fall 2010 | winter 2011

harvard review of Latin america

guatemala legacies of violence editor’s letter

ZocaloLegacies Hed of Violence26 pt

Zocalo deck 14 point one line By The diminutive indigenous woman in her bright embroidered blouse waited proudly for her grandson to receive his engineering degree. His mother, also dressed in a traditional flowery blouse—a huipil, took photos with a top-of-the-line digital camera. As each student in the small graduating class at Guatemala’s San Carlos University Engi- neering School briefly presented his thesis project, the grandson showed how water systems could both bring potable water and create recreational spaces for his hometown in rural Guatemala. Then Alejandro Valle Rosal praised another grandmother—the courageous journalist Irma Flaquer—in his acceptance speech, citing her as inspiration. She had been kidnapped and her Volume X No. 1 son—Alejandro’s father—had been killed when he was a toddler. My first book,Disappeared, David Rockefeller Center A Journalist Silenced, was about Alejandro’s grandmother. I hadn’t expected him to mention for Latin American Studies her when he received his degree. The silence had been broken. The legacies of violence were Director slowly being overcome. Merilee S. Grindle After the graduation, Irma’s sister, Anabella Flaquer, and I went to see the Guatemalan Police Associate Director Archives (see Kate Doyle’s article, p. 10). Anabella lives in Miami, and this was the only chance Kathy Eckroad we would get to visit them. “I feel my sister is here,” she told me. “There is no silence here.” It was a day of many emotions. Watching the young indigenous man willing to return to ReVista his community instead of seeking an engineering job in Guatemala City or Mexico; listening to Editor in-Chief Alejandro thank his grandmother; looking at the piles of records diligently being processed in June Carolyn Erlick the archives—all these things made me think that Guatemala was changing. Copy Editor Yet Guatemala faces serious new challenges, most of which have emerged from the lega- Anita Safran cies of violence of both the distant and recent past. Drug trafficking, youth violence, environ- Publications Interns mental damage, loss of remittances from the United States, corruption and impunity, natural Jai C. Beeman disasters and their consequences: the list is exhausting. William N. Forster For days now, friends, acquaintances and sources had been telling me that Guatemala was a Design basket case, a failed state, with both organized and common crime permeating every aspect of 2communiqué life. Yet all throughout my visit, I thought of the old proverb about the glass being half empty or www.2communique.com half full. I decided it was half full, and returned to Cambridge to work on this issue of ReVista. Printer Almost that very week, Nancy McGirr’s Fotokids studio in Guatemala was robbed of all P & R Publications its computers and cameras (see p. 44). Then terrible news came: my friend journalist Felipe Contact Us Valenzuela had been shot through the head. It was not clear if it was an attempt on a valiant 1730 Cambridge Street journalist’s life or a bungled robbery. No one knew if Felipe would survive. And then there Cambridge, MA 02138 was a volcanic eruption with ashes clogging the drains, piled high like drifting snow. And then Telephone: 617-495-5428 came the hurricane, washing away crops, destroying housing. Facsimile: 617-496-2802 Then Carlos Castresana, the head of the United Nations group that had helped extradite Subscriptions and Reader Forum former president Alfonso Portillo on corruption charges, resigned (see Paul Goepfert’s article [email protected] on p. 41). Political scandals deepened. Drug trafficking was said to escalate. Website The glass was half empty, I thought. As my friend and ReVista author Edelberto Torres- www.drclas.harvard.edu/publications/ revistaonline Rivas once observed, Guatemala suffers not from a lack of reality, but from too much of it. The articles for this issue began to arrive. Felipe went back to work without any grave Facebook ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America permanent damage; the investigation concluded it was a bungled robbery, and journalist friends concur. And as I read the incoming articles, I wondered, is the glass half full or half This issue of ReVista is made possible empty? Guatemala is exploding with projects and ideas and filled with brave men and women through the generous support of Banco intent on transforming society. It is also filled with sadness and corruption and underdevelop- Santander ment and inequalities and all the legacies of violence that it has inherited over the centuries. I Copyright © 2010 by the President and don’t know. Dear reader, I leave it to you and these pages to decide about Guatemala and the Fellows of Harvard College. proverbial glass. ISSN 1541–1443

ReVista is printed on recycled stock. harvard review of Latin america

fall 2010 | winter 2011 Volume X No. 1

Published by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Harvard University guatemala in every issue First Takes Guatemala, Guatebuena, Guatemaya By Edelberto Torres-Rivas 2 Never Again: A Photoreflection By Jean-Marie Simon 6 MAKING A DIFFERENCE Learning Through Libraries 74 breaking the silence By Debra Gittler Guatemala’s Police Archives By Kate Doyle 10 A History of Violence, Not a Culture of Violence By Michelle Bellino 13 BOOK TALK Reading La Masacre de Panzós in Panzós By Victoria Sanford 17 Colombia’s Civil War 75 20 A Journey Back to Guatemala By Emily Callier Sanders A Review By Chris Kraul indigenous lives Out of the Glass Closet? 77 Indigenous Rights and the Peace Process By Santiago Bastos 24 A Review By James R. Martel A Tale of Structural Racism By Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj 27 Multiple Windows on Mexico 78 Maya Weaving Heritage by Holly Nottebohm 30 A Review By Nancy Abraham Hall An Ixchel Museum Educational Program by Fabiana Flores Maselli 32 Researching Mayan Languages in Guatemala By Adam Singerman 34 reader forum 80 violence Postcards from a Drug-Trafficking CountryBy Julie López 36 Portraits of Daily Violence By Dina Fernández 39 online The International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala 41 Look for more content online at By Paul Goepfert drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline. Cyclones of Violence: Nature and Beyond 44 A Photoessay by Nancy McGirr and the Fotokids Team Securing the City By Kedron Thomas and Kevin Lewis O’Neill 46 development and beyond A Beauty That Hurts A Photoessay by Carlos Sebastián 50 In Petén, Interesting Times By Mary Jo McConahey 54 Two Paths to Development By David Daepp 57 Making of the Modern An Architectural Photoessay by Peter Giesemann 60 Central America Competitiveness Project By Emmanuel Seidner 62 Development Strategies and the Peace Accords By Leah Aylward 63 Immigration Guatemalan Immigrants: Increasing Visibility By Susanne Jonas 68 On the cover The Postville Immigration Raid By Greg Brosnan 70 Guatemala’s many legacies of violence must be overcome for the future of Guatemala’s children... A Mayan Financial Crash By David Stoll 72 Photograph by Carlos Sebastián/Prensa Libre.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 1 first takes

Guatemala, Guatebuena, Guatemaya by Edelberto Torres-Rivas

“Guatemala is more of a landscape than a of the most beautiful places in the world. Arbenz was forced out of government nation,” a friend observed in 1996 when I And not far from Panajachel, in San Mar- through the betrayal of his fellow colo- returned to the country after thirty years tín Chile Verde, on this very same lake, the nels and U.S. pressure; for others, the pe- of on-and-off absence. I knew as much as novel describes the life of Celestino Yumi, riod of strife began in 1964, when Cuban anyone could know about events in the a Quiché Indian who sold his wife to the influence stimulated the rise of the guer- country in the pre-Internet era: massa- Tazol devil, only to get caught up in the rilla movement, and hundreds of young cres, democracy, military groups, guer- clutches of “that mulata woman.” Mulata people with more convictions than arms rillas, elections, and yet that particular de tal is perhaps our Miguel Angel’s fin- took to the mountains. I experienced this remark lingered in my mind. Just before est novel. Then, shortly after my arrival, period myself, and I would place its be- my plane landed in La Aurora Airport in I learned that on these verdant shores ginning with the fratricidal urban riots in Guatemala City, I glanced down at a tour- of the lake and in San Martín, there had March and April 1962. The military po- ist pamphlet and a novel by Miguel An- been many, many deaths, those of local lice and the army killed more than fifty gel Asturias I was holding. The pamphlet peasants, guerrillas and soldiers. demonstrators in the streets of Guatema- showed a beautiful reality transformed la City. Lieutenant Marco Antonio Yon into commerce to attract foreigners, while “the guerrilla movement Sosa made his appearance during this up- the book evoked a fantasy built by Asturias’ that does not lose, wins” heaval, and one has to remember that the words to reach another reality, the indige- That particular year of 1996 was a special first guerrillas were military men, young nous world. In the tourist pamphlet, Lake one; “the internal armed conflict,” as of- rangers who organized the Revolution- Atitlán looks glued by its green water to ficious history would keep calling it, was ary Movement November 13 following an its three volcanos, Tolimán, Atitlán and coming to an end. Some cite 1954 as the unsuccessful uprising against President San Pedro, all features that make it one year it all started, when President Jacobo Miguel Ydígoras.

2 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by jean-marie simon www.primavera-tirania.com Left: A view of Lake Atitlán; Right: Couple at pre-election demonstration, downtown Guatemala City, 1985.

Thus, in 1996, I waited with several writing and in oral debate. What hap- ered, I believe. The military life of the friends in the Plaza of the Constitu- pened here was a permanent repression guerrilla insurgency was quite brief, but tion. The ceremony for the signing of by the state, punishing everyone who was its political life was long. Its polemical the Firm and Lasting Peace Accord was considered as part of the political oppo- presence allowed it to survive until 1996, taking place in the National Palace, and sition in thought or deeds. This imbued negotiate with three successive govern- we watched generals, politicians, guer- military action with the logic of war—a­ ments, and sign a substantive and wide- rilla leaders, and a select public as they military campaign to destroy “subver- ranging peace agreement. How can one arrived. December 29, 1996, was a chilly sive” opposition—and what resulted was evaluate what happened between 1962 night. We didn’t mind the cold: 34 years the systematic destruction of hundreds and 1996? It is fitting to remember U.S. and two generations of Guatemalans of union leaders, peasants and students. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s wounded by terror were being left be- This went on for three decades. comment in the January 1969 issue of hind. The terror cannot even be conveyed During this historic time, there were Foreign Affairs: “The guerrilla wins if by the statistics, some 150,000 dead. The two moments of guerrilla insurgence. he does not lose; the conventional army startling figure makes me think of Stalin’s The first occurred between 1965 and loses if it does not win.” criminally cynical remark that the mur- 1968 and ended quickly in the middle der of one person is a crime, but the mur- of great confusion. This movement fol- The Authoritarian Transition der of many is just a statistic. lowed the foco theory developed by Che toward Democracy It is painful but certain that when one Guevara, calling for vanguard actions of And here’s another paradox, about which counts death in the hundreds of thou- guerrilla cadres leading to general insur- there is no agreement either, namely, that sands, precision no longer matters. Per- rection. The other movement, ten years democracy was achieved before peace. I haps percentages tell us more: 92% of the later (1980-83), advocated the strategy of have argued that this transition was con- victims were non-combatant civilians; “the prolonged popular war” in the style tradictory, for the construction of a dem- 54% were younger than 25 years old, and of Vietnam. The 1981 guerrilla offensive ocratic regime took place even when the 12 % were women raped or physically at- was smashed by the better organized and repression was still fierce. In 1983, the il- tacked in various humiliating ways. more heavily armed Guatemalan army. legitimate government of General Efraín I believe that there was no civil war The Guatemalan National Revolu- Ríos Montt laid down electoral and po- in Guatemala, and I’ve allowed myself tionary Union (URNG) suffered a mili- litical party laws. The following year, to express this dissenting view both in tary defeat from which it never recov- the equally illegitimate government of

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 3 guatemala: legacies of violence

General Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores First, the elections formed part of a coun- preceded by an indigenous rebellion. If applied these laws, calling for a Constitu- terinsurgency strategy, conceived of and that really did occur, it would be as a re- ent Assembly, which in 1985 signed a applied by U.S. policy; the objective was sult of an awakening of indigenous con- National Constitution into law. He also to legitimize the regime against which sciousness, the mobilization of several called a presidential election, which was the armed insurgency was fighting. After communities and the decision of those won by civilian lawyer Vinicio Cerezo. the elections, the guerrillas would be tak- communities to join the struggle along- Both processes were free, without ing up their arms against a freely elected side the guerrillas. fraud, with limited pluralism, but in the civilian government and not against a The guerrillas modified their program overall context of terror. For the first time military dictatorship. to recognize that indigenous people had since 1951, there was uncertainty about Second, the army had destroyed the their own cultural ways and their own who would win. All the candidates were guerrillas’ headway, which it termed a struggles, that they weren’t just peasants. civilians of varied ideologies. The rightist military government turned over power on March 15, 1986, to a civilian who es- poused a center-left ideology. But the ho- The terror cannot even by conveyed by the statistics, micide continued. some 150,000 dead. The startling figure makes me It seems to make logical sense that the end of the war comes before free think of Stalin’s criminally cynical remark that the elections, as has happened in a number murder of one person is a crime, but the murder of of African countries. There, faced with a dynamic of death, it was only after reach- many is just a statistic. ing the difficult moment of a “ceasefire” that peace agreements were reached, and only then did elections take place. strategic defeat for the insurgents. Final- Class and ethnicity are not opposing cat- In Guatemala, two democratic elections ly, the military leadership suffered inter- egories, and cultural identity is compat- were held before the URNG announced a nal decomposition, with military coups ible with class consciousness. The core of ceasefire in March 1996, which was then in which generals were pitted against the Guatemalan revolution, according to accepted by the government. one another in March 1982 and August a guerrilla document, is constituted by the The explanation for why a return to 1983. On both occasions, coup leaders of- indigenous and peasant masses since they democracy came before an end to the fered, as a pretext for their taking power, are the majority and the most exploited. terror can be quite convoluted, but let us a “plan for immediate democratization.” It has been documented that many start with something basic. An electoral The military had lost prestige because activists approached indigenous com- process can be categorized as democrat- of their well-known human rights viola- munities in the northwest region of the ic when several independent political tions and open corruption. Several offi- country and that tens of thousands of in- parties, of diverse ideologies and histo- cials had amassed wealth through com- digenous people expressed their “sympa- ries of opposition to the military, com- mon crime, particularly crime linked to thy” towards the insurgents. Tales about pete against each other. The winning drug trafficking. this mutual rapprochement abound, full party, the Christian Democratic Party, of examples of logistical support from the situated on the timid left in Guatemala, Taking the “fish out of indigenous community and indoctrina- garnered 38% of the total vote. This was the water” tion on the part of the insurgents. This the first election without fraud in more Guatemala is a nation with an important growing closeness took place in the na- than thirty years. indigenous population of Maya origin. tional context of armed struggle in which It was not a transition that came Perhaps what most impressed me on my the important thing was training and or- about as a result of an agreement; rath- return to Guatemala were the crowds of ganization for war; the inherent dynamic er, it was imposed from above. Elections indigenous people on the streets of the of the moment was to arm for self-defense. under illegal and authoritarian govern- capital, their social participation and But I have not been able to find any infor- ments do not usually result in demo- an abundant documentation that went mation about indigenous columns in bat- cratic governments, so why was there much further than folklore. I worked for tle or high-level indigenous commanders, an authoritarian transition to political the Historical Clarification Commission or whether they were armed. Indigenous democracy in Guatemala? and spent my days reading about the mobilization was easily detected by mili- At least three different events took genocide that had been committed by tary intelligence, interpreted as a grave place simultaneously, which I evaluate the army. These were killings with racist threat, and destroyed on a scale without with different degrees of importance. roots and, some colleagues say, they were parallel in Latin America. The guerrilla

4 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 first takes

comandantes did not foresee the massa- considered a failed state. In the rhetoric greatest per capita concentration of fire- cres, and therefore could not stop them. of those who combat violence interna- arms in the world, with the exception of Although many do not agree with me, tionally, a state fails when it has lost con- the Middle East. I firmly believe that there was no indig- trol over the legitimate monopoly of vio- In the last five years, the dark figure enous rebellion; there was a slaughter of lence, or when social relations are ruled of the hired hit man has appeared. These indigenous people. In the second half of by an anti-state logic. are people—often poor youngsters—who 1981, the armed forces put into effect an In effect, in Guatemala, the forces of are contracted in the free market to kill operation they called “scorched earth.” It “narcobusiness” controlled several mu- for a price. On April 28, a 15-year-old was a victory of the army over unarmed nicipalities in regions sharing a border boy killed a woman with a single shot. peasants. Again, it is difficult to calculate with Mexico, such as San Marcos and For this job, he was paid the equivalent the number of victims. The UN Histori- Huehuetenango, or sparsely populated of $13. Only 3% of crimes denounced cal Clarification Commission counted regions such as Petén. Various forms of to the Public Ministry ever get to trial. some 80,000 dead, more than 600 vil- criminal power have emerged there, as The serious thing about this rampant lages destroyed; more than half a million well as in regions that have experienced crime wave is the inability of the state refugees and displaced people. recent agricultural modernization such to control it. In the last two years, two Certainly the massacres of the 1980s as Alta Verapaz and Zacapa. Since 2001, high-ranking officials of the National were a continuation of colonial genocide. criminal organizations with their own Police have been publicly dismissed and It is shocking that 51% of those killed “legality” and peasant support have re- brought to trial for participation in drug were in groups of more than 50 persons placed the authority of the state. It seems trafficking rings. About a quarter of and that 81% of these were identified as inevitable that in the face of the current the police force has been dismissed for indigenous. General Héctor Alejandro insecurity that plagues citizens, they various types of corruption. One moves Gramajo, Army Chief of Operations in would respond with another rationaliza- about in a very insecure society with a 1982, explained the operation by saying: tion: to confront private crime, we need weakened public authority and a citi- “We only wanted to take the fish out of private security. There is now a free mar- zenry that is losing its confidence in the the water...we think we were successful; ket of 140 security agencies, most of them government and in the future. we left the fish without water.” legally registered, with at least 65,000 Lake Atitlán, that I gazed upon with guards, bodyguards and watchmen, all so much amazement when I returned to Sick State, Failed State? of them armed and poorly trained. At Guatemala in 1996, is now polluted with All that I have described ever too briefly present, the National Police have 20,000 bacteria as a consequence of climate in the previous paragraphs has made it police officers. change. Tourism no longer comes to one very difficult for Guatemala society to In Guatemala, the symptoms of collec- of the most beautiful spots in the planet function. The legacy of violence is all too tive anomie—normlessness—are emerg- because of the pollution. But there are apparent. At the beginning of May 2010, ing, predicting that this will become a hopes for making the lake healthy again; there was a riot in Boquerón, a high-se- sick society, with elementary sociability all is not lost. Guatemalan society too curity prison in a southeast region of the decomposing in an extreme form. It is may become healthy again. Many of us country. The prison was seized by 200 not easy to explain why twenty people are struggling to make sure this happens. gang members serving prison sentences. are killed every day when there is no Here, in the pages of ReVista, you will Interior Ministry authorities had to ne- civil war; that 750 cars are stolen every find some of their voices. gotiate with the chief of the “maras,” as day—where are they all hidden? Some the gang members are known, giving in 8,000 extortions take place daily in the Edelberto Torres-Rivas is presently on several points and recognizing the marginal neighborhoods, proving that a consultant in the area of Human maras’ power. More or less around the the poor prey more on their equals than Development in the United Nations same time, the Finance Ministry negoti- anyone else. Development Programme (UNDP) and ated a fiscal reform for the millionth time And yes, with urban robberies, high- a professor in the Graduate Program in with the board of CACIF, a conglomer- way assaults, kidnappings, the number Social Sciences of the Latin American ate of powerful businessmen. And at the of crimes increases, the number of de- Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO); he end of the same month, the rector of the linquents increases, and no one imagines was Secretary General of FLACSO from University of San Carlos and its Superior that there’s an end to it. Carlos Castresa- 1985-1993. He has published extensively Council had to negotiate with a student na, then director of CICIG, a UN agency on politics, violence and development faction that had impeded the operations that helps with criminal investigations, in Central America. Torres-Rivas was a of the state university for ten days. declared in a March conference in the 1999-2000 Central American Visiting There is heated discussion about Latin American Faculty of Social Sci- Scholar at Harvard’s David Rockefeller whether present-day Guatemala can be ences (FLACSO) that Guatemala had the Center for Latin American Studies.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 5 guatemala: legacies of violence

Never Again

A Photoreflection By Jean-Marie Simon

I traveled to Guatemala for the first time in late 1980, believing, with the breezy confidence of a 20-something, that my photo- graphs of Guatemala’s war—army, guerrillas and terrified civil- ians—would bring me photographic stardom. Soon afterward, I imagined, I would make my mark in Serbia, Panama or wher- ever as Girl Globetrotter. Despite my cocky assumptions, I was not naïve regarding Guatemala’s pariah human rights status. I had read the requisite human rights reports, acquired triple-A contacts, and even got a letter from my parish priest, pronounc- ing me a practicing Catholic. When I landed at Guatemala City’s Aurora Airport just before Christmas, the soldiers on the runway and the intelligence agents doubling as customs officers already existed in my imagination. What surprised me, however, were three realities I did not foresee: the challenge of taking pictures in a country where almost no one wanted to be photographed; the apathy of U.S. newsrooms with respect to Guatemala; and the difficulty of putting a face on terror. The first circumstance—dealing with a list of contacts who did not want attribution in a caption, much less a photo of themselves in the newspapers—was at first discouraging, par- ticularly when my colleagues in El Salvador described how they would go out with the FMLN guerrillas and be back the same day, in time for cocktail hour. The reason for the second circumstance was transparent: Guatemala was the third player in a triptych of events that, by 1981, editors back home viewed as the latest in an amorphous regional blur. The overthrow of Somoza in Nicaragua, followed by massacres and the death of Archbishop Óscar Romero and four U.S. churchwomen in El Salvador precluded any reporting on Guatemala, as these events were dramatic and directly tied to U.S. political and economic interests The third element was the most unnerving: at first blush, Guatemala seemed normal. Planes to Miami and L.A. departed like clockwork, Christmas vendors were out in full force, and pre-dawn firecrackers announced birthday celebrations. Even outside the capital, travel was not impossible: American Ex- press continued its excursions to the Chichicastenango market; hippies sold bird-sound cassettes on Calle Santander in Pana- jachel; and Time magazine ads trumpeted the magic of Tikal’s Mayan ruins. At the same time, however, Guatemala was riven by irrefut- able, state-inspired violence: “civil war” to some and “internal armed conflict” to others. Amnesty International, in 1981, ac- cused the military regime of overseeing a “government pro- gram of political murder.” Normalcy, moreover, was skin-deep

