An Ethnography of Women and Violence in Post-War Guatemala City
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
LOOKING BACK, SEEING FORWARD: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF WOMEN AND VIOLENCE IN POST-WAR GUATEMALA CITY Paula L. Godoy-Paiz Department of Anthropology McGill University, Montréal A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy McGill University Montréal, Quebec © 2011 Paula L. Godoy Paiz ABSTRACT Drawing on 12 months of fieldwork conducted in Guatemala‟s Metropolitan Area among indigenous and ladina women, this dissertation offers an ethnographic analysis of violence and women‟s lives in post-war urban Guatemala. First, this dissertation examines the ways in which intersecting processes of violence – political, structural, symbolic, everyday and gender-based – are experienced by women and shape the different dimensions of their everyday lives. Second, I analyze the interplay between collective and individual memories of war and how these are drawn upon by individuals and communities in their reconstructions of daily life in Guatemala City today. Third, this thesis concerns the production of knowledge and circulation of discourses surrounding the phenomenon of gender-based violence in post-war Guatemala. Special attention is given to the gaps between, national and international, institutional responses for addressing violence against women, and women‟s everyday experiences and agency in carving out spaces to resist distinct forms of violence in their lives, whether within their families and/or on the streets. I argue that there is need to construct more comprehensive analytical frameworks for better understanding the interconnections and intersections of different forms of violence in the lives of women. Moreover, by more readily looking to women‟s experiences we can reformulate violence as a social process and see its more insidious effects, too often lost in conceptualizations that treat violence as simply an individual “act” or “event” apart from apart from everyday life. Gender-based violence in Guatemala is embedded in enduring legacies of State violence and military power, vast socio-economic inequalities, and political and cultural ideologies that work to justify violence towards certain segments of the population including women. ii RÉSUMÉ Basée sur une année de recherche de terrain, réalisé parmi les femmes indigènes et ladina vivant dans des zones urbaines du Guatemala, cette thèse propose une analyse ethnographique de la violence vécue par ces femmes et de leur vie dans le Guatemala d‟après-guerre. Premièrement, ce travail examine comment les divers processus de violence – politique, structurelle, symbolique, quotidienne et genrée – s‟entrecroisent, sont vécus par ces femmes et influencent leur vie de multiples façons. Deuxièmement, j‟analyserai comment l‟interaction entre les souvenirs collectifs et individuels de la guerre sont utilisés par les individus et les communautés dans la reconstitution de leur vie quotidienne à Guatemala City. Troisièmement, cette thèse portera sur la production du savoir et la circulation des discours entourant le phénomène de violence genrée dans le Guatemala d‟après- guerre. Une attention particulière sera donnée aux écarts entre, d‟une part, la manière dont les institutions, nationales et internationales, répondent à la violence envers les femmes et, d‟autre part, l‟expérience quotidienne de ces femmes et leur agencéité dans leur tentative de faire émerger des espaces de résistance à la violence quotidienne, que ce soit au sein de leurs familles ou dans l‟espace public. J‟argumenterai qu‟une cadre analytique davantage compréhensif est nécessaire afin de mieux appréhender les interconnections et croisements entre les différentes formes de violence vécues par les femmes. En s‟intéressant plus directement à leurs expériences personnelles, nous pouvons redéfinir la violence comme un processus social et ainsi en observer ses effets les plus insidieux, trop souvent occultés par des conceptualisations qui traitent de la violence simplement comme un « acte » ou un « événement » individuel situé en dehors du flot de la vie quotidienne. La violence genrée doit en effet être incorporée au sein d‟un long héritage de violence étatique, de pouvoir militaire, de vastes inégalités sociales et d‟idéologies politiques et culturelles qui servent à justifier la violence envers certains segments de la population, dont les femmes. