Latin American history, linking local struggles in Livingston to regional and global movements for Afro-descendant rights and visibility. Rooted in community organizing, education, and cultural preservation, ONEGUA continues to play a vital role in confronting systemic inequality and promoting Afro-Indigenous political presence in Guatemala.
● DIBASEI Garifuna Cultural Center — The Garífuna Cultural Center, known as Dibasei, is one of Livingston's main cultural attractions, dedicated to preserving and promoting Garífuna traditions through educational programs, community events, and immersive cultural experiences that empower local families and connect global audiences to the richness of Garífuna heritage.
● Tomas Sanchez — Community activist and Indigenous Garífuna leader in Livingston, Guatemala, who, after returning in 2001, became a powerful advocate for Garífuna rights, using storytelling, grassroots organizing, and his blog to raise awareness about local struggles and resilience.
● Juan Carlos Sanchez — Cultural promoter, musician, and community advocate from Livingston, Guatemala, whose autobiography Palabra(s) de Ounagülei(s) offers a powerful perspective on Garífuna life, blending his passion for traditional music, education, and social justice.
● Artiaga, Scherly Virgill. "The Garífuna Voices of Guatemala's Armed Conflict: Memories of the civil war in Livingston’s Afro-indigenous community excavate an untold history long excluded from the official record." NACLA Report on the Americas 52, no. 4 (2020): 422-429.
● Crawford, Michael H. et al. "The Black Caribs (Garifuna) of Livingston, Guatemala: Genetic Markers and Admixture Estimates." Human Biology 53, no. 1 (1981): 87–103.
● Guzman, Daisy. Calling to The Ancestors: Garifuna Women as Embodied Archives.YouTube, uploaded by Oscar Solis, 20 Mar. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cJ1_nTgH5M.
● Oro, Paul Joseph López. "'Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá': Garífuna Subjectivities and the Politics of Diasporic Belonging." In Afro-Latin@s in Movement: Critical Approaches to Blackness and Transnationalism in the Americas. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
● Thorne, Eva. "Land Rights and Garífuna Identity." NACLA Report on the Americas 38, no. 2 (2004). https://nacla.org/article/land-rights-and-gar%C3%ADfuna-identity.
BCA is a platform dedicated to amplifying Black Central American history, culture, and scholarship. Through curated content, innovative programming, and collaborative initiatives, we explore the collective memory, cultural and political organizing, and creative place-making practices of Black Central American communities across the isthmus and its diasporas.