6 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by jean-marie simon www.primavera-tirania.com first takes

Clockwise from top left: Wake for Héctor Gómez Calito, founding member of Mutual Support Group for the Families of the Disappeared (GAM), Amatitlán, 1985; military coup, March 1982; washing clothes in the now-polluted Lake Atitlán; civil patrol member, renouncing patrol system, holding a copy of the 1985 Guatemalan Constitution, Santa Cruz del Quiché.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 7 guatemala: legacies of violence

because Guatemala was living in an undeclared state of terror. circle. The next project is to do a cheap, pocket-book edition U.S. flights took off and landed, but they were nearly empty; of the book with 200 color photos and to price it at under $15, those birthday firecrackers were indistinguishable from ma- with a 5,000 print run. chine-gun fire; and films with a liberal political slant were de The question I perhaps most often heard when the book facto forbidden. In 1983, when the Cine Capitol showed Miss- was launched, in Guatemala, this summer was: “What has ing—the story of the abduction and torture of U.S. reporter changed?” Well, in some ways, a lot. You can be a leftist politi- Charles Horman, during the 1973 military coup in Chile–a cian without getting killed. You can teach at the San Carlos Uni- professor friend joked that Guatemalans were so hungry for versity without being gunned down on campus. You can spray- such movies that the army could have eliminated half the ur- paint graffiti on a wall without signing your death warrant. And ban guerrilla leadership by dropping a bomb on the opening bookshops like Sophos exist, where, if you have the money, you night at the movie theatre. can buy a basket full of paperbacks of every political ilk. People Moreover, and in some ways worse, I became accustomed whose grandparents were the poorest of the poor now send to this climate of terror. It was normal for friends to have money home from Miami and Houston and build houses with a pseudonym, or even two. It was tantamount to an insult if electricity and full-length mirrors. And, once in a blue moon, a your telephone was not tapped, since it implied that your work miracle: Bishop Juan José Gerardi’s murderer stood trial, and was cursi, or useless. And even newcomers to Guatemala soon one of those responsible for the Dos Erres massacre has been learned how to interpret the news: “delinquent” meant guerrilla arrested. This is all progress of one kind or another. and “disappearance” meant extrajudicial kidnapping. In truth, At the same time, however, little has changed: there have the only news related to the constant kidnappings during that been no investigations into the great majority of political crimes time were paid announcements published by the relatives of the and, with few exceptions, those responsible go unsought and victims: fuzzy black and white photographs paired with a terse unpunished. In addition, Guatemala now faces another kind of description of the victim and the assertion that he or she had no terrorism, one where violence and narco-trafficking are insepa- political connections. rable pandemic evils. To be a bus driver means risking your life, Perhaps the most insidious truth about living in Guatemala and getting on a bus is almost as large a risk. And in the midst during the 1980s was its effect on relationships with your col- of this new violence, poverty and corruption–two inextricably leagues and even family, and the gnawing doubt it inexorably bound realities–continue to dominate, front and center, Guate- created with respect to whom you trusted, including your most mala’s economic and political landscape. intimate circle of friends. Guatemalans wondered aloud if the People also ask, “Why don’t you offer a solution? Your pho- person plucked from the street at midday, by plainclothes men tographs hold no answers.” True enough; my photographs do with rifles, could be a common thief, or whether the young pro- not attempt to offer either profound thoughts with respect to fessional forced into a Jeep without license plates had commit- the past nor solutions to Guatemala’s present. At the same time, ted a crime. ¿A saber en qué estará metido?–“Who knows that however, and perhaps their greatest value, is that they were tak- he might be mixed up in?—was the mantra. en before the era of Photoshop, before you could change the Between 1980 and 1989, when I lived in Guatemala, my goals truth with the click of a mouse. In other words, they do not lie. changed; the idea of being a rock-star photographer faded as I Finally, I hope that Guatemalans see the photos as a tool that did more interviewing and consulting along with the photogra- helps them to remember the war, including those details that phy. I went on contract to Human Rights Watch and wrote four may have become opaque with the passing of time or the desire human rights reports, among other endeavors. Although the to forget. By serving as memories of these events, the photos rewards were initially more unpredictable—one month it was play their small role in assuring that Guatemala’s past does not Time, the next it was Maryknoll magazine; a Finnish film crew repeat itself ever again. in September, 60 Minutes in December—they were fulfilling. I went from wanting kudos in American Photographer to wish- Jean-Marie Simon’s original book, Gua- ing to be useful on the ground. I also realized that what I was temala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny photographing had its limits in the United States. When I took (WW Norton, 1988), recently re-issued in my photographs to National Geographic in 1986, the photogra- Spanish as Guatemala: eterna primavera, phy editor told me that my photos were too “one-sided.” “Keep eterna tiranía, contains over 150 color shooting,” he advised. “Show us the other side of the coin.” Al- photographs, including 50 previously- though I knew what he was saying, I felt like Robby the Robot: unpublished images. Her book is avail- “Does not compute.” I kept taking photographs of the Guate- able through amazon.com. It has been mala I lived in, and realized that the only way to show “my side nominated for the 2010 Wola-Duke Book Award. Simon is a of the coin” was to do a book. graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School Now, with the Spanish edition of my book, Guatemala: eter- (JD 1991) and a former Fulbright scholar. She lives in Wash- na primavera, eterna tiranía, my photos have almost come full ington DC with her husband and their daughter.

8 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 breaking the silence

The only thing worse than the hundreds of thousands of victims of la violencia in Guatemala was the horrific silence. The endeavors of nongovernment organizations and progressive churchworkers, the accidental discovery of a treasure trove of government records, books, photographs, testimonies and films are now all breaking through that silence.

n Guatemala’s Police Archives 10 n A History of Violence, Not a Culture of Violence 13 n Reading La Masacre de Panzós in Panzós 17 n A Journey Back to Guatemala 20

artistphoto bycredit emily name callier and sanders url drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 9 guatemala: legacies of violence

Guatemala’s Police Archives

Breaking the Stony Silence By Kate Doyle

Ana Lucía Cuevas describes living for terrorized so there was no way to commu- held in the cavernous National Theater more than 25 years with the pain of her nicate.” The military government of Gen- in downtown Guatemala City on Febru- brother’s disappearance as torture, “as eral Óscar Mejía Víctores denied having ary 25, 1999. As President Álvaro Arzú though you are hooded and someone is information related to either crime. The Irigoyen listened, scowling, from the front beating you with a club.” Now the shroud family fled Guatemala in the face of death row, CEH lead commissioner, Christian of secrecy is being lifted. threats, settling in Costa Rica. Tomuschat—a German jurist accustomed Carlos Cuevas Molina was abducted at When Guatemala’s civil conflict end- to the wealth of documentation available gunpoint on May 15, 1984, when he was ed in 1996, a United Nations-sponsored on his own country’s bloody past through 24 years old and Lucía was 21. He was Commission for Historical Clarification the Nazi files and the records of East Ger- a sociology student pursuing a degree at (CEH) was convened to examine the many’s Stasi intelligence service—stood the country’s national University of San causes of a 36-year war that killed an before the audience of thousands and Carlos when he and a friend were seized estimated 200,000 unarmed civilians openly berated the government for pre- off a street in downtown Guatemala City and disappeared some 40,000 more. venting the commission from gaining ac- by a group of armed men and taken away Over the course of 18 months, investiga- cess to Guatemalan archives. in a car. He was never seen again. tors gathered thousands of testimonies More than ten years later, the stony He was one among a quarter of a mil- from survivors of the conflict, reviewed silence of Guatemala’s secret-keepers is lion victims of the counterinsurgency the data produced by exhumations of se- coming to an end. The astonishing, un- campaign waged by Guatemalan secu- cret mass grave sites around the country, expected and wholly accidental discov- rity forces during and after the cold war. analyzed news accounts and dug through ery of a treasure trove of government The government forces targeted not only human rights reports. What the commis- records five years ago has demolished the armed guerrilla groups but hundreds of sion was unable to obtain were records government’s ability to pretend that it thousands of unarmed civilians in the from inside Guatemala’s death machine. does not continue to possess and protect countryside and urban centers who were The commission’s final report found archives of the war. The discovery was considered suspect by association. government forces responsible for 93 per- made in July of 2005, when a small team After Carlos disappeared, his family cent of the massacres, abductions, assas- of inspectors sent to a sprawling police filed writs of habeas corpus, demanded sinations, cases of systematic torture and base by the Guatemalan Human Rights meetings with government officials, and gathered what evidence they could. Wit- nesses described the vehicles used in the operation, including license plate num- The astonishing and wholly accidental discovery of a bers, and linked the abduction to the vi- cious DIT police unit, the Department treasure trove of government records has demolished of Technical Investigations, known to be the government’s ability to pretend that it does not behind many of the thousands of abduc- tions that took place in Guatemala City continue to possess and protect archives of the war. during the early 1980s. But their efforts to investigate ended abruptly in April other human-rights crimes documented Prosecutor’s Office, in response to - con 1985, when the corpses of Carlos’s young by CEH investigators. But it reached cerns about the improper storage of am- wife, Rosario Godoy de Cuevas, their in- those conclusions without the benefit of munition, stumbled upon the documents fant son and her 21-year-old brother were the state’s files. Despite a mandate that in the course of its visit. The archive be- found in the wreck of a car, arranged to gave them the right to collect the internal longed to the former National Police, an look like an accident. Human rights de- archives of the parties of the conflict, in- institution intimately linked to some of fenders who saw the bodies reported that vestigators were stonewalled by military the worst atrocities committed during the child’s fingernails had been torn out. and police officials at every turn. the war. The force was abolished by the After those killings, “there was a huge The commission presented its report peace accords and rebuilt as the National silence,” remembers Lucía. “Everyone was to the public in a revelatory ceremony Civil Police in 1997.

10 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 breaking the silence

Documents are stacked up at a police station archive in Guatemala City.

The inspectors understood the sig- any researcher who wishes to visit what most violent period of Guatemala’s con- nificance of their discovery instantly, and has become the Historic Archive of the flict, from 1975 to 1985. within days the Human Rights Prosecutor National Police. One of the creative solutions em- obtained a judge’s order granting his office Gustavo Meoño Brenner is the ar- ployed has been to invite researchers to the right to secure the site and examine chive’s director. He has overseen not review files pertinent to their work. These the documents. The task was daunting. only the rescue phase of the project but “external investigators,” as Gustavo calls The police records had been stored in the current investigative phase, in which them, can also flag documents relevant a state of almost total neglect, piled hap- teams of staff researchers review the to other human rights cases. That way hazardly on every available inch of space records for evidence of human rights each researcher brings added value to the inside several crumbling buildings on crimes. He is the first to admit that man- broader project of hunting down human the edge of the base, where they became aging an operation of this magnitude rights evidence. Another practice has infested with bugs and bats, molder- has called for unusual tactics. “We have been to let external investigators come ing under the drip of water from broken had to find creative and audacious solu- outside normal working hours. That lets windows. Yet through years of dedicated tions in order to be able to respond,” he family members with day jobs search for work and deliberation, and with the help explained in an interview. Within weeks information about their loved ones. of funding from half a dozen European of entering the site, investigators realized Above all, it is the policy of total pub- governments, a staff of some 150 men and that the files represented the entire ar- lic access that the archive has created that women has slowly restored the mass of chive of the former National Police, dat- represents the project’s most startling damp, filthy paper to something resem- ing from the 19th century, when the po- innovation. Gustavo considers it “one bling a proper archive. Teetering piles of lice force was created, to the institution’s of the most important advances that we documents tied together with string have final year. To identify the most important have made.” The policy was crafted in been separated, dried, cleaned, described human rights information among the July 2009, just after the government of and scanned into a vast database of 10.7 estimated 8 linear kilometers of paper, President Álvaro Colom took the protec- million images. The records themselves photographs, audio tapes and computer tive step of transferring formal control of are boxed and stored in a secure site on files, the staff has focused its efforts on the police archive from the Ministry of the the base; the images are now available to the documents produced during the Interior to the Ministry of Culture. The

Photo: Daniel Hernández-Salazar © 2005 drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 11 guatemala: legacies of violence

move dispelled a lingering fear among the crime. Under the leadership of Spanish staff about the independence of their proj- jurist Carlos Castresana, the Interna- ect and freed it to reach out to the public tional Commission against Impunity in more fully than had before. In July, the ar- Guatemala, or CICIG, was designed to chive’s new “Access to Information Unit” work with Guatemalan police, prosecu- opened its doors to the public. Since then, tors and judges to assemble some of the according to statistics compiled by staff, most sensitive criminal cases, often tar- the archive has received 3,447 requests for geting the country’s most powerful and information, to which they have respond- well-connected figures. CICIG has gone ed with 55,628 document pages. after members of the police and army, For Guatemala, any access to govern- former defense ministers and one for- ment information about the civil conflict mer president on charges ranging from is extraordinary. The archive went a step embezzlement to drug trafficking to run- further. After examining models of pub- ning death squads. lic use proposed by similar “archives of Last May, the commission’s successes repression” in Latin America—in Para- appeared briefly to imperil its own sur- guay, Mexico and Argentina, for exam- vival, when a newly appointed Attorney ple—the Guatemalans chose to place The police records had been stored in a General, Conrado Reyes, began firing no restrictions on the access enjoyed by state of almost total neglect. prosecutors involved in the corruption in- outside researchers. That means that vestigations, threatening to undo the hard not only family members but journalists, for the opening of the army’s archives work that CICIG and the Public Ministry students, prosecutors, historians and hu- about the civil conflict. That modest ex- had achieved over two years. Castresana man rights investigators, Guatemalan or hibition of political will has invigorated retaliated by abruptly announcing his foreign-born, can request records related human rights organizations to demand resignation during an explosive press to any individual, organization or inci- a response from the military. The Pub- conference in which he revealed evidence dent and expect an uncensored response. lic Ministry also has been prodded into linking Reyes to organized crime, and in Gustavo calculates the estimated returns action by international actors, led by the a second press conference days later by on requests so far to be 80% positive, Dutch Embassy and the U.S. Agency for exposing a nasty smear campaign di- with 20% of requests resulting in no International Development, which have rected against him. Within a week of documents. The contrast to other, simi- provided funding for judicial investiga- Castresana’s resignation, Guatemala’s lar archives in the region is striking; in tions into some of the most pressing hu- Supreme Court had removed Reyes and Argentina’s Comisión por la Memoria, man rights cases from the past. Cases ordered a new selection process to begin for example, a collection of important re- now under investigation include the hor- for his post. The United Nations named cords from the La Plata secret police, the rific massacre of more than 250 residents Francisco Dall’Anese, a former Costa Ri- names and other pertinent information of the tiny settlement of Dos Erres in the can Attorney General with experience about victims of the dirty war are with- northern department of the Petén in in government corruption cases, to take held from everyone but family members, 1982; the disappearance of a well-known over CICIG in late June. leaving most researchers in the dark labor leader, Edgar Fernando García, Guatemala’s incipient fight against about the social impact of repression. from a street corner in Guatemala City in impunity has weathered the crisis for The investigations under way inside 1984; a series of dozens of kidnappings now. The Public Ministry has rehired the police archive coincide with a new in- and executions of suspected militants and many of the attorneys dismissed by terest on the part of the government. The their family members during 1983-85, Reyes and their joint investigations with Public Ministry is now actively pursuing chronicled in a leaked army intelligence CICIG into corruption and organized evidence for a set of human rights cases. document known as the “Military Log- crime continue. Work has also resumed Although the Guatemalan authorities book” (Diario Militar); and the torture in earnest on the human rights cases have long resisted prosecuting past hu- and murder of Efraín Bámaca, guerrilla from the past, including efforts by pros- man rights crimes, a convergence of in- leader and common-law husband of U.S. ecutors to locate hard evidence of state ternal and external pressures has finally citizen Jennifer Harbury. violence among the millions of pages of set the wheels of justice turning. A United Nations-supported team the police archives. In March 2009, pros- President Colom—nephew of a popu- of international investigators has added ecutors used records from the archive to lar politician, Manuel Colom Argueta, to the pressure for justice in Guatemala indict four former police officers for their who was assassinated by the Romeo Lu- since January 2008. Their job is to fer- role in the 1984 forced disappearance of cas García regime in 1979—has called ret out corruption and expose organized labor leader Fernando García. The case

12 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 Photo: Daniel Hernández-Salazar © 2005 breaking the silence

was presented to an investigating judge in July of this year—the first one to head A History of Violence, for trial in which the government’s own historical archives will be part of the evi- Not a Culture of Violence dence used to charge human rights viola- tors. Today Public Ministry requests for Finding Historical Consciousness in Guatemala documents represent almost a third of all inquiries submitted to the archive’s By Michelle Bellino Access to Information Unit. When the police archive opened in 2009, Lucía Cuevas was among the first family members to arrive seeking infor- Kendyl tucks her sleeve over her hand and wipes the bus window. “Why are you so mation about their loved ones. She hoped interested in war memories?” she asks, catching me off guard. “If you are interest- to find something, anything, which would ed in violence, you don’t have to go into the past to find it. Violence is everywhere.” help her understand how her brother dis- I hesitate over my response. Why does insisting on remembering the war suddenly appeared. What she received was beyond feel arrogant? her wildest expectations. In addition to Outside the window, women roll barrels of corn on stones rough as their heels. surveillance and operational reports rel- “What’s so bad about forgetting? What’s wrong with not wanting your kids to know evant to Carlos’s case, archive staff found the fear you lived, to want a life for them where they aren’t held responsible for a list of license plate numbers assigned to the past?” Maybe she has a point. Maybe selective forgetting is a conscious choice undercover police cars. passed on to the postwar generation—but with what consequences? Among them was the license number In the aftermath of ethnic violence, historical consciousness can frame critiques reported by an eyewitness to Carlos’s kid- of ongoing systems that reinforce social inequalities and suffering. But there is a napping filed more than 25 years ago. The history of silence here. And with the emergence of new forms of “postwar” vio- effect on Lucía’s life has been dramatic. lence, the memory of La Violencia, the thirty-six year civil war and genocide, has “We always knew who was behind been pushed to the middle pages of newspapers or reframed in Plexiglas posters what was happening to us,” she says now. claiming peace and multiculturalism at city bus stops. School textbooks mask this But when the documents arrived, “it was era of internal violence as a conflict between “two devils,” as if the state and guer- as though the hood had been suddenly rilla armies played equal roles. Before coming to Guatemala, I had wondered what lifted.” She has ended her long silence kinds of memories would surface from a submerged recent past. As contemporary and is completing a documentary about violence escalates, my perceptions have turned like marbles on a wood floor. her brother’s abduction, named after a Since that warm day on the bus with Kendyl, I have struggled to find out why poem that her mother wrote shortly af- studies of past violence warrant a place alongside discussions of present-day violence. ter he disappeared: “To Echo the Pain of Hundreds of Guatemalans have helped me see the past and present through varying Many.” Lucía feels now that her life has prisms of memory and meaning. Guatemalan activists have insisted on critical his- been transformed. “Until two or three torical consciousness as a postwar imperative, exposing to me the dialectics between years ago I had lost my identity,” she ex- silence and violence, history and culture, and impunity and empowerment. plains. With the re-opening of the case, Raúl, who asked that his name not be published for security reasons, for exam- “my life has come back to me. My Guate- ple, tells me about ongoing campaigns to raise consciousness about impunity for malan life came back to me. It has been wartime crimes in the Hijos por la Identidad y Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio incredible. This is the importance of re- (HIJOS) office. When I ask whether HIJOS activism now extends to contemporary covering memory.” crime, he says yes and no, describing the topology of past and present violence like the twist of a Mobius strip. He explains that the same people who orchestrated past Kate Doyle is a senior analyst and di- genocides still operate in unconcealed political and military positions of power, or rector of the Guatemala Documentation more discreetly in the shadows of paramilitary forces, death squads or organized Project at the National Security Archive, crime. “There are clear examples that the military still presides in Guatemala,” a non-profit library and research insti- he says. “Ríos Montt continued his power in Congress; death squads still exist, tute based at George Washington Uni- eliminating hundreds of young people; social movements are repressed... forced versity. The Guatemala Police Archive disappearances against peasants or indigenous people also continue to exist. It’s a will receive a Special Recognition Award violence or repression that we can’t view as new—rather, it’s a result of the political at the 34th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Hu- repression that was used in the war against our parents.” I nod, watching Raúl’s man Rights Awards: http://www.ips-dc. eyes flicker over the poster of hundreds of faces of the disappeared, their photo- org/about/letelier-moffitt. graphs lined up like mug shots. “The mechanisms that made the genocide possible

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 13 guatemala: legacies of violence

Guatemala has earned the unfortunate name of “Killer’s Paradise.” are the same mechanisms of control and repression, now much He does not tell them the truth, that their sadness is heavier stronger and more dangerous, because today we can no longer than the oak furniture that fills their dead daughter’s preserved identify only one group responsible.” This web of simultaneous bedroom. She left one night and never came back. Her body forces creates a more dangerous contemporary network. Many was found less than two miles from their house. of these dark forces collaborate, strengthen, and protect one Legal impunity for the criminals of the past has engendered another—or compete for power—thereby escalating the num- a “culture of impunity” that penetrates Guatemalans’ everyday ber of victims, he says. His critique emphasizes the connections lives, diminishing trust in the government, justice system, and between past and present violence, identifying a commonality the role of seemingly powerless citizens, conditions that have between actors, modes of violence, and impunity. earned Guatemala the name “Killer’s Paradise.” For many, civic When Guillermo, who also asked that his last name not be impotence leads to apathy toward violence, exhibiting a resig- published for security reasons, and I go for after-dinner walks nation that implies, past or present, you’re not safe here, be- to the nearby soccer field, no more than 200 feet from his home, cause Guatemala is Guatemala. All over the country I hear the his parents await our return nervously. Relative proximity does same narrative from adults and adolescents, Mayans and ladi- not imply safety. “That gate doesn’t make you safe,” they warn nos: Guatemala is a violent country with a violent culture. They me. Even living in a gated community with 24-hour security cite the war and present-day violence as two examples from a guards, as does one out of every ten families in Guatemala City, historical continuum of turmoil, meaning that a history of vio- does not guarantee protection from the violence that defines lence implies a “culture of violence.” present-day, “postwar” Guatemala. Guillermo’s backpack rattles The official rationale for much contemporary crime is that as he comes through the open hallway, a dead giveaway. His learned violence is an unfortunate social remnant of past vio- parents unzip his bag in a panic, searching for cans of spray- lence, notably the recent civil war. Though thousands of young paint that he uses for poverty, drug, and violence awareness people were forcibly recruited into the state or guerrilla army messages, desperate words on the walls of buildings. They ar- and trained in methods of inflicting violence and invoking fear, gue about the kind of person Guillermo is becoming, someone the idea that contemporary crime can be so simply understood who vandalizes buildings, a common delinquent with secrets. as a consequence of historical violence is misleading. Unlike

14 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre breaking the silence

Witnessing violence is a daily event in Guatemala.