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of many individuals. First, I would like to thank all the women and men who agreed to participate in this study and who, due to confidentiality reasons, I cannot name personally. I wish to thank my supervisor Kristin Norget for her invaluable support throughout this project and meticulous readings of this dissertation. I also wish to thank Ellen Corin for the care she has given to my project and insightful feedback she has given me. I am also grateful for the support of Ronald Niezen and Cécile Rousseau. For their tremendous support in Guatemala, I thank Anamaria Cofiño, José Cruz, and Gabriela Grijalva. This dissertation was possible because of the financial support received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The McGill Trauma and Global Health Program, The McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women, the McGill Centre for Developing Area Studies, and the McGill Department of Anthropology. The Centre for Society, Technology, and Development (STANDD) provided logistical support – a space to work in – and importantly an intellectual and collegial environment where my project could flourish. I would like to thank John Galaty and members of our writing group: Caroline Archambault, Laura Chassaigne, Genèvieve Dionne, Jessica Dolan, Anne-Elise Keen, Scott Matter, Karen McAllister, Stephen Moiko, Pétur Waldorff, and Cameron Welch. iv I wish to thank Hanna Kienzler, Megha Sehdev, Gabriela Torres and Tak Uesugi for their feedback at different stages of this project. At McGill, I am also grateful to Duncan Pedersen, Ismael Vaccaro, Consuelo Errazuriz, Rose Marie Stano, Cynthia Romanyk, Diane Mann, and Olga Harmazy. I want to express my gratitude to friends and colleagues who made my time at McGill more pleasant: Elise Adams, Hanna Askew, Sarah Bean, Gregory Brass, Mélanie Chaplier, Gabriella Djerrahian, Meltem Demirkus, Emilio Dirlikov, Ari Gandsman, Hannah Gilbert, Casey Hilliard, Ian Kalman, Ivet R. Maturano, Lori Mcfadyen, Paige MacDougall, Pierre Minn, Raul Necochea, Carolina Pineda, Aranza Recalde, and Katherine Scott. Thank you also to my good friends Maryam Gholizadeh, Nino Marshania, and Lydia Winslow for always believing in me. Finally, I wish to thank my family in Guatemala, my grandmothers, aunts, uncles and cousins. I especially grateful for all of the love, support, and strong example set by my late grandmother, María Hortencía García Zepeda (Mama Tencha). Her determination that her sons and daughters become professionals is without a doubt among the reasons this dissertation is written today. My greatest debt of gratitude is with my parents and siblings, Sandra L. Paiz, Edgar Godoy, Pablo Godoy, and Sandra Godoy. I thank my parents for a lifetime of love and support, and for inspiring me to a path of critical thinking, understanding injustice and working for social change. Montreal, July 2010 v GUATEMALA Figure 1: Map of Republic of Guatemala. http://guatemala-city.com/map.html, accessed April 18, 2010 vi GUATEMALAN METROPOLITTAN AREA Figure 2: Map of Greater Guatemala City Area. http://www.travelpod.com/cache/city_maps/antiuga-guatemala.gif, accessed April 17, 2010. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page……………………………………………………………………….……...….i Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….…..ii Résumé…………………………………………………………………………………...iii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………....iv Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………….....viii Table of Figures…………………………………………………………………………...x PART I: THE ISSUES, THE CONTEXT Preface……………………………………………………………………………….........p.1 i. Electoral Process 2007 – “My arrival to the field”…………………...p.2 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: THEORY AND METHOD IN THE STUDY OF VIOLENCE AND GENDER IN POST-WAR GUATEMALA „Post‟ War Guatemala? ….....……………………………………………….………….p.12 Thesis Objectives & Theoretical Considerations………………………………….…....p.17 i. Theoretical Framework………………………………………………….….p.20 Research Site…….………………………………………………………..…….............p.39 Why Women? ……………….………………………………………….........................p.42 Methodology………………….………………………………………………………...p.45 Ethical Considerations in the Study of Violence Against Women………………….….p.50 Thesis Organization…………………………………………………………………….p.53 CHAPTER 2: GUATEMALA CITY: BRIEF HISTORY OF URBAN FORMATION, VIOLENCE AND SEGREGATION………………………..……………………….....p.56 Founding of Guatemala City: Colonization of Indigenous Peoples & the Establishment of “Two Republics”………………………………………………………………….….p.58 Urbanization and the Emergence of a Multi-Ethnic Capital…………………………....p.64 Modernization and “Ladinización”……………………………………………….…….p.69 Internal Armed Conflict, the City, and the Production of Fear…………………….…...p.75 The Fortress City: Neo-liberalism, Class/Ethnic Segregation & Gated Communities....p.81 PART II: LIFE IN THE AFTERMATH OF VIOLENCE CHAPTER 3: “ANDA CON CUIDADO”: MEMORY, NARRATIVE & THE (RE)CONSTRUCTION OF EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE AFTERMATH OF WAR...p.87 Spaces of Memory………………………………………………………………….......p.95 viii Survival in the Ashes of War: Women of the Maria Jose Community…………...…..p.102 Anda Con Cuidado: “Today Violence is Worse”………………………………….….p.114