Indigenous women in particular are pushed aside and suffer racism and violence, campaigners say. Some eight million indigenous people live in Guatemala, most descendants of the Mayan civilization that once dominated Central America. Four in five are poor, and they are nearly three times as likely to live in extreme poverty than others in the country, according to the World Bank.
They earn less money than non-indigenous people, more often working in informal jobs picking crops or selling street food. Their life expectancy is 13 years shorter, and the maternal mortality rate more than twice as high. They often speak one of more than 20 native languages rather than Spanish.
At age 43, she is nursing her 11th child, a newborn boy, as one of her granddaughters hides in the folds of her skirt. Her husband is a farm worker. One in three indigenous women has no access to health and family planning services, according to WINGS, a reproductive rights organization in Guatemala.
The vast majority of indigenous children are chronically malnourished, and most suffer stunted growth. Successive governments, often wracked with corruption, have done little to find justice or economic power for indigenous women, activists say.
Violence can escalate to femicide - the nation has one of the highest rates in the world - with at least two women violently killed every day, according to the United Nations.