Raúl, who holds powerful institutions and individuals respon- collar tight around his neck. He goes on. “There are six suspects, sible, many attribute Guatemala’s experience to an ingrained and none have been interrogated. There are mistakes in the culture of violence. In this reading of history, though, power forensic report. The case has not moved forward. The loss of a continuity and structural inequality go undetected. Like all child is incomprehensible. No one’s stomach has been the same “postwar” crime, socialized violence has been given room to fes- since Claudina Isabel was killed. They insulted my daughter’s ter because of conditions of impunity. character—her character! Do you know what the police said? Jorge Velásquez enters the Ministerio Público investigator’s The police said they thought she was a prostitute because she office after rescheduling his meeting for the fourth time. Once was wearing sandals. Do you know what it’s like to identify the every week, Jorge dresses up in a suit, drives through Guatema- body of your daughter? You are the third investigator to have la City traffic, pays a parking attendant, and waits in the pub- this case in your hands. Every time I come in here looking for lic prosecutor’s office or his lawyer’s office or the human rights progress, I move backwards and have to start over. Ya no voy a ombudsman’s office or some state institution to see whether ensuciar el nombre de mi hija.” Most victims of contemporary they have made any progress on his daughter’s case. It has been violence cannot do what Jorge does. They fear retribution, opt- three years since Claudina Isabel’s brutal rape and murder, but ing for silence as a mode of protection. They do not live near his devotion to her case is unwavering, even in the face of state enough to the capital to register continuous complaints. They ambivalence and outright resistance toward his pursuit of jus- cannot afford to take time off work to pursue justice. They do tice. Jorge begins, “I am not here to complain, but to request a not know the middle-class protocol required to be taken seri- change. I am here today, three years after my daughter’s death, ously. Though Jorge does not articulate his devotion to justice and it is as if she died yesterday. I have been to meeting after for these victims, he is simultaneously fighting for justice for meeting, and the case never moves forward.” Behind his glasses, past and present crimes by demanding an end to impunity, the tears gather in Jorge’s eyes. salient connection between La Violencia and “postwar” violen- The investigator listens with distanced composure. He leans cia. He shoots the investigator a face stiff with rage. “Impunity over and adjusts his socks so that they rest evenly on his calves, was an invitation to kill my daughter.” then returns to Jorge. Jorge’s face is red and swollen, his shirt Lack of accountability for past and present violence has cre-

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 15 guatemala: legacies of violence

ated an environment in which violence is permitted, if not pro- violence is entrenched—not in the culture of Guatemalans, but in voked, by the implicit guarantee of impunity. And present crime the sparse and sterile representations of the past by those in pow- often involves past criminals who have been granted legal am- er. Despite its now leftist government, Guatemala’s Ministry of nesty. Fear of postwar violence, aggravated by impunity, may si- Education has yet to institute a history education that confronts lence those who would otherwise make their memories known. the recent violent past. Perhaps the lack of critical inquiry into Postwar violence is also perhaps a consequence for a citizen- violence has contributed to a tolerance of violence. It also seems ry whose critical reckoning of the connection that its past has possible that the deficiency of critical historical consciousness is, with its present has been silenced. The war is relegated to a in part, a consequence of postwar violence. In this context, it is no history disconnected from the present. For many, the dangers surprise that postwar crime overshadows the war. of the present do not resonate with memories of the war. Post- Creating meaningful and sustainable peace requires criti- war violence is dismissed as gang-related delinquency indica- cally confronting violent pasts: interrogating the conditions tive of a “culture of violence,” even when crimes are noticeably that allowed conflict to take hold, while holding individuals politically motivated. The assertion about Guatemalan nature and institutions accountable for their actions. Critical historical as inherently violent surrenders to discourses of power that consciousness of past violence has everything to do with under- situate contemporary violence as cultural rather than struc- standing—and challenging—postwar violence in Guatemala. turally caused, reinforced, and pardoned: “it negates the po- litical character of the conflict and implies that there can be Michelle Bellino is a doctoral student in Culture, Communi- no political solution” (Victoria Sanford, “Learning to Kill by ties, and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Proxy: Colombian Paramilitaries and the Legacy of Central Her main research interest is history education that follows American Death Squads, Contras, and Civil Patrols,” Social mass violence, particularly identity-based conflicts. She studies Justice 2003 p.15). This reductive excuse asserts that violence how Guatemala’s postwar generation engages with histories of is endemic because it is intrinsic. violence and constructs their identity through vicarious “post- Guatemala’s national memory of La Violencia cannot be un- memories,” as part of the social memory processes that character- derstood without recognizing its contemporary embeddedness ize transitional justice societies, This work was funded in part in “postwar” violencia—violence provoked, protected, and per- by Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin petuated by impunity. The absence of critical analysis of ongoing American Studies summer and term time research grants.

Sign reads, “We are putting our odds on life and a society with justice and equality. Enough already of violence!”

16 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre breaking the silence

Reading La Masacre de Panzós in Panzós

On the 32nd Anniversary By Victoria Sanford

I am not afraid. I am not ashamed. I am not embarrassed. I cannot tell lies because I saw what happened and other people saw it, too. That is why there are so many widows and orphans here…the blood of our mothers and fathers ran in the streets. They tried to kill me, too. I had to throw myself in the river. I lost my shoes. The current carried me away. My body hit rocks in the river. When I finally got out, I was covered with mud and thorns. But this happened to many people. The army and the plantation owners did this because they don’t like us. They took ad- vantage of us. But we are still alive. They thought they could always treat us like animals, that we would never be able to defend ourselves. But we also have rights. We have the same rights and laws as they do. I decided to speak today because I María Maquín speaks out against the military base. was in the plaza the day of the massacre. Today, I make my testimony public. We nicipal archives and death registers, and extensively about both the Panzós massa- must tell everything that happened to us conducted an exhumation of the mass cre and the silencing of Maya women—the in the past so that we will not have fear in grave of victims. way in which the army makes use of gen- the future. We speak because we are not Twenty years after the massacre, on der inequality and racism in Guatemala to afraid. We speak from the heart. May 29, 1998, we returned the remains of create a climate of suspicion around the —María Maquín, May 29, 1998 the victims to the community for reburial testimony of women survivors like María and participated in the two days of com- Maquín and Rigoberta Menchú. I have munity commemoration, Catholic mass, also carried out extensive research on the As an engaged anthropologist and hu- and Mayajek (Maya religious ceremony). history of land tenure in Panzós, as well man rights advocate, I accompany people At the reburial, I was struck by the words as archival research on media coverage of seeking justice in the communities where of María Maquín, who was 12 years old the massacre. In November 2009, with I work, seeking to make scholarly contri- at the time of the 1978 army massacre. support from Fundación Soros Guatema- butions to help them in their endeavors. She survived because her grandmother, la, I published La Masacre de Panzós–Et- That’s why in 1997 and 1998, I directed Mamá Maquín, fell on top of her when nicidad, Tierra y Violencia en Guatemala the historical research to reconstruct hit by army fire. As one of the neighbors, (F&G Editores). four army massacres for the Guatema- doña Manuela, remembers: “La señora In March 2010, my publisher Raúl lan Forensic Anthropology Foundation’s Rosa Maquín (Mamá Maquín) was with Figueroa Sarti and human rights advo- (FAFG) report to the Commission for her granddaughter. She was on the mu- cate Iduvina Hernández presented the Historical Clarification (CEH, the Gua- nicipal steps. She ended up there on the book at the Centro Cultural de España temalan truth commission). The FAFG ground. The old woman took a bullet. in Guatemala City. At the end of the pre- investigation of the 1978 Panzós plaza They blew her head off.” sentation, two teachers from Panzós ap- army massacre of Q’eqchi’ Maya peasants At the 1998 reburial, the words of proached Raúl and Iduvina to ask if the began in September 1997. We gathered María Maquín and others broke a silence book could be presented in Panzós on nearly 200 testimonies from massacre that had reigned in Panzós since the mas- the 32nd anniversary of the massacre. survivors and witnesses, reviewed mu- sacre. Over the past 12 years, I have written Without hesitation, they both agreed to

photo by larry kaplow drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 17 guatemala: legacies of violence

make the eight-hour trip to rural Panzós also illiterate and a monolingual Q’eqchi’ for the occasion. Three weeks later, the speaker. I looked at her hands and won- teachers contacted Raúl to let him know dered how many thousands of tortillas that they had confirmed participation of she had hand-patted since 1998, how more than 400 people and would like the many thousands of pieces of clothing she author (me) to attend the event. had scrubbed and wrung out by hand. This invitation was both an honor and Today, she lives in the same poverty her a challenge. I had not been in Guatemala grandmother was protesting when she since 2007 after a series of threats against was killed in 1978. Though some things my life. Moreover, Raúl is also my husband have changed in Guatemala in the past and we have a five-year-old daughter. We three decades, much has not. travel as a family or one of us stays with During the ceremony, María gave her in New York. This book presentation me a somewhat rumpled piece of pa- required his presence as publisher and per. I unfolded it to find a photocopy of mine as author, so it also meant taking her grandmother’s cédula (national ID) Valentina with us. As parents, this travel photo—the only known photo of Mamá raised security and health concerns. It is a Maquín. In the hallucinatory heat on the long drive for a little girl who gets motion auditorium stage in front of hundreds of sickness. Panzós, in an isolated region, is local peasants, teachers and students in not a tourist site. There is no relief from Panzós, I remembered Ariel Dorfman’s the humidity and sweltering heat. Malar- writing about photos of the disappeared ia and tuberculosis continue to be major A survivor looks at a poster. in Chile. One poster bearing images of problems. Poverty is widespread; land many disappeared had two blank spaces tenure remains inequitable. Corrupt local to the library and local schools. Still, doz- above the names, as two of the men were elites continue to use violence to margin- ens of local Q’eqchi’ Maya stood in line too poor to even have a photo. alize Q’eqchi’ Maya peasants throughout to buy 260 copies of the book and then And then María Maquín stands up to the region, despite the provisions of the waited patiently for me to sign it. Sold speak. She thanks us for the event. “To- Guatemalan Peace Accords signed nearly at less than cost for 30 Quetzales (less day’s event is important so that no one 14 years ago. than $4), the book cost more than most ever forgets what happened on May 29, Despite these concerns, we decided to Panzós residents earn in a day. Several 1978,” she says. “Everything they said accept the invitation and invite friends people asked to have the receipt for their is truly what happened.” And I see that and colleagues to join us. Our 25-year- purchase written for “massacre survi- rather than appropriate her words, we old daughter Gabriela, who lives in Costa vor.” Renowned Guatemalan poet Caro- have validated her experience. My book, Rica, volunteered to accompany us on our lina Sarti and Iduvina Hernández com- our presence, this event reminds every- trip as well. As Gabriela was a child of the mented on the book. Both Carolina and one that the massacre happened and that Guatemalan diaspora, Panzós also reso- Iduvina had been in Panzós as journalists it was awful. She directs her comments to nated with her. So, on May 28, 2010, we shortly after the massacre. They spoke the youth and teachers. She says: “Know arrived in Panzós with a caravan of five about the marches in Guatemala City and the truth. Read this book and share this vehicles with 26 people from the United the wave of terror that followed the mas- book so that everyone knows this history States, Canada, Costa Rica and Guatema- sacre. Then, María Maquín spoke. It was so that it does not happen again.” She la. I met people who traveled to Panzós the first time I had seen her since 1998, stands firmly and says, “I am going to from afar, such as Guatemalan exile By- when she was 32 years old, thin, brave, repeat my own words. I am not afraid. I ron Titus, who traveled from Massachu- but hesitant to speak in public. Now, at am not ashamed. I am not embarrassed. setts with his 8-year-old son so that he 44, she is heavier and stands solidly be- I am telling you what happened because might better understand his father’s exile fore her community. She does not equiv- I am alive. It was land problems that pro- and ongoing commitment to justice. On ocate when she speaks. She is a leader. voked this massacre and we continue to this day, we were all accompanied. Carolina, Iduvina and I each read be abandoned in our villages. We do not The presentation was held in Panzós’ some of the words of María Maquín’s have enough land to feed our families.” cavernous municipal hall built of cement testimony from my book. As we spoke, I With great emotion, she continues, “I blocks. In all, some 650 people attend- wondered how she felt about our appro- saw what the army does. I lived through ed the event, which was presented via priation of her words as she listened to what the army did. We should never live feed in Spanish with translation to Bernardo Caal translate what we said to agree to an army post here in Panzós.” Q’eqchi’. We donated copies of the book Q’eqchi’. María is a peasant leader. She is Then, she challenges the youth. “The

18 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by alyssa butler breaking the silence

army can kill you,” she says, “I don’t want many times colleagues have challenged shall not take place in the lands or terri- you to have to live through what I lived the “authenticity” of speakers like María. tories of indigenous peoples, unless justi- through. If you say nothing against the They question a peasant woman’s capac- fied by a relevant public interest or oth- army base, they will say you want it. You ity to develop her own ideas. They assert erwise freely agreed with or requested by must speak up.” that someone else is speaking through the indigenous people concerned.” With great formality, a group of teach- her, as they refuse to believe that the hu- The people of Panzós, like survivors ers and local peasants then read a petition man rights discourse she presents could of genocide throughout Guatemala, need in Spanish and Q’eqchi’ as they present- possibly belong to her. I remembered to be heard. On an individual level, they ed it to María Eugenia Morales de Sierra John Beverly’s work on testimony in need to have the veracity of their lived from the Human Rights Ombudsman’s which he suggests that scholars should experience of survival validated. On a Office. They asked her to take their oppo- worry less about how they appropriate national level, Guatemala as a society sition to the army base to the president Rigoberta Menchú and concern them- needs to come to terms with the massa- of Guatemala. The petition has 10 pages selves more with seeking to understand cres, disappearances and assassinations with 668 signatures—514 of which are and appreciate how they themselves that happened in the late 20th century. thumb prints with names printed upon might be appropriated by her. I smiled as Guatemala needs to move beyond blam- them. Each page of signatures carries a María Maquín appropriated the occasion ing the victims and recognizing the re- circular stamp—Comité de Víctimas de of my book presentation to condemn the sponsibility of the state and the army la Masacre, Panzós 29-05-1978—and in- proposed construction of a new military for the violence. It is important for the cludes the name of the village or hamlet base in Panzós, although to be fair, I knew country to come to terms with the truth (Cahaboncito, Tinajas, La Esperanza, she would do this, as the community had today as we move into the second decade Chichim, El Cacao). These are the names asked for our approval to include their of the 21st century, because the intellec- of the small, isolated communities on the petition in the book presentation. tual and material authors of genocide outskirts of the municipality of Panzós. María Maquín and her 667 neighbors and other crimes against humanity have These are the communities that lost hun- are right to oppose this new army base. yet to be processed in a court of law. The dreds of people to La Violencia in the late As they state in their petition, neither violence in which Guatemala lives today 20th century. The 1978 massacre was the the intellectual nor material authors of is derived from the impunity established beginning, and it was followed by waves the massacre or any of the other violence by these war criminals who continue to of selective violence that today has di- meted out against the Panzós communi- hold power in local and national politi- minished, but not ended. ty have ever been brought to justice. The cal structures, as well as in clandestine María Maquín is right about their claims of the victims and survivors of groups. María Maquín and her neigh- land battles. The Q’eqchi’ who live in this violence languish in the courts, as do bors deserve our support as they con- these communities lost their property to their claims for the return of their lands. tinue to struggle for justice for massacre local elites who took advantage of Cold The 514 thumb prints are a testament to survivors and seek to halt the building of a military post in Panzós.

Victoria Sanford is Associate Profes- The people of Panzós, like survivors of genocide sor of Anthropology and Director of throughout Guatemala, need to be heard. the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies at Lehman College, and a member of the doctoral faculty at the War ideologies and made alliances with ongoing economic and cultural margin- CUNY Graduate Center. A Bunting Peace the army and national elites, naming any- alization that denies the most basic of Fellow at Radcliffe (1999-2000), she is one who spoke for justice or land reform rights to the majority Maya in Panzós and the author of Buried Secrets: Truth and a communist—a death sentence during throughout Guatemala. The installation Human Rights in Guatemala, Violencia La Violencia. Such was the climate of of an army base in Panzós would violate y Genocidio en Guatemala, and Guate- injustice during the internal armed con- the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous mala: Del Genocidio al Feminicidio. She flict (1964-1996) that led to genocide, and Tribal Peoples, which establishes the is currently writing Journey through the (1980-1982) and ultimately to the raz- obligation of the state to consult with in- Land of Pale Hands: Feminicide, Social ing of 626 indigenous villages, leaving digenous peoples on decisions that affect Cleansing and Impunity in Guatemala. 200,000 people dead or disappeared. their development and territory. Further, As I watched María Maquín speak in it would violate Article 30 of the UN The entire Panzós presentation is Q’eqchi’ and then listened to Bernardo’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous available for screening at http://www. translation in Spanish, I thought of the Peoples, which states: “Military activities ustream.tv/channel/panzos-guatemala.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 19 guatemala: legacies of violence

Telling the Story

A Journey Back to Guatemala By Emily Callier Sanders

When we finally pull into San Lucas Kakchiquel Maya, who have resided in used, especially by those who cannot af- Tolimán, after a winding drive through the region for centuries, make up nearly ford to pay for treatment. the Guatemalan highlands, I immedi- 90 percent of the population. Religion, including both Catholicism ately notice the kids. Two small boys This picturesque landscape was the and evangelical movements, is another giggle as they roll motorbike tires down site of some of the bloodiest atrocities source of comfort. It is difficult to talk the road. A gaggle of schoolgirls in tradi- committed during la violencia—the civil about San Lucas without mentioning tional fabrics walk linked arm-in-arm. A war in Guatemala that spanned over the San Lucas Mission. Founded by the young girl holds an apple-cheeked baby. three decades. During this period, a vast- Franciscan order of the Catholic Church Boys play soccer in the dust of an aban- ly outnumbered guerilla force clashed in 1584, the Mission is part of a long- doned store. with the military, which waged a bloody standing Catholic tradition dating back The children exude happiness every- campaign against suspected “communist to Friar Bartolomé de las Casas, who where. They are a testimony that life can subversives.” The indigenous peoples of convinced the Spanish king to legally be beautiful, even in the poorest settings. Guatemala, the objects of discrimination recognize Mayans as Spanish citizens But under the surface, it only takes a by the Spanish-descendant elite for cen- and condemn mass slaughter. Much of scratch or two to uncover a sad history turies, were easy targets. the success of the church in Guatemala here. And it’s a bloody one. At war’s end, around 200,000 people is attributed to its work in social justice, I spent my own childhood in Guatema- (more than 80% of them Maya) had been incorporating traditional Maya beliefs la City, a USAID (United States Agency for killed, many in mass executions. Thou- and practices and providing education International Development) “brat.” I was sands more disappeared. The area sur- in indigenous languages. Father Greg totally unaware of the country’s history— rounding Lake Atitlán was particularly Schaffer, a diocesan priest from Min- even though it was then a daily reality for hard hit. Encarnación “Chona” Ajcot, a nesota, has led the San Lucas Mission other children. I lived a carefree life, fairly Kakchiquel Mayan from San Lucas, re- since 1962. oblivious to the violence—the last four calls that guerrillas fighting against gov- Today Fr. Greg continues this humani- years of a bloody war—just outside the ernment soldiers would come into San tarian tradition through his commitment spike-covered metal gate that surrounded Lucas offering money, houses and land to to liberation theology, a school of thought our home. And so, 14 years later, I decided entice the Maya into joining them. “In- within Catholicism that defines the mis- to return to my adopted homeland in an stead of finding these things,” Chona told sion of the Church as bringing justice to attempt to learn about the “real” Guate- me, “the people found death.” the poor and oppressed (Preferential Op- mala I was shielded from as a child. It is the women who keep things going tion for the Poor). My task at hand was to conduct a needs in San Lucas, and the women who suffer “Fr. Greg helps people in need, re- assessment in San Lucas Tolimán as part the most. You can see it in Chona’s face gardless of their culture, race, sex, or of a practicum for my master’s degree in and the faces of countless other women, religion,” says Chona, who has worked Public Health at Harvard. I wanted to young and old. My interviews reveal that with him for decades. In 2007, he was learn about the causes and experiences the only outlet for expressing their dis- awarded the Order of the Quetzal, the of mental distress in the community and tress is physical: what is known here as highest award bestowed by the Guate- what existing resources can be used to “an attack of the nerves.” malan president, for his commitment to help ease suffering. Perhaps more impor- An “attack” happens when worry, sad- the poor of San Lucas. tantly, however, I wanted to learn about ness or fright—often specters of extreme When Fr. Greg arrived, San Lucas and to tell the story of la violencia. poverty—weaken the nervous system, was the poorest city in Guatemala. Land Nestled at the foot of the Tolimán causing aches and pains and sometimes ownership was highly concentrated; only volcano on the shores of Lake Atit- even diabetes and stroke. Treatments for two percent of the population was liter- lán, arguably the most beautiful lake “nerves” range from Tylenol to locally ate. Over the years, he purchased land in the world, San Lucas is a bustling manufactured “neurotropics”—vitamins from plantation owners and returned it town of roughly 15,000 people, sur- that are either injected or taken orally to to the people. In Maya culture, land is rounded by 22 small rural communities “calm the nerves” and build immunity. identity and corn is everything. To them, that are home to another 20,000. The Traditional herbal remedies are widely corn grown on your own land is thought

