[4] In the early 1980s, the Ixil Community was one of the principal targets of a genocide operation, involving systematic rape, forced displacements and hunger during the Guatemalan civil war.

"[5] According to a 1999 United Nations truth commission, between 70% and 90% of Ixil villages were razed and 60% of the population in the altiplano region were forced to flee to the mountains between 1982 and 1983.

[6] The violence was particularly heightened during 1979–1985 as successive Guatemalan administrations and the military pursued an indiscriminate scorched-earth (in Spanish: tierra arrasada) policy.

He ordered more than 30 massacres and destroyed 23 villages in the Maya Ixil region, causing the death of at least 1,771 people when he led the army between 1981 and 1982.

This ceremony starts near a body of water where the people come together to share cultivated products like corn, beans, fruits and vegetables.