Communication, Culture & Critique ISSN 1753-9129 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Role of Indigenous Peoples in Guatemalan Political Advertisements: An Ethnographic Content Analysis Colleen Connolly-Ahern 1 & Antoni Castells i Talens 2 1 Advertising and Public Relations College of Communications, Penn State University, State College, PA 16802, USA 2 Centro de Estudios de la Cultura y la Comunicaci ´ on, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico This study investigates the current status of indigenous peoples within Guatemalan society, as articulated in one of the most relevant forms of modern communication, political advertising, and defined by one of the most relevant forms of self-expression to the indigenous peoples of Guatemala, the traje. Using ethnographic content analysis, the study examines the roles and characterizations of indigenous people in 67 television commercials from across the Guatemalan political spectrum. Results indicate that indigenous people are most often seen as ‘‘crowd members,’’ and are never given important roles, such as ‘‘candidate endorser’’ or ‘‘undecided voter.’’ Overall, wearing traje is associated with helplessness and separateness. The commercials of Q’ich´ e Maya candidate Rigoberta Mench´ u exhibited many of the same characteristics of other candidates. doi:10.1111/j.1753-9137.2010.01073.x Watching the Guatemalan 2007 presidential race from the United States or from Western Europe, the average political observer could be forgiven for his or her belief that the next president of Guatemala might be an indigenous woman. Rigoberta Mench ´ u certainly dominated much of the Guatemalan election coverage outside of the country. Spain’s El País announced, ‘‘Rigoberta Mench ´ u inicia su carrera hacia la presidencia de Guatemala [Rigoberta Mench´ u begins her race for the presidency of Guatemala]’’ (‘‘Rigoberta Mench ´ u inicia,’’ 2007). The Washington Post proclaimed, ‘‘Menchu: Presidential bid helping Indians’’ (Watson, 2007). Even when she came in sixth out of 14 candidates, garnering only 3% of the popular vote, the online version of The New York Times pondered ‘‘[t]he puzzling election loss of Rigoberta Mench ´ u, Guatemala’s first indigenous presidential candidate’’ (Lacey, 2007). Corresponding author: Colleen Connolly-Ahern; e-mail: cuc15@psu.edu 310 Communication, Culture & Critique 3 (2010) 310–333  2010 International Communication Association