20 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 Clockwise from top: a wooden pier leads to the lake; a local family poses in the doorway; a group of children in traditional dress beam at the camera; a community health worker explains with a simple poster how malnutrition causes other types of sickness; a cross marks the memory of those lost to violence.

photos by Emily Callier sanders drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 21 guatemala: legacies of violence

to taste better and be better for you. Stan was conducting mass with several with major earthquakes and mudslides. “Without tortillas we die,” says Chona. nuns from his parish when he spotted the Narcotrafficking and gang violence, as Since the 1960s, literacy levels in San military approaching. He told the nuns well as high rates of alcoholism and do- Lucas have risen to 85 percent; parish to go into his room and lock the door. mestic violence, now plague Guatemala. scholarships have enabled many Maya As they hid, the nuns witnessed mili- In San Lucas, young gang members loi- children to pursue studies at universities tary troops beat Fr. Stan and shoot him ter by the lakefront at night. I’m told it’s and technical schools. in the head. “In that time you couldn’t unsafe to venture out after 9 p.m. One of these children was Dr. Mar- help poor people, the Maya, because the Here, as Fr. Bill notes, they live the cos Tun, the head of the parish clinic for military would accuse you of being part mantra “keep your eyes on the sky.” the last 12 years. The first in his family of the guerrillas,” says Chona. “One has to think about the good, the to achieve an education of any kind, Dr. Liberation theology, which incor- beautiful in life and not about the diffi- Tun returned to San Lucas after com- porates Paulo Freire’s ‘concientization,’ cult things,” Chona tells me later. pleting his medical training, despite “was perceived as communist,” Fr. Greg The total destruction of social capi- offers to earn a much higher salary at tells me afterwards. “Our own govern- tal is one of the lasting legacies of la vio- a hospital in the city. “I wanted to give ment vouched that this was an attempt lencia. People were displaced, neighbor back to my community,” he tells me. As at communist takeover.” The mission betrayed neighbor, and a generation was a local, “I know the community and so was constantly under surveillance with slaughtered. Now, trust is hard won in that helps me be able to find the best sermons monitored daily for any sign of this community. Few people feel com- treatment for patients,” he says. Howev- subversion. fortable sharing their more intimate sor- er, this also comes with “responsibility: Fr. Greg and Chona were committed rows and fears. because I know a patient can’t afford the to helping people from the community Still, there are those who want, and medicine he needs I have to find a solu- accused by the military of being “sub- need, to tell their stories. tion. I can’t just assume they’ll work it versives.” They would hide and smuggle Chona begins to weep after recounting out on their own.” people out of the region, including young the death of her husband. “We’ve covered Despite these success stories, howev- orphans. enough,” Fr. Bill explains to the audience, er, the big picture is less than rosy. Today Chona’s husband worked at the par- himself overcome with emotion. “There Guatemala has the highest malnutrition ish, helping arrange land titles for com- are too many memories here.” rate in the western hemisphere (higher munity members. On December 1, 1981, But Chona begins telling another than Haiti, even) and poverty and so- a day she remembers as if it were yester- story, about smuggling orphans out of cioeconomic disparities have remained day, he disappeared. On his way to the Quiche. When she pauses to wipe her unchanged. city of Sololá to deal with paperwork, he eyes, Fr. Bill gently urges: “We can stop. As a guest at the parish for a month, was captured by the military. “We don’t It’s very difficult.” “No,” Chona replies. “I I eat humble meals in the company of know how they killed him or what they want to tell the story, how it was.” a seemingly unending influx of volun- did with the body,” Chona says. So much has changed in the last de- teer groups from the United States who During the next year she and her cade in Guatemala. Little by little the spend a week working side-by-side with three young children moved from house stories emerge, and the injustices are the locals on various hard-labor proj- to house, staying with different relatives brought to light. Yet the small children I ects. It is heartening to see their cross- and friends for their own safety. see laughing and playing on the church cultural interactions, but I can’t help The nights, she says, were the hardest. steps still face an uphill battle in a country but wonder: why aren’t there any Gua- “At night we were frightened, very fright- that wants to forget their existence. In- temalan volunteers? ened…the soldiers would come to your digenous Guatemalans like Chona share Today I am lucky enough to have house to find you and kill you…always at the brave task of retelling the terror they stumbled upon an impromptu talk on the night.” faced during la violencia, but the same history of San Lucas by Chona and Father “I am just one of many women, wives, question remains: who will listen? Bill Sprigler, another Minnesotan priest mothers and grandmothers who suf- returning to San Lucas for the first time fered,” says Chona. “Those were very dif- Emily Sanders completed her Master since 1989. The talk quickly turns to la ficult times.” of Science at Harvard School of Pub- violencia. Chona lived la violencia; Father It is hard to calculate the toll of la lic Health. She has lived and worked Bill experienced it in pieces. violencia in San Lucas. To give you some throughout Latin America and is inter- Chona’s story begins in 1981 with the idea, all but three of the first graduating ested in health sector reform. She trav- assassination of Father Stan Rother, a class of the parish school—around 20 eled to Guatemala in July 2009 with a U.S. priest and good friend living in the students—were executed. DRCLAS summer research travel grant. nearby town of Santiago de Atitlán. Fr. The violence and tragedy continue Contact: [email protected].

22 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 indigenous lives

Indigenous people are a majority in Guatemala, but they have been subject to racism, discrimination and even genocide. The 1996 Peace Accords recognized Guatemala as a “multicultural, pluri-ethnic and multilingual” nation. Much has been accomplished in terms of preservation of language and identity, but many challenges still lie ahead.

n Indigenous Rights and the Peace Process 24 n A Tale of Structural Racism 27 n Maya Weaving Heritage 30 n An Ixchel Museum Educational Program 32 n Researching Mayan Languages in Guatemala 34

artistphoto courtesycredit name of andixchel url museum photo archive drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 23 guatemala: legacies of violence

Indigenous Rights and the Peace Process

Beyond Cosmetic Multiculturalism By Santiago Bastos

The Guatemalan government and the guerilla umbrella group persistence, solidity and moral security is especially impressive. URNG (Guatemala National Revolutionary Unity) signed the Columns of peasant men and women symbolically took over long-awaited Acuerdo de Identidad y Derechos de los Pueblos the center of the capital city. They took on the responsibility of Indígenas (Accord on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peo- critiquing Guatemala’s new “democracy.” They questioned the ples) in March 1995. Fellow anthropologist Manuela Camus assumptions of a Guatemalan nation based on the negation and and I were just finishing research on the actions and demands exploitation of more than half of its population. This question- of Maya organizations in the context of the country’s incipient ing is precisely what the Army hoped to nip in the bud through “democracy” and the peace process. As a result, we got to see its massacres. first-hand the surprise and illusions that the text aroused, and As we read and learned about the process of organization the the possibilities it opened for the rights and opportunities Ma- indigenous people had been engaged in for decades, it began to yas had been seeking. become apparent that not only had the Army wanted to wipe The Accord was no gift. It came about in response to the out the indigenous communities as allies of the guerrillas, but struggles engaged in by organized indigenous groups over a that it wanted to put an end to something more profound and long period of time. much more threatening. The army feared that the indigenous When Manuela and I first arrived in Guatemala in 1987, population could begin to seriously question the foundations we were struck by the fact that in a country that had “recuper- of the country’s social structure. And now they were doing just ated its democracy,” indigenous people were not officially rec- that, demanding that they be taken into account, that they be ognized—except perhaps as a tourist attraction. We found the considered first-class citizens in a distinct manner from other socio-political organizations of these same indigenous people citizens. They insisted that they be considered as a People, the (officially considered inexistent) sought to establish that they Maya People, and demanded rights that they had been denied had been the targeted subjects of repression (also officially con- since the beginning of European domination. sidered inexistent). In 1991, the Consejo de Organizaciones Mayas de Guate- In 1992, we began to analyze this mobilization, which had mala had published the “Specific Rights of the Maya People” gained even more steam in the context of the 500 Years of Re- which demanded bilingual education, officialization of Mayan sistance Campaign and the utopian enterprise of awarding the languages, and regional autonomy. Demetrio Cojtí—one of the Nobel Prize to Rigoberta Menchú—a woman, an indigenous person, a peasant. Guatemalan indigenous organizations were demanding more and more forcefully that they be recognized as The Maya People, and, as such, that they had the right to par- Indigenous activists have confronted ticipate in the peace negotiations between the Guatemalan gov- ernment and the URNG. With the negotiations, the fact that civilian and military authorities both there had been an armed conflict was finally being recognized, physically and politically—critiquing and the situation of the indigenous people was one of the “sub- stantive” themes that had to be discussed and resolved. But the Guatemala’s new democracy. indigenous people did not consider this discussion adequate. “We want to be present in this discussion. None of the parties represent us; they are not Mayas.” Mayan intellectuals who wrote the document—justified the de- We could not forget how these same people had so recently mands by explaining, “These are the same rights that ladinos experienced so much death and destruction. These indigenous [non-indigenous or mixed-race Guatemalans] have enjoyed peoples had been the objects of the greatest and most system- for years and that we wish for our own culture.” In invoking atic massacre committed by a Latin American army in the 20th the word “people” in the Accord, the Consejo was underlining century, with 150,000 Guatemalans killed after little more than the Spanish use of the word (“pueblo”) which means a collective a year of Efraín Ríos Montt’s “scorched earth” campaigns. body that shares a history and culture and thus merits official Over the years, indigenous activists have confronted civil- recognition and political sovereignty. ian and military authorities both physically and politically. In The Accord on Identity offered the possibility that Mayans the context of Guatemala’s history of repression, the Mayans’ (along with the Xinca and Garífuna) could leave behind subal-

24 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 section header

Indigenous women are in the forefront of street protests.

ternity and develop their own identity, while being recognized on Identity, was repeatedly delayed. When it was finally held on as part of what was now defined as a “multicultural, pluri-ethnic May 16, 1999, fierce racist and fear-driven campaigns against and multilingual” Guatemalan nation. But it did not mention reform had begun to dominate the national scene. The enthu- the autonomy, the “Specific Rights of the Maya People” they had siasm of the Mayan organizations did not manage to fill the demanded. Autonomy aroused fears and frictions among ladi- breach that separated the peace process from the dynamics of nos, though no one quite understood what it meant. Nor did the majority of the population: only 18% of Guatemalans voted. the Accord deal with the question of more just distribution of Slightly more than half of them voted against the constitutional the land or the effects of the repression on the indigenous com- reforms. With the arrival of General Efraín Ríos Montt’s reac- munities. “It is not everything,” a Mayan leader commented. “It tionary Guatemalan Republican Front to power at the end of is a good beginning. Now that we have recognition as a People, 1999, all illusions of peace and unity vanished. we can fight for everything else.” In the new period of “post-conflict normalization” which fol- And they fought. During the following four years, organized lowed, the Guatemalan government became more concerned Mayas applied all their energies to achieving the possibilities with finding a place in the global neoliberal economy than with contained in the Accord. In 1994, leaders and activists of all the reconstruction of the Guatemalan society and nation. The sorts of political tendencies, men and women of different gen- Maya people became distressed at the dashing of their expecta- erations and people from all social classes joined together in the tions. In 2000, COPMAGUA disbanded. When Manuela and I Coordination of Organizations of the Maya People of Guatema- returned to the theme of indigenous rights in 2001, there was la (COPMAGUA). Mayas with ties to the URNG who returned a sense of incomprehension in the atmosphere, as if it were the from exile or emerged from clandestinity joined with those in- end of an era, filled with uncertainty about the future. What digenous activists who were already working in Guatemala City. we termed cosmetic multiculturalism was taking shape—a con- Regional and local leaders who had made the mobilizations of struct that has since shaped Guatemalan government policy previous years possible also joined forces. and actions. On the surface, it seems that the transformation These were the golden years of Mayan politics. Mayan orga- of the Guatemalan state is advancing. Subsequent governments nizations had reached sought-after unity and were negotiating have appointed Mayan figures to important positions, among directly with the Guatemalan state, with international recogni- them Culture Minister, General Director of Bilingual Educa- tion and support. It seemed that the historical subordination tion, and Secretary of Peace. Specific spaces for themes raised and exclusion of the indigenous communities in Guatemala was by indigenous activists—usually Mayas—have been opened— being done away with. the Academy of Mayan Languages, the Fund of Indigenous However, things didn’t happen that way. The referendum Development, the Defense Council for Indigenous Women, the (Consulta Popular), needed to approve the constitutional Presidential Commission Against Discrimination and Racism, changes that arose from the Peace Accords such as the Accord and the multitude of small offices within ministries that make

photos by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 25 guatemala: legacies of violence

The Mayas are once again showing their capacity for pressure and protest.

up the Indigenous State Coordinator. indigenous problem was resolved.” The more radical and ques- Nevertheless, things are not so simple. Year after year, re- tioning demands of the accord were forgotten. Further, the ports indicate that the Accord on Identity has been the accord state appropriated the capacity to define who was or was not with the least of its stipulations fulfilled. The involvement of “Maya,” using the definition for its own benefit—it did not apply Mayan institutions in the state represent “institutional incrus- the concept of “indigenous peoples” or the rights obtained from tations” dependent upon international cooperation “in a state this status beyond the “politics of recognition.” that “thinks mono-ethnically”, as Demetrio Cojtí observed af- Instead of reducing the historical breach between the poor ter serving as Vice-Minister de Education for four years. “The and rich, Guatemala’s new neoliberal policies have led to an Maya issue” is no longer on the table, having been resolved increase in inequality. Guatemalans, especially the Maya, have through the existence of these offices, with the use of multicul- been forced to enter into the international migratory circles in order to survive. When Mayans seize farmland that had previ- ously belonged to them; when they protest against the mining companies that have destroyed their landscapes, their property Year after year, reports indicate that the and even their lives; when they protest against having their wal- Accord on Identity has been the accord lets emptied by transnational electricity companies, they are not considered Mayas with a millenary culture, like the few who with the least of its stipulations fulfilled. hold government posts but rather “peasants” or sometimes even “terrorists.” Their protests against the marginalization they face in the global economy are criminalized. They suffer from a re- tural terminology such as “interculturality,” “cosmovision” and pression that has certainly not disappeared—even if the armed “multilinguism,” and with the ubiquitous Mayan ceremonies in conflict has. which presidents and other officials continually participate. The actors that put all their effort in ending the conflict and Almost all the activists and leaders who had been in COPM- its causes have become obsolete as protagonists, subsumed in AGUA took up government posts. Maya politics were now be- marginality. The creole oligarchs have returned to power af- ing exercised from within the state itself and international or- ter the armed conflict, even under “social democratic” parties. ganizations rather than from indigenous organizations. Maya Uninterested in resolving the socioeconomic problems of the activists were transformed into public policy managers. Those country’s majority population and even less in the fact that rac- who had seen the Accord on Identity and Rights of Indigenous ism is a defining factor in the society, they have supported neo- Peoples as a “good foundation” had to join the government so liberal ideologies that approve of their form of understanding that this good foundation could be laid. Once the foundation the relation between politics and economy. They play the card had been instated, however, the state closed the matter—“the of indigenous rights as a way of stemming off further conflict:

26 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre indigenous lives

instead of violence, neutralization. Moreover, the issue of indigenous rights served to drum up Flight 795 international support. It is paradoxical that in the United Na- tions, Guatemala supports the new Declaration on the Rights A Tale of Structural Racism of Indigenous Peoples, while in the country itself, bilingual education takes up only 5% of the Education Ministry’s declin- By Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj ing budget. The international stance also contrasts with the fact that the right to hold referendums, spelled out explicitly in Agreement 169, which was ratified more than ten years ago, has consistently been denied by the Guatemalan government to the Guatemala today faces a lack of progress in fighting the com- communities that have asked for legal validation for the consul- plex racial oppression occurring daily. The small country has tations they have held on open-pit mining in their territory. failed to confront the longstanding racism that contributes In the face of this situation, the Mayas are once again show- to the continuing disenfranchisement and poverty of the ing their capacity for pressure and protest. But it is very dif- country’s indigenous population, 75 percent of which lives ficult to mount a resistance, perhaps even more so than before below the poverty line. This is a worrisome phenomenon the Accord. Neoliberal policies are doing away with many of the for a country in which more than half of its estimated 13 possibilities for collective action. And the shadow of the conflict million people is indigenous. The significant steps taken to is seen much more clearly than ten years ago, when we believed alleviate these problems are, without a doubt, those pushed that we had won. Communities are disarticulated; a complete for by the indigenous peoples themselves. Despite constant generation of leaders is missing, and those who remain are in- racist attempts to annul indigenous people’s dignity, treat volved on a national level, neglecting their local communities. them as second-class citizens, increasingly deprive them What has been achieved is that now everyone talks about in- of their territory, and subject them to severe ideological, digenous rights and Mayan culture, but there is not a narrative material, and institutional pressures, indigenous groups that justifies those who fought against inequality and racism. have not ceased their ongoing demands to maintain and Indeed, demands for social justice are continually met by re- reproduce their cultural identity. Yet racism continues to pression, renewing the idea that the status quo can never be manifest itself in negations of cultural identity that some changed. Leaders, once they assume roles in the state, often be- might even consider trivial. come separated from the population; the lack of votes for presi- As a K’iche’ anthropologist and journalist I have been dential candidate and Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú is one able to document and analyze the few steps taken to fight example of how indigenous leaders in the national government racism and the complexities of moving forward at a na- fail to maintain a grassroots base. tional level. I see Mayan dress, for example, as a validation However, popular protests against mining companies, ce- of our cultural identity and I have fought and won court ment firms, agro-industry and other projects shows that the in- battles to wear that clothing on all occasions, and yet in- digenous people are keeping up the struggle for their rights be- digenous people are excluded from some restaurants and yond those granted by the government. By taking to the streets, other public venues because of their clothing (although of- indigenous activists are insisting on more than cosmetic mul- ten other reasons are invented). ticulturalism; they are seriously questioning the foundations My experience shows me that Guatemala is not the only of the country’s social structure and the socioeconomic rights country lagging in the struggle against racism, however; from which they have been historically excluded. nearly all of Central America has issues with racism. For ex- ample, on March 31, 2010, I sent a letter of complaint to the Santiago Bastos is a Spanish anthropologist who lived in chairman of Copa Airlines, Pedro Heilbron, alleging racial Guatemala since 1988, dedicating himself to research on discrimination against indigenous passengers. This com- diverse aspects of the life of indigenous Mayas—from their plaint was based on a personal experience of mine on March subsistence in cities to political mobilizations and changes in 15, when I took flight 105 from Guatemala to Panama and concepts of identity. He has lived and worked in Guadalajara, flight 795 from Panama to Costa Rica. On flight 105, I was México, since 2008. He has recently edited a volume with Rod- upgraded to first class and assigned to seat 4A: as soon as I dy Brett, El movimiento maya en la década después de la paz, arrived in Panama, the airline’s assistant handed me my new 1997-2007 (F &G Editores, 2010). Other books, all co-authored boarding pass, again first class, seat 3F. with Manuela Camus, include Quebrando el silencio: Las I was the first person to board flight 795, and by the end of organizaciones del Pueblo Maya y sus demandas, 1986-1992 the boarding process two men and I were the only ones sitting (1993), Abriendo caminos: Las organizaciones mayas desde el in first class. The airline began upgrading passengers who Nobel a la Paz (1995), Entre el Mecapal y el cielo: Desarrollo were in economy class, all men. About two minutes before del movimiento maya en Guatemala (2003). shutting the door, the woman who gave me my boarding pass

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 27 guatemala: legacies of violence

at the counter approached me and asked ciety has decided we should not be in. Peoples, the International Convention me to move to economy class because my When the airline issued the boarding on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial seat belonged to a late-arriving passenger. pass, my last name, Velásquez, told them Discrimination, the Convention on the I replied that I had my seat assignment nothing about my racial identity. Howev- Elimination of all Forms of Discrimina- since the moment I arrived and asked why er, when they saw me with my Indian gar- tion against Women (specifically the ar- they wanted to move me and not someone ment, it was decided to force me to cede ticles that are applicable to the rights of from the group that received an upgrade? my first class seat to a white executive indigenous women) and other human She replied that the captain’s orders were wearing a Western suit, despite the fact rights international instruments guaran- to move me in favor of the man who had that I was the first to board the flight. For teeing the right to indigenous men and arrived late. the airline and its employees, the norm women to live, speak and move freely in She left and a steward from the air- is that white executives, not indigenous any public or private space. line came over with the passenger who women like me, should occupy spaces like I expressed my outrage because, in arrived late. As they both stood in front first class seats. It is how the racial hierar- my experience, this company does not of me, the Copa employee told me to chy operates in most institutions. respect indigenous peoples. Instead, the move by order of the captain since that seat had been allocated to a passenger who arrived late. The flight was already delayed but I asked him to go and tell the This is how racism operates, affecting those of us who captain, since these were apparently his are indigenous and who suddenly occupy spaces that orders, to come over and tell me himself to change seats. He replied that was not society has decided we should not be in. possible because the cabin door was al- ready closed. I had two options: I could not get up My complaint to Copa’s chairman stat- company exposed itself as an institution and further delay the flight, or I could ed how the airline had violated my rights that lacks a policy of ethnic neutrality move and make this claim and public de- by racially discriminating against me for and racial respect towards all paying pas- nunciation. I chose to get up, and moved dressing as a Mayan woman. I explained sengers, indigenous or otherwise, who to a seat in economy class. It was clear to to him that the racist actions of the em- use the airline’s services. me that they decided to move me because ployees violated Convention 169 of the In the letter I stated the following I am an indigenous woman and I travel International Labor Organization (ILO— questions: “What makes us, as indig- wearing my traditional dress, my every- the highest legal body at world-wide level enous people, different from other men day outfit. This is how racism operates, in the matter of the rights of indigenous and women? Are not we entitled to the affecting those of us who are indigenous peoples), as well as the United Nations same services? Why do we need to stand and who suddenly occupy spaces that so- Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous these public violations, which are offen- sive and demeaning, and hurt our dignity and our lives as human beings? Where do equality, professionalism, and good customer service stand for indigenous peoples? Or is it that these elements do not apply to the indigenous population?” Moreover, I expressed my outrage at “the grossest level of ignorance of both the flight captain and desk attendants, who do not know the racial diversity of the population they must serve in Latin America, home to over 30 million indig- enous people, not including people of African descent. If Copa Airlines prac- ticed a policy of racial equality, it would not foment an atmosphere of racial dis- crimination that began with the captain of the aircraft and ended with the desk A Maya professional engages in a lively discussion. attendants and stewards responsible for

28 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre indigenous lives

attending to the passengers. This compa- ny should review seriously and with hu- mility, their conditions of service if they do not want to end up in court facing a racial discrimination suit. It is irreconcil- able for Copa to use indigenous peoples in their publications to promote their company, but outside of the public eye to humiliate us, the same way I was humili- ated by its staff. This act of self-reflection includes the captain who should be the first to analyze the consequences of tak- ing the seat away from an indigenous woman to give it to a man. How does one name this act? It is not only racism, but also a deeply sexist act.” On May 4, I received by email, through Diana Mizrachi Koper, the response of Copa chairman Pedro Heilbron. In the response, Heilbron expressed his concern regarding my letter, “where you complain of discrimination in a Copa Airlines flight, due to a change of seats inside the aircraft. I have ordered a thorough investigation of what happened, so I can review the rea- sons that caused this change and give a satisfactory answer to your complaint.” He added, “Copa is a multicultural company, which respects all races, creeds, genders, and human and political orien- tations. Our success lies partly in our hu- man diversity and we recognize that this is one of the principal assets of the region where we live. Therefore, not only do we not discriminate, instead we promote and celebrate the inclusion [sic] and the success of all people. These are personal values of mine, in both parenting and life, and which I assure you are shared across the company.” A blue-eyed non-Maya model is used to display traditional indigenous dress in the market. In his letter he also stated: “until we investigate and I receive a report on what tion report that Mr. Heilbron offered me, dilute, confuse and deny racism and its happened, I will not know the reasons on June 22, I sent a new email to Koper, everyday acts of oppression. behind the events. Nevertheless, I as- with copies to several Guatemalan law- sure you I do not believe that a case of yers who have taken several cases involv- Irma A. Velásquez Nimatuj is executive discrimination was the cause, since in my ing racial discrimination to court. How- director of the organization, Mecanismo 22 years with the company this has not ever, at the time of the writing of this de Apoyo a los Pueblos Indígenas (Sup- happened. But I assure you that if any- article, I still have not received a response port Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples). one in the company acted improperly, to the questions raised in my letter and it She received her Ph.D. from the Univer- you will be the first to know as we take is possible I never will. This leads me to sity of Texas at Austin, She is author of the necessary measures to correct this.” conclude that in a globalized world, “cel- La pequeña burguesía indígena com- (my translation). ebratory,” neoliberal multiculturalism, ercial de Guatemala: desigualdades de As I have not received the investiga- although slowly dying, still attempts to clase, raza y género (AVANCSO, 2002).

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 29 guatemala: legacies of violence

Maya Weaving Heritage

Conserving a Way of Life by Holly Nottebohm

Guatemala’s brilliantly colored textile flies, animals, geometric forms. tion of a large, textile-specific building, tradition is one of the important threads These stunning weavings inspired the Ixchel Museum moved into its new that has united Maya civilization a committee of the Tikal Association, a building on the campus of the Francisco throughout its long history. Weavings for non-profit created to support the archae- Marroquín University. The museum is both ceremonial and everyday use con- ological site of Tikal, to document and apolitical, non-profit and independent tinue to be important to Maya culture, conserve this textile tradition. At that and it supports itself which, at times, is society and ethnic identity. time, in the early 1970s, each village had no easy thing. Unlike Tikal’s temples and the beau- its own costumes for daily wear and for That is where my work comes in. As a tiful painted classic Maya pottery one ceremonial occasions but no one outside member of the Board of Directors I enjoy sees in museums, Maya textiles did not the area knew which huipil, or blouse, overseeing the research and fundraising survive the Pre-Columbian era. They went with which skirt and on which oc- for research grants and donations. Our were too fragile for the humidity of the casion they were worn. To create a re- friends and local companies have been lowlands and the dampness of the tombs. cord, artist Carmen Pettersen painted generous in supporting us, given that Yet painted images from the past show exact watercolors of the costumes; her there is much need in Guatemala. For the beginnings of the Maya textile work Norwegian husband, Leon Lind Pet- years I was also on the board of Friends and ceramic figurines depict Maya wom- tersen, published the paintings and gave of the Ixchel Museum, an American foun- en weaving with backstrap looms in the the book to the textile committee to raise dation that funds the museum as well as same manner that women work today. funds for a museum. In 1976 the Ixchel exhibiting and promoting Guatemalan Today the Maya, who make up over Museum of Indigenous Dress opened textiles in the United States. half the population of Guatemala, are still in a rented house in the hotel district of Today, the Ixchel Museum has a col- weaving and some are still wearing their Guatemala City. lection of over 6,000 woven pieces of traditional dress. The colorful blouses, And, in 1993, after consulting exten- Maya clothing from more than 115 weav- skirts, belts, hair ribbons and ceremonial sively with textile curators at the Metro- ing villages. The pieces date from the last cloths have myriad designs in brocade, politan Museum of New York and after days of the 19th century and the begin- embroidery and jaspé—birds and butter- years of fundraising for the construc- ning of the 20th century to the present.

30 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo above courtesy of ixchel museum photo archive; above right, photo by holly nottebohm indigenous lives

Children from Santiago Sacatepéquez and Mixco came to the Ixchel museum to exhibit their weavings. Most no longer wear indigenous dress, but are learning to appreciate their Maya heritage by weaving.

The oldest surviving textiles are made traditional dress as well. In Sumpango no longer feel bound by the constraints of hand-spun cotton, silk, and wool, dyed no one wears traditional clothes, and of their parents and their own villages. with natural dyes, and are very fragile. in Santiago Sacatepéquez there are no They are reaching out to borrow what Years ago villages were isolated, and weavers left. they like from weavers far away. Thus, for traditions of weaving the same designs It can take months to weave a huipil, scholars and for the Maya themselves, it continued for generations in each town. and there are jobs in factories that pay far is important to conserve, document and The women in a village all wore the same more. The bundles of clothes that arrive make available to weavers and scholars costume and daughters wore what their from the United States with jeans and the finest pieces of this age old tradition. mothers wore; the men also had their T-shirts make non-indigenous clothes The Ixchel Museum exhibits the own attire. cheaper. The modern way of life seems to weavings, funds extensive field research Today, however, with bright synthetic be leaving weaving behind! and photography by staff and associated threads and synthetic dyes, with glitter- ing metallic threads, with paved roads and buses careening between formerly isolated villages, the traditional dress of The Ixchel Museum in Guatemala City has a collection the Maya has been changing with great of more than 6,000 woven pieces of Maya clothing rapidity and, in some cases, disappear- ing entirely. from more than 115 weaving villages. Santa Catarina Palopó, on the shores of Lake Atitlán, changed its huipil colors from red to turquoise in the 1970’s. Now However, weaving remains a way of anthropologists, and publishes schol- the neighboring village of San Antonio life for many Maya and, even as weaving arly monographs on weaving towns. The Palopó, long known for its bright red patterns and colors change with fashion, museum has published eight technical textiles, is also weaving in turquoise. San many continue to wear spectacular tex- monographs, five catalogues, and twenty Juan Atitán is changing the colors of its tiles, but in a new way: young women information sheets on weaving towns,

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 31 guatemala: legacies of violence

as well as children’s books in Span- ish and two indigenous languages, children’s workbooks, and CDs of art projects. The museum also has a large photo archive and a textile library. Reaching out to the community, the museum has a support program to buy the work of the more than 200 weavers who weave with natural brown cotton. It also has an educa- tion program in the city and in rural communities to teach 5th graders the value and beauty of their weaving her- itage and raise their self-esteem. The Ixchel Museum has won the highest civilian awards in Guatemala as well as the Premio Reina Sofia from Spain. It has received many grants for its conservation, research, and educa- tion programs. When the museum is alive with school children who are learning about the textile tradition, trying on Revitalizing Mayan Textiles costumes and making small weav- ings, when a bus of tourists comes in An Ixchel Museum Educational Program and spends much needed money in the museum store, when a research by Fabiana Flores Maselli monograph is presented at last after years of work, when the weavers come in to bring their work—it is exciting to be part of it all. What satisfaction could be greater than ditional indigenous garments, but also All of us who have worked with the joy of sharing the completion of one’s because of new materials, designs, and the museum feel it is very important first weaving? None! This pleasure is even technology. And today, even men weave. to make young Guatemalans proud greater when the weaver is a young boy The way of transmitting this ancestral of their extraordinary weaving heri- or girl, facing for the first time the chal- knowledge is slowly being lost, however. tage. A struggling, developing coun- lenge of knowing when to tighten, loosen Mothers would rather have their daugh- try wants above all to modernize and or stop; when to breathe deeply and dis- ters go to school and study some modern leave the past behind, but when there entangle some threads on the verge of profession, leaving the looms, stored away is an absolutely beautiful weaving becoming a knot. Through maturity and and triste (sad, as the grandmothers say heritage that is disappearing, it is vi- experience, expert weavers handle these when a loom is not being used). When tal that tradition be valued and saved. situations easily enough, not only in weav- they say triste, they mean the empty space ing but in life as well. Much of living can that not weaving leaves, because through Holly Nottebohm ’62 has lived in be learned through weaving! weaving they teach values as well as ways Guatemala since 1963, and has For more than 2,000 years, the com- of thinking and feeling. Working the back- worked much of that time with the munities in the highlands of Guatemala strap loom seems to them to reaffirm the Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Dress. have passed down orally the tradition of identity of the Maya people, relive their She edited “Radcliffe in Latin Ameri- weaving from generation to generation. culture, and maintain in the present the ca” about alumnae in Latin America In the Maya villages of Mesoamerica, ancient language of the weavings. for ten years, was one of the founders weaving was a feminine activity associ- For more than 35 years, all this rich- of the Harvard Club of Guatemala, ated with fertility; fertility and weaving ness has been studied in the textiles in and was the Latin American Rep- even shared a goddess, Ixchel. Today, the the collection of the Ixchel Museum, resentative to the Harvard Alumni craft of weaving has changed a lot, not where more than 3,000 pieces speak to Association. only when it comes to the use of the tra- us of the daily life, rituals and other as-

32 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos courtesy of ixchel museum photo archive indigenous lives

pects of the Maya culture. We have been entrusted with disseminating this cultur- al knowledge, and our work is shown in the permanent, temporary, traveling, and interactive exhibitions of the museum. Because of the urgency caused by the growing loss of ancestral knowledge and thus of identity, we sought a more direct way to return this cultural heritage to the communities in which it originated. As a result, in 2002, a grant from the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) al- lowed us to launch the Textile Tradition Revitalization Program. Giving priority to the high plateau communities where the textile tradition is seen as being at high risk, the idea is to set up a system of Children learn about traditional textiles through the museum programs. apprenticeship for the craft and to incor- porate knowledge about weaving textiles visits to the Ixchel Museum in Guate- erational bridges, it has fortified the iden- into the national education system. With mala City and maintaining direct contact tities of children, their families, and their a focus on teaching, this approach frames with a master weaver in the area. This teachers, and above all, it has managed to weaving in terms of national cultural experience is complemented by dynamic present weavings as transcending purely patrimony and sets it up as an important discussion workshops, awareness and economic importance and approaching a matter in the diversity of Guatemalan so- sensitization, all to achieve the apprecia- dimension that is human, aesthetic, and ciety. Groups of children between 11 and tion of Maya culture through the weaving cultural. The representation of all this is 13 years of age learn about textile weav- tradition and specifically through textiles the last exhibit in the galleries of the mu- ing, with instruction adapted as needed as works of art. seum, where participants in the program for each community. With the constant Nine years later, the Revitalization Pro- created each textile on display. support of the museum, teachers have gram has become enormously enriched committed themselves to following stu- with the contributions of each community Fabiana Flores Maselli is the Educa- dents for the length of the school year, in which it takes place. The results are pal- tion Director of the Museo Ixchel del using select teaching materials, making pable. The program has reestablished gen- Traje Indígena in Guatemala City.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 33 guatemala: legacies of violence

Researching Mayan Languages

One Fieldworker’s Experiences By Adam Singerman

I was walking back to my hostel in vendor in San Cristóbal Verapaz San Cristóbal Verapaz, Guatema- started to teach his Spanish- la. Following a morning of class- speaking grandson to address es in the Poqomchi’ Mayan lan- passersby in Poqomchi’. And in guage, I automatically greeted the San Pedro la Laguna, the Tz’utujil indigenous hostel owner (dueña) town where I lived and conducted in Poqom— K’aleen, tuut. Suq na the bulk of my research, a group ak’ux?—literally, “Hello, ma’am. of young men reacted with en- Is your chest well?”— the Poqom- thusiasm and amusement when I chi’ way of asking “How are you?” stopped to say Qaq’iij, “good af- Just as she began to reply, her ternoon.” Used to the many tour- twenty-year-old daughter burst ists who come for the great views into the room to ask a question of Lake Atitlán and the cheap in fluent Spanish. The dueña’s A bilingual sign on the Chuj-A.L.M.G. office. marijuana, these Sampedranos immediate, chastising response had probably never known any was: “Adam’s been here for a week and Reversing the age-old “Spanish Only” outsider who considered Tz’utujil more he’s already speaking Poqom. We should language policy, the 1996 Peace Ac- than, as it is pejoratively called on the speak in Poqom, too!” cords acknowledged that Guatemala is street, mere “dialecto.” One woman I’d waited to hear these words since a multilingual nation. Today, the official asked me, with evident pleasure on her the summer of 2007, a full year before government-supported Academia de face, how I had come to find an interest I began my research in Guatemala. The Lenguas Mayas is busy producing high- in “nuestra lengua.” country’s twenty-two Mayan languages quality grammars, dictionaries, and text I wouldn’t dare to suggest that my make it a linguist’s paradise. Some, such collections, and it runs regional offices three research trips have in any signifi- as K’ichee’ or Q’eqchi’, have hundreds of in each Mayan ethnolinguistic commu- cant way changed the prospects for the thousands of speakers and enough social nity. Despite this progress, however, the Mayan languages. But speaking with standing to ensure their prominence for replacement of indigenous languages by Maya people atop the Uspantán hills, several more generations. Less fortunate Spanish continues to sever indigenous on the street in San Cristóbal, and next tongues, like Itzá, will disappear when communities’ ties with their own past. to Lake Atitlán in San Pedro, I saw how their few remaining speakers, all elder- The mentality that Spanish is somehow the genuine interest of a field linguist ly, pass away. Poqomchi’ and Tz’utujil, “superior” to Mayan languages remains can help reinforce the notion that all lan- the two languages which I researched, common. How can the rich cultural heri- guages have worth. lie somewhere between these extremes. tage passed down via these languages With tens of thousands of speakers each, endure if so much of Guatemalan society Adam Singerman ’09 is currently the they are assured of immediate survival thinks them worthless? Prep Program Fellow at the Instituto but not of long-term vitality. Change in communities’ attitudes de Liderança do Rio (Rio Leadership Mayan languages here owe their un- must come, first and foremost, from Institute), based in Rio de Janeiro. At certain futures to Guatemala’s brutal the communities themselves. But my Harvard, he designed a special concen- history. In the 16th century, conquista- fieldwork experiences taught me that a tration in “Linguistics & Latin Ameri- dors subjugated indigenous polities and well-intentioned outsider can encourage ca.” He spent the summers of 2007 and imposed Spanish as a new, elite lingua positive attitudes toward local languages. 2008 and Christmas 2008 in Guate- franca. During the country’s Civil War In the hillsides surrounding the town of mala with funding generously provided (1960 - 1996), the military and paramili- Uspantán, Department of El Quiché, el- by DRCLAS, the Office of International tary forces wiped out whole indigenous derly locals expressed astonishment that Programs, the Harvard College Research towns and ethnolinguistic communities, a non-Maya would ever greet them in Program, and the Committee on Special using the threat of leftist insurgents as a K’ichee’. In response to my cheery greet- Concentrations. Contact: adamsinger- pretext to target ethnic Maya. ing of K’aleen, jaw! (“Hello, sir!”), a fruit [email protected]

34 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by adam singerman section header

Violence

Violence is a word all too common in Guatemala: la violencia, the civil conflict that engulfed the country in the 80s; the violence of nature and frequent natural disasters; the violence of poverty and discrimination; the everyday violence now fueled by common and organized crime. The legacies of violence permeate the fabric of society.

n Postcards from a Drug-Trafficking Country 36 n Portraits of Daily Violence 39 n The International Commission Against 41 Impunity In Guatemala n Cyclones of Violence: Nature and Beyond 44 n Securing the City 46

artistphoto bycredit carlos name Sebastián/prensa and url libre drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 35 guatemala: legacies of violence

A Key Player

Postcards from a Drug-Trafficking Country By Julie López

News about drug trafficking is often large-size Hummers loaded with other trafficking, as they hold a power grip that associated with Mexico and Colombia. men clutching machine guns. other Mexican cartels lack in Guatemala, However, the countries in between also The Hummers move ahead of them in prosecution investigators said. bear the brunt of the war waged among the direction of Cobán. While driving, they Before the Zetas entered the country, traffickers and against authorities to pass a small police station flanking the two families dominated the drug traffick- transport drugs to the United States. Gua- road. Two officers are standing outside, ing business as liaisons between Colom- temala is one of the hinges supporting the watching the traffic. When the Hummers bians and Mexicans. One of them, the transactions between South Americans drive by, they greet the Zetas with the of- Lorenzanas, has come under fire from and Mexicans to move large shipments ficial salute reserved for the Chief of Po- the U.S. as three of their members have up north. It is also dubbed a favorite lice and other top authorities. Giammattei pending arrest warrants on drug traf- warehouse for drugs and a transit point and his adviser just look at each other in ficking charges in a District of Columbia for proceeds returning by land from the silence. By the time they reach the town, federal court. So far, the Zetas have not United States and Mexico. Just as Guate- the Hummers are out of sight. meddled with their trafficking routes in mala once found itself in the middle of the Giammattei (ironically now under in- northeastern Guatemala. Another family violence spawned by U.S. policy and the dictment himself for extrajudicial killing clan has been trafficking with the Zetas Cold War, it now finds itself as a key player of prisoners) told this story on national in the Cobán area, according to intelli- in yet another type of war. radio, in a live interview. It was 2008, gence sources from the Counternarcotics the year the Zetas—which branched out Prosecution’s Office in Guatemala City. SNAPSHOT ONE: We are in this of the Mexican Gulf Cartel—announced These sources estimate that some 800 together. with a body count of 11 that they had Zetas roam the country and that one out Former presidential candidate Alejandro settled in Guatemala. In March, in Za- of every three is Mexican. Giammattei is touring the Guatema- capa, a state bordering Honduras, “Ju- lan countryside—exploring the politi- ancho” León, an alleged drug trafficker SNAPSHOT TWO: cal ground again before jumping on the from the area, was gunned down along Drug money for grabs 2011 election bandwagon. His next stop: with ten other people, three of whom In July 2000, nearly $5 million of drug Cobán, Alta Verapaz, in the northern were retired policemen. The casualties money was allegedly stolen by 20 po- highlands of the country. On the way were some of the 20 bodyguards with licemen. The money was concealed in a there, he and his driver/adviser stop at a whom León constantly surrounded him- truck transporting plastic water contain- restaurant on the outskirts of the town. self. The official hypothesis: The Zetas ers. The driver, unaware of his valuable It’s a cottage-style building surrounded wanted to eliminate León to take over cargo, was stopped by a group of armed by a pine forest. They are the only clients his territory. The unofficial hypothesis: men, hurled out of the cabin, tied up, and and have just ordered lunch when two While the Zetas were taking over local abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Af- stereotypes enter the restaurant: they trafficking routes, in this case they were ter he managed to release himself, he re- don cowboy boots and thick gold chains. taking revenge for León having killed ported the robbery to the police. The po- The adviser leans over. “That is the num- two of their people in Honduras. lice searched for the truck, but strangely ber one Zeta [an organization of hit men “The Zetas operate in 75 per cent of enough, the search had begun two hours working for drug traffickers] around Guatemalan territory,” Counter-Narcot- before the robbery was reported. The here, and the other is his main lieuten- ics Special Prosecutor Leonel Ruiz has truck was found; the money was unac- ant,” he says, lowering his voice. “Let’s said. In fact, they move freely over the counted for—officially. In time, several just eat quickly and leave.” They do, but entire country and are armed with mas- police officers, disgruntled with how the as they are ready to go, the two other men sive amounts of weaponry and ammuni- money was divided, blew the whistle on are leaving as well. Giammattei, as a mat- tion. In 2009 alone, nearly 1,000 gre- their peers. The Police Internal Affairs ter of courtesy, and self-preservation, lets nades were seized from them, along with Office included these details in an inves- them walk out first. He and his adviser several thousand rounds of machine gun tigative report that never led to any ar- follow at a prudent distance from which ammunition. So far, the Zetas are the rests. Ten years later, in 2010, the money they can see the men getting into two new force to be reckoned with in drug has yet to be accounted for.

36 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 section header

This arsenal was confiscated from the Zetas.

In the last decade, most officers in- 1999. Since then, an average of three tons on U.S. soil. Two years before that day, volved in the search were relocated. Some has been seized per year. According to a Paredes was in Honduras, unaware that resigned or were dismissed from the U.S. Narcotics Affairs Service (NAS) con- in a couple of weeks Honduran police force. One became chief of the National servative, outdated estimate from 2002, would arrest him and hand him over Police Department and another became each year some 200 tons are sent through to Drug Enforcement Administration adviser to Chief of Police Porfirio Pérez Paniagua, arrested last year for allegedly stealing at least 350 kilos of seized co- caine and $300,000 of drug money. His Guatemala is one of the hinges supporting the adviser has been on the run since then transactions between South Americans and and has an outstanding arrest warrant. Another arrest warrant bears the name Mexicans to move large shipments up north. of Raúl Velásquez, the fourth Minister of the Interior appointed by the current administration. Velásquez is still on the Central America to the United States. (DEA) agents assigned to that country. run from corruption charges. Nearly two It has taken ten years (2000-2009) for Within a few hours, Honduran authori- weeks before his arrest warrant was is- Guatemalan authorities to seize only 16 ties expelled him from the country, and sued, both the chief of police and the percent of that amount. the DEA flew him to Miami faster than head of the police counternarcotics unit you could say “drug trafficking.” were arrested in connection with the SNAPSHOT THREE: In the vicinity of the Brooklyn Bridge, murder of five policemen and the theft of Enter “El Gordo” Paredes the 26-story Southern District Court an unknown quantity of cocaine. Jorge Mario “El Gordo” Paredes sits in stands tall next to the dwarfed Metro- The plummeting of cocaine seizures a courtroom in New York City on April politan Correctional Center, a grey and in the last decade does not come as a 16, 2010, thousands of miles away from brown bunker-like fortress where the surprise in the face of such corruption his native Guatemala. Judge Deborah only sky inmates see is covered by barbed within the police force. And these are Batts has just announced to him what wire, or gridded by iron bars. In Janu- only the cases known from press cover- is probably the worst news of his life: a ary 2003 and eight subway stops from age. The last year that at least 10 tons of 372-month jail sentence (31 years) for there, 265 kilos of cocaine were seized cocaine were seized in Guatemala was conspiring to import and sell cocaine from a suspect whom the DEA linked

Photo courtesy Policía Nacional Civil drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 37 guatemala: legacies of violence

Cocaine and Corruption

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted on March 5 of this year, in Guatemala, that the United States has a drug addic- tion problem that needs to be addressed. The implication of her statement was that this problem was causing a steady drug supply from Latin America, passing through Guatemala and leaving a trail of violence. Clinton made a one-day visit to the country to discuss drug trafficking and corruption, two items on the security agenda of the Department of State and much cause for worry. The greater the scope of drug trafficking and corruption in tions (the police, the prosecution system, the court system, the jail Guatemala, the more effective a bridge the country makes for the system) account for the widespread corruption, while the poverty transport of drugs toward the United States. According to the U.S. creates an environment for people with lack of opportunities to Narcotics Affairs Service (NAS), Guatemala accounts for half of take the easy route. the trafficking routes in Central America that go to Mexico and the “There are no more institutions left to corrupt in Guatemala,” United States. said Héctor Rosada, a Guatemalan expert on political issues, The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the NAS esti- regarding the scope of the problem last year. “They apply Barbie mate that in 2008 U.S. local authorities seized only 25 percent of politics, where everything is disposable, even the Barbie.” the estimated amount of cocaine transported through Guatemala. The former head of the International Commission Against Impu- That same year, Guatemalan authorities seized only one percent of nity in Guatemala (CICIG, its acronym in Spanish), Carlos Castresa- the overall amount. na, has said that in the last few years foreign aid has spent billions While the problem on U.S. soil mostly involves controlling of dollars in Guatemala—money that, for the most part, has been consumption and the effects of addiction of people who willingly lost or wasted (with lack of continuity of security plans). “There is became addicts, Guatemala is dealing mainly with the violence trail no control,” he said. “It’s necessary to invest in security, strengthen that drug trafficking leaves behind. In 2008, the country witnessed justice institutions and invest in development, eliminating the gul- for the first time large-scale drug-related killings that were quickly lies of misery that are the breeding grounds for criminal groups.” dubbed “narco massacres.” Two of these alone left 30 dead. Castresana, who was appointed by the United Nations, resigned Quick and—apparently—easy money has lured dozens of earlier this year after constant attacks against him by groups that Guatemalans into joining drug trafficking ranks. Horacio Botero, see the commission as a roadblock to criminal and corrupt activity. a Colombian sentenced to 16 years in jail for participating in a According to him, these attacks undermined CICIG’s work, and he conspiracy to traffic cocaine from Guatemala to New York, testified thought the commission would be better off with a new commis- in court last year that in 2003 a kilo sent just to Mexico was worth sioner in charge. $8,000 dollars, but if sent to New York, the price doubled. This is During her visit last March, Clinton vowed that the United the same price at which a kilo of cocaine is still valued in Guate- States would cooperate with the Guatemalan government, provid- mala by local authorities. ing more aid to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking. Guatemala’s predicament is double-edged. On the one hand, However, the local government will have to face the challenge of drug trafficking is stimulated by the steady demand for cocaine cleaning house before it makes sure that foreign aid will not be in the United States. On the other, the country has two self-made squandered, as Castresana candidly explained. problems: weak institutions and rampant poverty. The weak institu- —Julie López

to Paredes. The man carrying the drugs that her client’s voice does not appear in During the sentence hearing, prior was on parole from another drug-related the recordings used as evidence. She even to Judge Batts’ announcement, George case and became an informant to avoid had a professor from the Criminal Justice claimed that some Guatemalans, like a longer prison term if he didn’t cooper- School of John Jay College certify this after Paredes, were forced into criminal activ- ate. He used six cell phones provided and he analyzed the recordings. He was one of ity due to poverty. At least 60 percent of wire tapped by the DEA, which recorded four voice-recognition experts who testi- Guatemalans live in poverty, with an in- phone conversations later used as evi- fied in favor of Paredes. His testimony did come equivalent to, or less than, one dol- dence to support Paredes’ conviction and not budge jury members. On November 6, lar a day. Paredes himself even delivered request his arrest. 2009, and after six weeks of trial hearings, compromising information on other traf- Linda George, Paredes’ attorney, claims they declared him guilty. fickers and offered to take a polygraph

38 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 chart: courtesy of julie lópez violence

test as proof of goodwill, but none of this changed his fate. Living Dangerously According to a former special agent who worked for a U.S. federal agency, Portraits of Daily Violence By Dina Fernández Paredes admitted to trafficking 45 tons of cocaine in five years, but was ada- mant about not being responsible for the 265-kilo shipment (nearly 0.13 per cent Miguel Pinto is 10 years old and yet he talks weapons like a connoisseur. of what is trafficked yearly through Gua- A motorcycle speeds by the car in which he is traveling and he notices that one temala). He was also willing to testify of the two riders is carrying a big gun. ”Was that a Kalashnikov?” he asks eagerly. about a former informant for the DEA in The adults in the car gasp, not only at the biker’s driving with what looks like a Mexico who joined the Zetas in Guate- machine gun, but at the kind of knowledge that a 4th grader absorbs from living in mala. The source claimed that the DEA Guatemala, one of the most violent countries in the world. and the U.S. Attorney’s Office were un- Not too long ago, a United Nations diplomat called Guatemala a “paradise for willing to admit publicly to having been assassins.” That’s because the numbers of dead bodies pile up as high as the rate of double-crossed by this man, and turned impunity, which stands between 97 and 99% (the exact percentage has actually be- down Paredes’ offer. They also declined come a subject for heated debate amongst Guatemalan authorities). Just for you to any requests for interviews about Pare- imagine how pervasive violence is, consider that last year alone, 6,500 people were des’ case. murdered in this country. That is almost 2,000 more than the total of U.S. soldiers George’s claim about poverty as justi- and coalition troops killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war. fication for drug trafficking would mean In such an environment, the borders of what can be considered “normal” keep that most of the population living in pov- blurring. Violence is everywhere and people learn to live with it in ways that can be erty conditions would turn to such ille- delirious, terrifying and sometimes even downright funny. gal activity. Most do not. Many are lured First of all, the news you hear in Guatemala will make your jaw drop. You wake into it, however, and pay with their lives. up to the radio in the morning to learn that yet another dead woman was found in Paredes was arrested only five weeks be- the city, hacked up in little pieces inside an abandoned suitcase. The radio anchor fore Juancho and ten other people were then reports that a 13-year-old boy—a gang member—was arrested after shooting killed in March 2008. In 2009, one per- a mother of two at a local market. And if that is not enough to make you want to son was killed on an average of every 81 stay in bed, the interview will do the trick. The young and sassy killer brags how minutes. This year’s numbers are close to this is his eighth hit and that he charged 100 quetzales for the job, a little more than reaching this level. According to Presi- 10 bucks. So now you can start a promising day, knowing exactly how life is trading dent Alvaro Colom, 41 percent of violent in the Guatemalan market. deaths in Guatemala are related to drug No wonder people have a tendency toward becoming paranoid. Some blame the trafficking—many of them innocent by- media for spreading pessimism. Well, they do have help. Lots of it, actually. Word standers. of mouth, the most effective and powerful means of communication, reinforces the scary perception that every time you go out in the street, you are being thrown into Julie López is a freelance journal- a game of Russian roulette. ist working in Guatemala, where she Whenever someone you know becomes a victim, be it of a car theft, an “express reports on politics and security issues kidnapping” or a shooting, you start wondering when it will be your turn. The sight of for BBC Mundo, BBC World, El Diario two guys on a bike can send chills down your spine, since this is the method of choice La Prensa (New York- based Spanish- for professional hit men or “sicarios.” You wonder if the man sweating at the bus stop language newspaper) and Guatemalan under a big jacket is hiding a gun. You end up carrying a “give away” purse with some daily Siglo Veintiuno. In May 2010, she cash, a pair of Chinese sunglasses and stale makeup. Going out with nothing at all won the Félix Varela Award for print just might annoy the robbers—and they can be really nasty if they get upset. journalism for her series “The Narco Surviving an attack on the streets of Guatemala City can depend on something Empire,” which was published by El as fickle as the mood of criminals on a given day. Pediatrician Edwin Asturias knows Diario La Prensa in October 2009. López that at first hand. He was walking near the hospital where he works, when an SUV coordinated the Spanish Language with dark windows started following him on a lonely street. A young man jumped Journalism Master’s Program at Florida out of the car with a gun in his hand and demanded everything: cell phone, money, International University, in Miami, watch. Asturias obeyed quietly. The SUV driver ordered the assailant: “Now kill where she also taught between 2005 and him.” “But why?” asked Asturias, “I have done as you told me.” There was a long 2007. She has had 12 years’ experience pause. Asturias felt the barrel of the gun pressing on his stomach. As a doctor, in journalism. he began to imagine extent of his hypothetical wounds and guessed he would not

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 39 guatemala: legacies of violence

make it back to the hospital alive. But mom-and-pop shops. A car repair garage friend, Felipe Valenzuela, was shot in the the driver blinked and decided to let him which the locals suspected of modifying head. In a country where hundreds of go. When Asturias walked away, his legs stolen cars stood only a block away from journalists and activists have been mur- were shaking. He noticed the metal of his house. The owner ran his operation dered, tortured or disappeared, an attack the gun had ripped his shirt. undisturbed until he accepted a stolen like this one can raise old ghosts. It was Some victims are not as passive. Time car that had belonged to a congressman. not clear if Valenzuela had been a victim and again you are told not to react, but An arrest order was issued, but the ga- of common criminals or if he had been targeted because of his profession. We were all hoping for the first hypothesis because otherwise, the bullet that pierced Violence is everywhere and people learn to live with it his jaw was in fact a bullet to all of us and in ways that can be delirious, terrifying and sometimes to all that has been gained since the end of the civil war. even downright funny As the news circulated, colleagues, ac- tivists and political figures flocked to the hospital. The waiting room was filled with fellow journalist Patricia González could rage owner ran away before a police pa- long faces that would not lighten up, not not stand to have her sister´s brand new trol came looking for him. The squad car even as doctors assured the visitors that Suzuki Sidekick jeep robbed. She had stationed itself in front of the shop on a Valenzuela had been extremely lucky and just stopped at a gas station to fill up the permanent basis. After a few days, the that he would recover with no long-term tank when she saw a gun pointing at her fugitive’s mother thought it would be a physical damage. People would just sigh face through the window of the car. She good idea to fraternize with the cops, and and shake their heads, until someone did not think; she just followed her gut. she started giving them typical Guate- cracked up: “so now we can really tell And her gut told her to fake some kind of malan snacks. Word spread that the food Felipe he has a hard head.” And people nervous fit: she started trembling, rolling was very tasty and soon other cops began smiled again because they wanted to cry. her eyes and spitting foam. It worked. to drop by. The lady opened a small diner The robber got scared and left. out of her own kitchen, and every day at Dina Fernández is an anthropologist Just as violence corrupts the very lunch locals would see four or five po- and a journalist. She has worked as concept of “normalcy,” corruption itself lice patrols parked in front. After a few a reporter, editor and as columnist for twists the dynamics that develop between months the fugitive came back, and now more than fifteen years. She was a Nie- people, cops and thugs in unimaginable he helps his mother in the diner. man Fellow in 2002, writes a bi-weekly ways. Take the case of what happened Guatemalans smile at stories like op-ed article at elPeriódico and co-hosts in engineer Alejandro Viau´s neighbor- these, but when violence hits them close a TV news show “A las 8 y 45” on Canal hood near downtown Guatemala—a enough, there is nothing to laugh about. Antigua. She also serves as the Chair of mostly blue-collar neighborhood where A few weeks ago, the news director of one the Board at the Soros Foundation in one-story painted buildings house small of the main radio networks and a good Guatemala.

40 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 cartoons by alfredo Morales, [email protected] violence

The International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala

Undoing the Legacy of Violence and Corruption By Paul Goepfert

On May 10, 2009 a prominent Guatemalan crack their influence within the judicial attorney, Rodrigo Rosenberg, was gunned system. Its mandate also included sug- down in broad daylight while riding his bi- gesting changes in existing laws or draft- cycle down a busy, tree-lined boulevard in ing new ones that might help eradicate a wealthy residential district of Guatema- the rampant criminality in the country. la City. But this wasn’t just another killing The Commission was unusual because in a homicide-plagued country. On May it was obliged to work through the At- 11, 2009, Guatemalan television aired a torney General’s staff in any prosecuto- pre-recorded video in which Rosenberg rial case. As The Journal of International declared, “If you are viewing this video, Criminal Justice from Oxford University it is because I have been assassinated points out, the Commission’s prosecu- by President Álvaro Colom.” Rosenberg torial independence was limited by its went on to accuse close associates of the partnership with a judicial system that it President, including the President’s wife, was mandated to reform, but on the oth- Sandra Torres de Colom, of involvement er hand it was embedded in the system it in his murder and in the earlier murder needed to reform. As Castresana said in a of two of his clients, prominent business- recent interview with this writer, howev- man Khalil Musa and his daughter Mar- er, “None of the institutions here is com- jorie, purportedly over fears of revelations Carlos Castresana pletely corrupt. So it’s possible to find of corrupt narco-money laundering at the people in the police, in the prosecutor’s highest government levels in the semi- judge and professor of international juris- office, and in the judicial system who are state bank Banrural. prudence. With a plethora of investigative ready to be converted into our partners.” The nation polarized immediately, proof, Castresana astonished a habitu- The average Guatemalan on the street with mass demonstrations in the capital ally incredulous nation by showing how was not feeling the benefits. The only for and against President Colom and his Rosenberg had planned his own killing. thing that the average citizen knew was wife. The anti-Colom demonstrators, call- The case brought the United Nation’s that every day his or her life was ever ing for his resignation, were mostly urban, Commission against Impunity (CICIG in more fatally precarious. Since the sign- educated professionals and university stu- its Spanish acronym) to the attention of ing of the December 1996 Peace Accords, dents, who had spontaneously organized the entire country. In December of 2006, ending 36 years of internecine warfare through the social networking systems the Guatemalan government had signed between leftist guerrillas and the Gua- of Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Pro- an agreement with the Secretary General temalan army, Guatemala has been de- Colom supporters were primarily rural of the United Nations to allow the for- scending into a maelstrom of civilian people, bused in from the countryside, mation of this special commission. The violence far surpassing the years of war. where potential presidential candidate task requested of the Commission was to The sociologist and one-time govern- Sandra Torres de Colom’s programs of So- investigate what in Guatemala are called ment peace negotiator, Hector Rosada, cial Cohesion and My Family Progresses “parallel powers,” clandestine criminal observed in the press, “The peace is more have been lavishing huge amounts of the groups with tentacles into the security violent than the war. The peace process federal budget on rural aid programs. forces and the judicial system of the never prepared us for the country we are It was not until January 12, 2010, that country that became linked to the coun- now living in.” one man stepped forward to the micro- terinsurgent army intelligence during the Luis Linares of ASIES (Association phone to cut the Gordian knot of the case. armed conflict. These criminal groups of Investigation and Social Studies) put He was the head of the United Nations In- had for years influenced the judicial sys- it this way: “We are living in a psychosis. ternational Comission against Impunity tem. The Commission’s job was not only The citizen leaves home in the morning in Guatemala, Carlos Castresana, Spanish to bust these “parallel powers,” but also to and doesn’t know if he will come home

photo by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 41 guatemala: legacies of violence

alive. This is a cost that we assume every say that the toll-fee for passing through tigators began going through Moreno’s day, but it is difficult to quantify.” Guatemala in part is also paid in cocaine, computer and photos in his house, they Nevertheless, some data do quantify which filters down to the gangs. found links to many former military in- this cost. From the year 2000 to 2009, But the Commission Against Impu- telligence officers such as General Fran- the homicide numbers have risen from nity isn’t in Guatemala to clean up street cisco Ortega Menaldo, Colonel Jacobo 2,904 per year to 6,451, with only 230 or crime. It seeks to eradicate impunity in Salán Sánchez and Major Napoleón Ro- 3.58% prosecutions. governmental institutions and in clan- jas Méndez. Also found in the photos was Guatemalan journalist Cristina Boni- destine parallel groups dedicated to or- the president-to-be Alfonso Portillo, arm llo, citing the United Nations Program ganized crime. Castresana has indicated in arm with Ortega Menaldo at a barbe- for Development, has measured the to the press, “The government structures cue. Later it would be reported that Al- cost of violence in this way, “Although have been maintained on a base of clan- fonso Portillo was a paid political advisor it is difficult to quantify the cost of the destine structures. Structures that are to the Cofradía. violence in the economy of the country, it infiltrated by criminal groups.” has been estimated that in 2006 alone it President Álvaro Colom’s govern- FORMER PRESIDENT PORTILLO had reached 7.3% of the Gross Domestic ment has had five different Ministers of ARRESTED ON CORRUPTION Product (GDP), double the amount as- the Interior, a department that controls CHARGES signed to the Ministries of Agriculture, the police. Two of them are charged with One of CICIG’s great successes was aid- Health, and Education all together.” crimes, one is still a fugitive from justice. ing local law enforcement in the arrest of Violence has also taken a tremendous Since 1997, there have been 17 different former President Portillo as he was try- toll on commerce. According to a World police chiefs. The last two fired in the ing to flee to Belize. The former president Economic Forum study, Guatemala has Colom administration were accused of is charged with embezzling $2.5 million dropped down 11 places owing to the seizing cocaine shipments for resale. Of from a donation from Taiwan and $5.5 effect of the violence on commercial in- the last five, four have been accused of million in a transfer from the Ministry of terests. The Foundation for Guatemalan various crimes. Police sub-directors have Defense, aided and abetted by his heads Development (FUNDESA) has pointed mutually accused one another of running of security, Colonel Jacobo Salán Sán- out that crime, violence, and extortions death squads within the police. Numer- chez and Major Napoleón Rojas Méndez. have placed the nation at number 69 ous other police officials have been found Rojas has been apprehended, while Sa- among 125 nations evaluated. The indi- running criminal mafias within the po- lán Sánchez remains a fugitive. Portillo cator of the level of costs for businesses to lice. Norma Cruz, Director of the Foun- is also charged in the Federal Court for protect themselves from crime, violence, dation of Survivors, put it in a historical the Southern District of New York with and extortion places Guatemala almost perspective, “Our past still weighs heavily money laundering of his ill-got gains. at the bottom, at 124. The level of con- on us. In the war the police were used to There is a U.S. extradition order against fidence of businesses in the police places eliminate the enemy of the state, to kid- him for money laundering, which has Guatemala at number 118. nap, to torture, and to kill with impunity. been approved by the Guatemalan courts Most of the violence is carried out by This will not change overnight.” The key to the case against Portillo was and between gangs, but as the Interior a former Portillo-appointed head of the Minister Carlos Menocal has said, “The TARGETING THE COFRADíA state National Mortgage Credit bank gangs are the armed arm of the clandes- One of the important clandestine groups (CHN), Armando Llort Quinteño. Llort tine groups.” They are sub-contracted to that the Commission is targeting was had sought witness protection in New carry out the hits. identified by the Washington Office on York and confessed to participating in Latin America (WOLA) in its report Hid- the embezzlement scheme. He sang for COCAINE AND DERIVATIVE den Powers in Guatemala as La Cofradía all to hear in the court, and it was heard CRACK (fraternity). La Cofradía was a group of in Guatemala as well. Llort claimed that What fuels the gangs and their violence former and active military intelligence the Cofradía and General Ortega Me- and enriches the clandestine groups are officers, who in Guatemala’s climate of naldo were behind the whole embezzle- cocaine and its derivative crack. Guate- impunity, turned their cold-war coun- ment scheme and that Salán and Rojas mala, neighbor to Mexico, is the ideal terinsurgency skills into criminal riches. actually carried out the plan. In 2000 the transshipment point of cocaine from This group first came to light in 1996, National Security Archive in Washington South America. Drug-war experts say when the administration of President presented declassified United States in- that 90% of the cocaine that reaches the Alvaro Arzú broke a contraband ring telligence documents that confirmed the United States comes through the Central within the customs agency later dubbed existence of the Cofradía. In 2002 the American Corridor, of which Guatemala the Moreno network, after its purported State Department revoked the visas of is an integral part. And these experts head Alfredo Moreno. When the inves- these military officers, who in the past

42 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 violence

had worked closely with the CIA and U.S. still pending is the law for confiscation of tee just sent back the same list of the six, Defense Intelligence. property obtained through illegal means. and the President chose one of the candi- Castresana summed it up in a press So is the law to modify congressional dates with a tarnished record. Castresana statement, “What before was counterin- impunity from legal charges that states resigned in protest, stating that he was surgency now is organized crime.” The 2/3 of the Congress must vote against a not getting sufficient cooperation from arrest tally so far is ex-President Portillo, member to send him or her to trial. Oth- the executive and legislative branches to Llort in New York, ex-Finance Minister er proposed changes concern search and help achieve the rule of law in Guatemala. Maza, former Defense Minister Eduardo arrest warrants and a change in manda- The Constitutional Court annulled the se- Arévalo Llacs, head of the Joint Chiefs tory time limits for holding arrested per- lection and ordered that a new selection of Staff of the Army Enrique Ríos Sosa, sons before they can be charged before a committee be formed. Publicly embar- son of one-time military dictator, Efraín judge. Castresana has implored Congress rassed, the President begrudgingly ac- Ríos Montt, and the former intelligence to pass a law to limit the use of frivolous cepted the court’s decision and dismissed officer Major Napoleón Rojas. Colonel legal injunctions in courts that delay legal his new Attorney General after fifteen Jacobo Salán Sánchez is still a fugitive. proceedings. In addition, he has raised days. A new selection committee was re- Five other army officers from the Defense the issue of constitutional reform. cently formed. Ministry were arrested along with Rios- But Castresana’s biggest challenge has Castresana had said earlier, “At times Sosa for the theft of $55 million from the come from the process of choosing the At- I feel tempted to just throw in the towel, ministry. This situation never could have torney General. The framers of the 1985 but the truth is that this kind of a mission taken place before the CICIG came to Constitution intended to depoliticize the has to come without a towel.” But Presi- Guatemala. office by having the rectors of the various dent Colom’s choice of a known tarnished Yet the alleged head of La Cofradía, universities, along with the president of candidate for Attorney General was the General Ortega Menaldo, still walks free. the national lawyers guild and a member last straw for Castresana. It was like hav- In an interview with this writer, Cas- of its tribunal of honor, come up with a ing that towel thrown right in his face. tresana commented with a wry smile, list of suitable candidates from which He lamented: “The patient won’t take his “Each case has its own time. The case is the President could choose. This has only medicine, and a sick man who won’t take open. We have to gather the appropriate served to politize the elections of the uni- his medicine often ends up dying.” evidence to make a case. We don’t speak versity rectors, who appoint those deans. more about it for obvious reasons.” The large electoral campaigns for rector A NEW CICIG COMMISSIONER But Castresana points out that the are costly and are financed now from ob- The UN Secretary General has appointed Cofradía is not the only clandestine ma- scure sources in order to get those votes a new Commissioner for CICIG, the At- fia. “Now there are many groups, not just for the candidates not only for Attorney torney General of Costa Rica, Francisco one. There has been an evolution. It has General but also for the Supreme Court Dall’Anese, known for having investi- shot up everywhere and multiplied like a and the Constitutional Court, where the gated and tried two former presidents contagion. Our analysis suggests that the same system prevails. for corruption and for his tough stand violent crimes of today are the offspring This process didn’t turn out the way against drug traffickers. He is slated to of the violence of the past.” Some of these the framers intended. Instead, the pro- assume leadership on August 1, with a new groups moving in, like the Zetas, are cess has allowed obscure interests to in- year and a few months before CICIG’s Mexican drug traffickers. The drug traf- fluence the choice and thus influence the mandate expires. It could be renewed by fickers are taking and holding territory courts and the Attorney General’s office. the Guatemalan government. all over rural Guatemala. It appears that CICIG played the role of ombudsman U.S. Ambassador Stephan MacFar- they may be making alliances with local in the selection of the Attorney General, land, a strong supporter of CICIG, wor- mayors and their communities. an office to which the organization is tied ried in an interview, “A year and a few by the need for a national prosecutorial months is not whole lot of time to advance JUDICIAL REFORM arm. Investigating the backgrounds of the enough so that success against impunity CICIG has proposed changes in the law six candidates chosen by the nominating is guaranteed….but ultimately it depends to accelerate the judicial process, but committee, it found that only two of them not on the imposition from outside but Congress, mired in a corrupt battle for had a clean record. Castresana informed an acceptance by the Guatemalans.” spoils, has been slow to pass the neces- the President and then went public with sary legislation; only four of fifteen sug- the information. Agreeing with Castresa- Paul Goepfert is a former correspondent gested changes have been passed. The na, the Constitutional Court ordered the for The Baltimore Sun and The Chicago suggested law against illicit enrichment selection committee to reopen the search, Tribune from 1982 until 1989 in Mana- of government officials has been tied up examining closely the records of the nom- gua, Nicaragua. He has been a resident in Congress since November 2008. Also inees. Nevertheless, the selection commit- of Central America for eighteen years.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 43 guatemala: legacies of violence

Cyclones of Violence A Photoessay about Determination and Survival by Nancy McGirr and the Fotokids Team Adapted from the Fotokids quarterly newsletter, June 2010

A friend wrote, “Nancy, I guess living in a place like that for so youth leadership program. Having older Fotokids be the teach- long gives you a different outlook on what constitutes a crisis. ers insures empathy and trust, as well as providing good role We’re all sitting here spellbound and worried, and you’re always models from their own neighborhoods. ‘well, we got up, had some coffee, walked the dog, cleaned up It’s been a challenging time for us here in Guatemala City. ash from the volcano, had some lunch, then we had a hurricane, You may have heard that our photography/graphic design and then it was time for dinner...’” school was robbed of 20 Mac computers and photo equipment Although I have lived in Guatemala for 21 years and experi- this spring. The robbery, combined with the Pacaya volcano enced my share of crises, it seems to me that we are now pretty spewing ashes two inches deep throughout the City, followed high on the Misery Meter. (Misery Meter in June: code orange). rapidly by tropical storm Agatha that left more than 165 dead Giving in though is not an option. and 18,700 homeless from flooding and landslides, leaves me As life goes on, the young people who are part of Fotokids seriously worried about supporters compassion fatigue. try to take an active role in making Guatemala a better place. The ash from the volcano Pacaya resembled little pebbles, With younger and younger children being recruited by gangs, ranging from tiny pieces up to corn kernel size in our neigh- two of our university students Werner and Abdias have started borhood. The bigger pieces came down sizzling and burned the a new photography class teaching five to seven year olds. We arms of some people. There were big flaming rocks as well that have found that by giving them cameras to document their sur- landed on houses in villages on the skirts of the volcano and set roundings, the children learn to express themselves both visu- them on fire. The lava shot up a mile into the sky. The ash was ally and verbally at an early age, and this is the first step in our almost three inches deep in most places.

44 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by andres sosof/fotokids 2010 section header

Left: Aftermath of Agatha in Santiago Atitlán. Above clockwise top left: Ashes after the Pacaya Volcano erupted; aftermath of Agatha in San- tiago; cleaning up ash in Villa Nueva a town quite close to the volcano (the two bottom photos)

Then the rain started. At first it seemed like a good thing piece of land in a more secure area. because it kept houses from igniting and kids from inhaling ash Fotokids and former Fotokids have been sending in photos into their lungs. Then we realized that ash + water equaled ce- of the volcano eruption and Tropical Storm Agatha. You can see ment that had to be swiftly swept up so it wouldn’t clog all the them on the Fotokids or Fotokids Santiago page in FaceBook or street drains. Tin roofs collapsed under its weight. Today as I online at www.fotokids.org. came into work, hills of black ash as tall as me (5'5 1⁄4") lined Although natural disasters are horrible, I think the cyclone the streets. Fotokids’ Evelyn, Berlin, Abdias, Werner, Gerardo of violence we are living with here in Guatemala is even more and Vivi worked all day, sopping wet, to fill 30 garbage bags depressing. from our patios and terraces. Kids we know, some as young as 14, have their own gangs; they As the rain came down heavily all that night and the next are armed, and have motorcycles. One of the Fotokids’ mothers morning, I began to get nervous because it looked like hurri- heard that a boy named Coco and Benito’s younger brother were cane rain. I recognized it from Hurricanes Mitch and Stan; at involved and had robbed neighbors in the dump at gunpoint. first steady, then heavier, then too much for our soil to absorb. “Did you tell the mom?” I asked. “Yes,” she said, “I told Co- Three days of rain, rain, rain. Besides sweeping away homes, it co’s Mom. I said as a mother I knew she would want to know destroyed bridges and left 107 communities nationwide with- that her son had assaulted a neighbor.” Coco’s mom had looked out sufficient help and many without communications. at her and said, “Who are you? Where do you live?” She then Marta from Tierra Nueva Dos called late Saturday night. slipped her hoodie off a shoulder to show off her gang tattoos, Her backyard had collapsed into a ravine, leaving the tin house and asked again where she lived. perched precariously close to the yawning chasm. Her neighbor For me the saddest story of all was that of Maritza’s brother who lives directly above her had used sandbags to shore up her Walter. Maritza is no longer with Fotokids, but years ago, she foundation. The bags slid off and crashed onto Marta’s tin roof. was one of the kids that lived with her family as squatters on Her usually calm mother anxiously demanded that they move the railroad tracks. Her older brother Walter was always her out. Marta called reluctantly to ask to borrow money to buy a protector and a truly kind, upstanding, good-looking boy.

photo by daniel gonzales palma(top left), andres sosof (top right), drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 45 nancy morales (bottom row), all fotokids 2010 guatemala: legacies of violence

Always religious, he became an Evan- gelical pastor. One of the only ways that the gangs will let you go is if you are in your twenties, get married and take up religion. Walter was living in Santa Faz, one of the most dangerous areas of the city where walking across from one street to the other can get you killed. There he was “saving” a lot of gang members, en- abling them to leave the gangs. I guess he was way too successful. One Thursday night, while he was praying alone in the church, a man en- tered, put his arm around him and shot him dead. The moral fabric here has been ripped to shreds. The only thing that I know we can do, and have done pretty well for the last almost 20 years, is take the little kids and start teaching them values right away, creating a safe space for them. Their taking photographs provides them with not only a creative outlet but a sense of pride and group identity. I admire the young people I work with Securing the City and they inspire me to think that, with their determination and compassion, The Politics and Business of Postwar Security they can make a change, a change that will bring Guatemala out of the storm. By Kedron Thomas and Kevin Lewis O’Neill

Nancy McGirr is Founder and Execu- tive Director of Fundación de Niños Artistas de Guatemala/Fotokids Guatemala is experiencing a new econom- The number of private security www.fotokids.org. ic stimulus: the security industry. The guards working in homes and busi- internal armed conflict may have ended nesses is now estimated at 80,000, more than a decade ago, but everyday life compared to 18,500 police officers na- The Fundación de Niños Artistas de for many Guatemalans continues to be tionwide, according to the U.S. Agency Guatemala, FOTOKIDS, now in its 19th fraught with violence. The country has for International Development. year, continues giving young people from one of the highest homicide rates in the The employment of private security some of the poorest barrios in Guatemala Americas (about seventeen murders per forces by businesses and individuals is the opportunity to have a voice using day) and one of the lowest rates of incar- just one of many responses to escalat- photography and graphic design as ceration. The average criminal trial lasts ing crime and violence. Other private tools to promote self-expression, critical more than four years with fewer than solutions include the formation of com- thinking, and leadership, and as a means two out of every hundred crimes result- munity associations and, in the most of employment. Fotokids also provides ing in a conviction. As one international extreme cases, vigilantism and lynch- traditional education scholarships observer remarked on the BBC News in ing, as well as the growth of gated com- through private donors. To make a tax 2007, “It’s sad to say, but Guatemala is munities to keep violence out. These re- deductible donation on PayPal, to receive a good place to commit murder because sponses represent a new trend: instead quarterly newsletters like the excerpt you will almost certainly get away with of being a public right, law enforcement above or view our Gallery, visit our web it.” Postwar peace now seems little more has largely migrated from state institu- site www.fotokids.org or contact us at than a bloodied banner. tions to the private sector. Indeed, the [email protected]. growth of private security firms in the Armed security guard rides a bus. last decade is astounding.

46 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre VIOLENCE

In a recent study, Avery Dickins de The private security industry is per- redevelopment plans continue to move Girón, an anthropologist at Vanderbilt haps the most obvious example of how forward without them. University, shows that a growing number citizens respond to growing fear in Gua- One might expect that the spike in of rural Guatemalans have come to see temala City. A more understated but violence seen over the past decade would private security work in the capital city nonetheless related trend is the growth prompt public debates about the social as a viable, albeit dangerous, option for of urban renewal projects, aimed at and economic conditions that permit upward mobility. Over the last century, creating safe enclaves for middle- and violence to thrive in the first place. By changes in rural areas have led to several upper-class residents. Clusters of pri- and large, this has not been the case. Re- waves of migration into Guatemala City. vate condominiums, shopping centers sponses to urban crime such as private Economic restructuring since the early and entertainment districts cocooned security forces and urban renewal proj- 1990s exacerbated this trend, undermin- by guns, dogs and guards now speckle ects address only the immediate security ing what remained of the subsistence Guatemala’s highways. Fortified enclaves concerns of the most affluent segments farming system upon which rural inhab- segregate Guatemala City’s exclusive of the population. itants historically relied. For an increas- zones from the more popular ones. Zone On a national level, political strategies ing number of Maya men moving into 1, for example, is the capital’s oldest and that exploit themes of personal insecurity the city, finding work in private security most historic zone, home to the national and fear have defined the conversation. is an attractive prospect. cathedral, high courts, and national pal- The most prominent political feature Security guards from the department ace. Anthropologists Rodrigo J. Véliz and of the post-conflict period has been the of Alta Verapaz, just north of the capital Kevin Lewis O’Neill note that Zone 1 has popular call for mano dura (strong hand region, are generally landless indigenous become dangerous in recent years, with or iron fist) solutions to violence. Otto men from impoverished communities. a disproportionately high rate of violent Pérez Molina, a former military general, They seek work as guards por necesidad murders taking place there. Upper class- ran on this platform in the 2007 presi- (out of necessity), hinting at the struc- es have relocated to peripheral zones dential election. He won handily in the tural conditions of poverty and unem- built up over the past two decades. These metropolitan region and, at the national ployment in their hometowns. These areas comprise fortified homes, upscale level, finished a very close second to Ál- men provide a flexible, low-wage work- shopping malls and protection by private varo Colom, whose left-centrist platform force for the hundreds of authorized and security forces. helped him to carry the rural regions. unauthorized security firms operating in Guatemala City. Generally viewed by their employers as expendable laborers, they are housed in substandard condi- Responses to urban crime such as private security tions and paid relatively low wages for what can be a deadly job. At the same forces and urban renewal projects address only the time, the men use the flexible nature of immediate security concerns of the most affluent this work to their advantage. Working when they need cash income to supple- sectors of the population. ment other earnings, they quit when the exploitative conditions or dangers of the job become too much to bear. They may A number of wealthy Guatemalans Mano dura politics makes use of two- only take a short break before continu- are trying to reclaim Zone 1, however. dimensional caricatures. Criminals and ing security industry work, or they may Plans include ridding the historical city other unsavory social types, including attempt to capitalize on social networks center of less desirable elements, in- gang members, are posited as the source in the city to move into a more desir- cluding street vendors and the working- of violence rather than as the effect of able occupation. Many of the men with class clients who depend on their cheap structural conditions. USAID estimates whom Dickins de Girón spoke reported goods. The program would create heav- put the number of gang members na- that employment in the security indus- ily secured retail and recreational spaces tionwide at anywhere from 14,000 to try offers a chance for them to experi- where the city’s elite can engage in forms 165,000. Although the wide range of this ence both the best and worst of urban of conspicuous consumption that are estimate reflects a lack of solid data on life. Excitement and opportunity draw well beyond the reach of many Guate- (or even a commonly accepted defini- them to the city. At the same time, dis- malans. Although Zone 1 street vendors tion of) gang activity, gangs nonetheless crimination, exploitation and dangerous have organized, staging a series of pro- shoulder the blame for the nation’s secu- conditions characterize their migrant tests and engaging in negotiations with rity problems. Proponents of the mano experience. the government planning commission, dura approach tend to couch security

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 47 guatemala: legacies of violence

are rooted in the structural conditions of discrimination, inequality and corrup- tion that post-conflict economic policies and institutional reforms have failed to address. In fact, policy approaches in the last decade have actually permitted the escalation of violence beyond war-era proportions, with the annual number of homicides now exceeding the average number of Guatemalans killed each year in the internal armed conflict. Violence is not new to Guatemala, but its spatial co- ordinates have now shifted from the ru- ral highlands—the scene of the scorched earth policies of the 1970s and 1980s—to the streets of Guatemala City. The kinds of violence taking place in Guatemala and public responses to it have also changed. The state no longer controls either the Excitement and opportunity draw rural men to the city to work as security guards. means or aims of force. Instead, public agencies and private individuals employ concerns in moral rather than material who live in high-crime zones and the ur- violent means for a variety of ends, in- terms. They lament widespread prob- ban periphery. Many residents also rely cluding political and economic gain. The lems of delinquency and cite character on an unstable, informal economy and personalization and individualization of faults among the nation’s youth as key so- face institutional and everyday forms security through the language of delin- cial issues. The most obvious and alarm- of discrimination, especially when it quency allows politicians, the media and ing public responses to these problems comes to indigenous people, women ordinary citizens to simply point fingers. include military intervention and social and the poor. A more effective set of responses cleansing campaigns. More subtle, yet Mano dura responses to rising crime would address the conditions of poverty perhaps more sinister responses include rates and other security concerns look and inequality that make everyday life outreach programs in which security of- quite different from the sweeping social, difficult for most Guatemalans, as well as ficials and development workers focus economic and political promises made the criminal organizations and corrupt on changing young people’s attitudes in the 1996 Peace Accords. The peace political institutions that foster violence and building their self-esteem. The latter negotiations, it was hoped, would usher and benefit from popular discourses that response personalizes postwar security in a new era of democratic process and focus blame on street gangs and poor concerns, shifting the focus from struc- economic growth. Disparate groups sat youth. Official and popular narratives tural conditions to issues of individual at the table to voice their concerns and that do not address these conditions will character and responsibility. contribute to a new vision of Guatemalan likewise continue to neglect the promises The structural conditions for so much nationhood and the realization of new of peace. postwar violence are as predictable as opportunities for employment, educa- they are painful: the widespread avail- tion and entrepreneurship. The accords Kedron Thomas is a doctoral candidate ability of arms, government corruption, included important endorsements of in anthropology at Harvard University. lack of police protection, and organized human rights in general and indigenous Kevin Lewis O’Neill (MTS 2002) is an crime linked to the drug trade. Violence cultural and political rights in particular, assistant professor in the Department is also rooted in a set of social and struc- including education reforms to enhance and Centre for the Study of Religion and tural conditions that limit life chances rural achievement and political reforms the Centre for Diaspora and Transna- for many Guatemalans. In terms of the to expand civil society. As scholars have tional Studies at the University of To- most basic of social services, much of repeatedly pointed out, however, increas- ronto. Their forthcoming edited volume, the capital city has simply fallen off the ing disparities have defined the post- Securing the City: Neoliberalism, Space, grid. Lack of sufficient housing, limited conflict era, and these disparities have and Insecurity in Postwar Guatemala access to water and sanitation services, diminished the prospect of full demo- (Duke University Press, 2011), offers the and vulnerability to environmental haz- cratic participation of all citizens. first comparative historical and ethno- ards characterize life for many residents The shortfalls of the Peace Accords graphic analysis of Guatemala City.

48 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre development and beyond

One of the legacies of violence is that a country at war finds its process of development at a standstill. Guatemala, a country of spectacular modern buildings and lush rain forests, is experimenting with different development strategies from small community organizations to social enterprise. But sometimes nature and violence still get in the way.

n A Beauty That Hurts 50 n In Petén, Interesting Times 54 n Two Paths to Development 57

n Making of the Modern 60 n Central America Competitiveness Project 62 n Development Strategies and the 1996 Peace Accords 63

artistphoto bycredit vicente name chapero and url guatemala: legacies of violence

A Beauty That Hurts

A Photoessay by Carlos Sebastián

The red hot ash from the Pacaya Volcano disasters’ impact on Guatemalan life. Ac- for Disaster Reduction’s Global Assess- practically swirls out of the photo, burn- cording to Guatemala’s National Emer- ment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction ing the page. gency Commission (CONRED) and (2009) states, “Guatemala is among the My friends—many of them authors the Pan American Health Organization top 10 countries with the highest mor- in this issue—have written me as ashes (PAHO), almost 200,000 people were af- tality risk index due to natural disasters. clogged their streets and dirtied their fected by the disasters, with an estimated Guatemala is at high risk for climate- car windows. They wrote me as the rain 174 dead. Crop damage was extensive. related hazards such as landslides, began to whirl around, becoming Hurri- Health officials worried about the droughts and earthquakes that provoke cane Agatha, lashing through buildings outbreaks of malaria, dengue and acute physical and economic vulnerability.” and fields. Then a huge sinkhole opened malnutrition. The economic and social The power of nature is spellbinding, up in Guatemala City; floods and mud- effects of these natural disasters are ex- as these photos testify. Its consequences slides plagued the countryside—all in pected to last into 2011, according to are sad and eloquent. I glance at a book in less than a month. USAID. my Guatemalan collection, A Beauty That As I look at the evocative pictures of More disasters are likely to come. The Hurts by W. George Lovell. I couldn’t have Carlos Sebastián, I am reminded of the United Nations International Strategy said it better. —June Carolyn Erlick

50 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 51 guatemala: legacies of violence

52 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by: carlos Sebastián/prensa libre section header

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 53 guatemala: legacies of violence

In Petén, Interesting Times The Vast, Breathing Rainforest is Changing

By Mary Jo McConahay

I first came to Petén in the 1970s, reading dramatic imbalance in land ownership a found paperback of The Exorcist to elsewhere, that forest goes up in smoke at pass a long, dreary bus ride on pocked an increasing rate and precious species, roads from Belize. Stepping off at Tikal, some unique to Petén, face extinction. breathing the jungle air, I immediately Ranchers destroy forest for pasture. In felt the rainforest’s richness, its promise addition, likely unintended consequences of discoveries to come. Later, the night of proposed tourist megaprojects disen- called mysteriously with cries of birds franchise the community and threaten and unseen animals. “There is no place to further upset ecological balance. Offi- like this on earth,” I thought. Archaeolo- cial corruption and traditional impunity gists and workmen outnumbered tourists mean more of Petén each year is sold to like me, who had come to see remains of highest bidders or crooks who trade in ancient Maya civilization. serious threats. Drug-trafficking families The Petén of those days is gone. Since are rooted in patches of land they call the 1990s I have reported on the region, their own. Petén is presenting a challenge schools, portray the northern jungles as drawn by its persistent frontier char- to governability and rule of law. lands of mystery and raging beauty, their acter, the beauty of still-extant jungle, The spirit of the 1996 Peace Accords inhabitants wise with forest knowledge and most recently, the sensation of be- that ended the 36-year civil war remains and instinct, but not always trustworthy. ing a witness to history in a key corner of less than fully implemented nation- As a young boy, Guatemalan-born writer the continent. Petén is the center of the wide. In Petén, the failure takes a spe- Victor Perera recalled seeing Lacandón largest tropical lowland forest north of cial character. Entire communities claim Maya, who once lived from Petén to Chia- the Amazon, a continental lung stretch- violations of the right—guaranteed in pas, exhibited in a cage at a fair in the ing from Mexican Chiapas to western the Accords—to consult on government- capital. Later, Perera wrote of their hardy Belize. It is one of the earth’s remaining granted projects that affect their lives culture and developed cosmovision. safeguards against radical temperature and livelihoods. One example is the re- During the 1960s and 1970s, Petén’s variation. What becomes of its verdant cent extension of the Perenco Oil Com- military governors regarded the Petén’s carpet, the concentration of trees that pany concessions in the Laguna del Tigre largely unpopulated tracts as an ideal absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide, area. Another is President Álvaro Colom’s social safety valve. Landless peasants na- links Petén directly to global concern multi-million dollar mega-tourism proj- tionwide had been left with little hope about climate change. ect, Cuatro Balam, involving the region’s after the 1954 U.S.-orchestrated coup When I arrived more than 30 years biggest private companies, but lacking against democratically elected President ago, tomb-robbing and animal poaching local input, according to Peténeros. Jacobo Arbenz; the end of the “Ten Years worried Petén. Today it faces challenges For all its strategic importance and of Spring” had also reversed land reform. so much more fundamental, that failing place in the Guatemalan imagination, Encouraged by the military, peasant farm- to meet them means Petén is likely to dis- the Petén region has been the most hid- ers in cooperatives, or individually, moved appear in the near future as the unique den in the country’s history. Petén covers a to the North, where they were given titles jungle outland of Guatemalan history. full third of national territory, 23,000 sq. to parcels but little or no support. Nev- Since 1998, according to the U.S. Drug miles, but for the first century and a half ertheless, along the Pasión and Usuma- Enforcement Agency (DEA), Petén’s ge- of independence, it was the Wild North, cinta Rivers, and inland at places like Dos ography and lack of law enforcement has the ultimate unknown. Roadless tropical Erres, some cooperatives and communi- made it a key transit corridor in the inter- forest infested with deadly vipers, ruled by ties grew and thrived, despite the jungle national drug trade. Always a pioneer des- the kingly jaguar. Better to stay home. soil’s shortcomings for agriculture. tination, so many peasant farmers contin- Novels by Virgilio Macal Rodriguez, Not incidentally, the existence of pop- ue to arrive, pushed out by Guatemala’s for instance, still taught in Guatemalan ulation along rivers marking the border

54 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by maryann flick/getty images development and beyond

global drug trade feeding the U.S. market. Petén has also become clearly marked by the inevitable consequence of Guatemala’s own irrepressible history of violence, and historic imbalance in land ownership: struggles for land are taking place, mostly on the part of poor farm families. Recently, talking informally with a CONAP official, I mentioned a 1990s visit I had made to the Biosphere’s La- guna del Tigre National Park. The park is among the most important sweet wet- lands in Central America, a paradise for bird watching and home to puma, jaguar, and a scarlet macaw sanctuary. I recalled that I had a peaceful run-in at the time with a coyote secretly crossing an Asian client into Mexico, and also that someone had just burned down a CONAP guard station. The official laughed bitterly. “I wish those were the problems we had today,” he said. A visit to Laguna del Tigre revealed El Petén: Golden sun rays radiate through the trees of a jungle clearing, casting patches of light on the ground; the beauty of the region entwines with its persistent frontier character. what he meant. Entering the park area by car, I saw no forest in two hours of driving, only tree stumps sticking up was intended to act as a weight against them a stake in conservation. A new en- from the ground like amputated thumbs. Mexico’s hydropower plans, including a tity, the National Council of Protected Stunningly healthy-looking Brahman dam that could flood Guatemalan land. Areas (CONAP), was created to keep cattle roamed, eating spiky pasture grass. In the 1960s, Guatemala City also dis- watch over Guatemala’s reserve of global A new CONAP building, a handsome tributed concessions for oil production to genetic patrimony. one-story cabin-like structure, stood foreign companies under a post-coup pe- Those were heady days. International whole, but empty. troleum law. The recognition of Petén as journalists, including myself, reported on In Laguna del Tigre, ranchers abound, a land rich in natural resources, besides a new kind of no-go territory, at least for and drug families use the cattle spreads hardwoods, had begun. migrants. The northernmost third of the as a screen for runways to transport Tropical rainforests cover only five Petén became devoted to parks, biotopes drugs. The small planes may be damaged percent of the earth, but nurture half and multiple-use zones. We watched an on landing or simply abandoned once a of all animal and plant species. Petén is influx of environmentalists, scholars and drop is made, leading Drug Enforcement home to endangered species, some found scientists. I visited communities where Agency Operations Chief Michael Brun nowhere else. When Vinicio Cerezo took artisan families, supported in business to characterize northern Guatemala as office in 1987, heading the first civilian methods by outsiders, learned to live for “an aircraft graveyard.” A vast majority government in a generation, he wanted a year from products of a single tree, in- of the cocaine destined for the United to be seen as the “green President.” Na- stead of slashing and burning dozens to States now transits Central America, re- tional and international NGOs arrived plant corn. I met women trained to use ports a 2010 U.S. Army Strategic Stud- to help save the rainforest. In 1989, the solar ovens and easily made, low-smoke ies Institute monograph. In a hearing Law of Protected Areas aimed to pre- stoves that replaced open cook-fires, sav- of the Subcommittee on the Western vent timber companies, cattle ranchers ing not only the forest, but the women’s Hemisphere of the Committee on Inter- and farmers from destroying trees. The eyesight as well. In multiple-use zones, national Relations, Rep. Robert Menen- following year‘s creation of the four mil- communities received concessions for dez (D. NJ) asked, “ What will happen to lion acre Maya Biosphere Reserve aimed sustainable forestry projects. the people of Guatemala if 75 percent of to protect jungle, stop new settlements In the wake of all the investment and the cocaine arriving in the United States and provide development assistance to hopes, Petén’s 21st century began with continues to pass through Guatemala?” already-resident communities, giving the unexpected—the bolder presence of a Between 2006, when that hearing took

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 55 guatemala: legacies of violence

place, and 2008, reports the Army insti- Cuatro Balam is set to be anchored by tute monograph, cocaine transit through the sprawling El Mirador archaeological Guatemala jumped 47 percent. site, with the Maya world’s largest pyra- The CONAP administrator said one mid, Danta, and many smaller sites. Deep drug lord offered him a deal: goons would in thick rainforest seven miles south of the police the rainforest against destruction, Mexican border, El Mirador is reached by if CONAP would ignore drug drops. “I three-day trek from the nearest town, or told him no,” said the official, shrugging by helicopter. By 2023, however, Cuatro his shoulders ruefully. Balam expects to run a train at ten miles CONAP, unarmed, has little effective per hour on jungle tracks, with noise “im- authority and often not even enough gas perceptible,” to El Mirador, Piedras Ne- for its vehicles, although it does manage gras, Tikal and Uaxactun. Critics suggest to capture ill-gotten timber, often from tracks may interrupt some animal trails, trucks. Police authority remains unre- maintenance access roads will destroy spected. To hunt down a farmer suspect- more forest, and question to whom the ed of cutting trees, for instance, it is the train’s noise will be “imperceptible.” army that goes in, accompanied by CON- The sign says the community was estab- Details are hard to pin down. “There AP and police. The sense of 1980s-style lished before the area was named “Protect- is much yet to get concrete,” said Alex- militarization returns. Drug traffickers ed,” implying its right to stay in place. ander Urizar, director of the Institute of appear to remain unaffected. Anthropology and History. “The vision of When I arrived to live in Guatemala ing threats of violence. The sold land be- the Maya Biosphere was protection. Cua- in 1989, many new acquaintances told comes part of the growing African palm tro Balam is a way to conserve it, to make me the political violence of the 1980s un- oil industry, held by private companies. sure people know about it, and make sure folded in the capital and the highlands, Petén is not only Guatemala’s largest it generates resources.” and in the Ixcán, not Petén, honestly department, but also the fastest growing The Global Heritage Fund has named seeming to believe it was so. This was in terms of population, from just 25,000 the Mirador project area as one of the prior to the appearance of comprehen- in the 1960s to an estimated 614,000 most important endangered world cul- sive reports such as the Church’s Recov- residents today. The Cuatro Balam ini- tural heritage sites. It is indisputably the ery of Historical Memory (REMHI), and tiative, announced with much fanfare in country’s highest profile archeological en- the UN-backed Historical Clarification 2008, plans to meet job and development terprise. An executive director of the foun- Commission (CEH). Traveling in the needs for Peténeros by expanding tour- dation that sponsors the Project is actor north, however, I soon realized the war ism, granting rights to private companies and director Mel Gibson, who produced hit communities once invited to make a for business in the rainforest area, and the 2006 film, Apocalypto, controver- new life on the land. Hundreds had died, aiming to bring up to a million tourists to sial among Maya scholars. Archaeologist the majority at army hands. The region’s Petén each year. (Tikal, the best-known Richard Hansen, the project director who displaced, and many others uprooted ancient Petén Maya site, currently draws has worked in Mirador for thirty years, when hundreds of villages disappeared between 140,000 and 180,000 visitors emphasizes the need to preserve Mira- elsewhere in the country, sought survival yearly.) Cuatro Balam plans include a dor’s rainforest environment, not simply in Petén’s remote jungle, where they have university specializing in environment structures. He has said he envisions a five- lived as farmers, some for more than studies, a belt of hotels and resorts, and star eco-lodge developed by Guatemalan twenty years, without electricity or medi- an agricultural sector to keep farmers out entrepreneurs as an example of the kind cal clinics. In 1990, eleven “illegal” com- of the core area. of tourism that could draw in funds to munities existed in Laguna del Tigre. Critics say such development by pri- help preserve the Biosphere. Today they number thirty-seven, with a vate companies will destroy much of “This is the last gasp,” Hansen told total population of about 45,000. what is left of the Petén rainforest. Lo- the Guatemala magazine, The Revue, in Even Peténeros with legal land titles do cal residents complain they are not con- June. “If we fail, we lose the whole basin. not always rest easy. Parcel holders outside sulted about plans that may change their I want to preserve it for the future.” the protected areas, in a block of commu- lives considerably. It remains a question Cuatro Balam itself, however, can ar- nities south of Las Pozas, battled the bu- whether Peténeros, traditionally farm- guably be seen as a development project reaucracy’s famous trámites (paperwork) ers, cattlemen and others who work with and investment opportunity rather than a for twelve years until receiving proper the land and forest, will easily become a conservation effort. The idea behind it is documentation for their land. Now many tourism workforce, or even be interested that poor countries cannot afford to rope say they are under pressure to sell, includ- in the jobs. off sensitive land, that it must produce

56 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by mary jo mcconahay development and beyond

some economic gain for a nation and its people. Colom has emphasized partner- ship with private enterprise; already sup- porting the El Mirador “centerpiece” are major partners such as Wal-Mart Central America, construction material giant Ce- mentos Progreso and several banks, with the Inter-American Development Bank matching private funds. Residents of Laguna del Tigre worry. “Cuatro Balam is the biggest monster,” said one long-time area farmer. He was attending a meeting with 25 men and women in La Libertad, to discuss chal- lenges to their vulnerable situation. “What they want is to eliminate our com- munities, but we will defend life.” A government video describing Cua- tro Balam in the year 2023 (http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=pt3EPvuk8Qk), calls its land “free of invaders,” operating under the “rule of law.” Two Paths to Development On the feast of St. Amelia, patron of one Laguna del Tigre community, a Distinct but Convergent? By David Daepp Catholic priest baptized babies, asked a blessing for wild forest animals, and ad- dressed the congregation’s concerns in a homily. “First before all is the human Some twenty miles down a rough cobble- despite distinctions, could it be that being,” he said, “and then companies. We stone path through the forests of rural their paths are parallel, even conver- can join with other groups in the monte Guatemala, visitors like myself will gent? I recently had the opportunity to to make our situation known.” find a community-based organization take a firsthand look at the routes these Petén will continue to be a promised (CBO) called Sindicato de Trabajadores two organizations took to arrive where land for Guatemalans looking for work Independientes de la Finca Alianza, El they are now. and land. It will be a proving ground for Palmar (STIAP). Its self-constructed Did these two CBOs start from the commitment to the Peace Accords, a test office is equipped with internet and dis- same point? Defining ‘point’ as ‘ca- of will and capacity to fight drug traffic plays development awards for achieve- pability’ in the development context and corruption. Guatemalan and inter- ments from alternative energy to cof- coined by Harvard economist Amartya national visitors, meanwhile, will come as fee exports. Another CBO, the Comité Sen, STIAP and CPSS seem to have I once did, for the love of sites of ancient Prosolar Sector Sibinal (CPSS), lies 125 started from unequal positions in pre- Maya civilization, the adventure found miles in another direction, tucked in paring for the projects they intended to on Petén’s rivers and in its wildlands, and the small village of Sipacapa, San Mar- accomplish. STIAP’s leadership exudes the chance to know Central America’s cos. What this small community has ac- practical hands-on knowledge that sug- own enchanting rainforest, vast stretches complished became evident to me only gests expertise in getting things done. of jungle that exist much as they did at after carefully listening to the stories of Projects blossom across their land while the time of creation. the CBO members. new ideas ripen in the minds of its able Both CBOs, operating in impover- leaders. CPSS’ guiding members don’t Mary Jo McConahay is co-producer of ished remote areas, have taken on proj- have the same directional drive. The the documentary, Discovering Dominga. ects in environmental sustainability difference is in education, past and cur- Her book, Maya Roads, a thirty-year nar- such as reforestation and production rent alike. rative of a journalist’s travel in Chiapas and management of alternative energy. STIAP had the foresight to build a and Petén, appears August, 2011, from Each has traversed a distinct path. But school within its finca and shape its ed- Chicago Review Press. www.chicagor- ucational curriculum. Children have ac- eviewpress.com Cluster of mud huts with solar panels cess to both formal teaching and trade

photo by david daepp drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 57 guatemala: legacies of violence

tricity to power both the homes of local families and machines used to process the macadamia nuts grown on STIAP’s lush hillside. SGP helped STIAP attain the technical expertise to set up the hydro- electric generator and link it to the local grid. They also helped the women of the community to become the financial man- agers of the grant funds. Today STIAP is a shining star of GEF’s Small Grants Pro- gramme, which currently provides grants of up to $50,000 to community-based organizations seeking to undertake proj- ects in the Global Environment Facility’s focal areas of biodiversity conservation, prevention of land degradation, climate change adaptation, protection of interna- tional waters, and reduction of persistent organic pollutants. Speaking with steady enthusiasm, STIAP member/worker works hard to carry out the process of drying the coffee beans. Amado depicted the syndicate’s history: the acquisition and operation of a biod- skills such as production of hydroelectric bers averted seizure of their land in 2002 iesel generator and hydroelectric plant, energy, recycling of fuels and hotel ad- by a Panamanian bank to which they the water purification plant, coffee and ministration. This dual track system has were temporarily indebted. The next macadamia processing operations and produced a cadre of highly educated and year, they established contact with Fondo an ecotourism hotel with stunning views. focused youth who will someday succeed de Tierras, a state-run organization that He proudly showed me the syndicate’s the current leaders of STIAP. The syndi- agreed to act as a mediator, helping them awards for export of macadamia and cof- cate’s proven system is transferred to the through credit negotiations, and subse- fee. STIAP earned its impressive array of next generation over the course of years, quently becoming their angel creditor. In accolades in large part because of its abil- even decades, by working together on an a fortunate turn of events, the Panamani- ity to collect, store, distribute and utilize array of projects. an bank went bankrupt and relinquished hydroelectricity. The times when coffee At CPSS, by contrast, children must the land claim to the Banco Industrial price fluctuations made it impossible for walk a considerable distance to reach de Guatemala, which, in collaboration STIAP’s management to pay its workers the school where they are taught reading with Fondo de Tierras, returned the land were almost distant memories. and writing. While CPSS adults (includ- rights to STIAP. Today STIAP is a shining star of GEF’s ing the CBO leadership) do have some A month later, STIAP signed a Mem- Small Grants Programme, which provides background in trades, most of them lack orandum of Agreement with The Small grants of up to $50,000 to community- elementary skills of reading and writing, a Grants Programme (SGP) for a grant of based organizations seeking to undertake distinct disadvantage for the community. $21,073.65. SGP is funded by the Global projects in the Global Environment Fa- Yet not long ago, these two organiza- Environment Facility (GEF) as a corpo- cility’s focal areas of biodiversity conser- tions found themselves in similar circum- rate program, implemented by the Unit- vation, prevention of land degradation, stances. The current success of STIAP, an ed Nations Development Programme climate change mitigation, protection of organization which to my untrained eye (UNDP) on behalf of the GEF partner- international waters, and elimination of seemed to have no trouble in turning sus- ship, and executed by the United Nations persistent organic pollutants. tainable development ideas into realized Office for Project Services (UNOPS). To Today, SGP is working with CPSS to projects, is in fact the product of an entire date, program funding from the GEF help their community reach the level of generation tested by bank struggles and totals approximately $401 million, with self-sufficiency and expertise displayed economic strife. Sitting down with Javier UNDP and UNOPS collaborating to ad- by STIAP. Local SGP staff Alejandro Amado, the syndicate manager, I learned minister more than 6,800 small grants to Santos and Liseth Martínez spent 12 how the organization faced, and managed local Community Based Organizations. days assessing the community’s needs, to overcome, the obstacles in its path. The grant money was for a project formulating a plan and budget for a proj- Amado explained how STIAP mem- focusing on the production of hydroelec- ect, and training community members to

58 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by david daepp development and beyond

bring CPSS to the stage of project initia- tion. Working with community leaders who had never considered mapping out a project before commencing, let alone drafting a project proposal, Santos and Martínez provided the leaders with guid- ance on the best ways to turn vague ideas into a concrete plan. Following the standard SGP process, CPSS’s project proposal was reviewed and approved by the National Steer- ing Committee, and the CBO signed a Memorandum of Agreement with SGP for $19,098 that would be paid out in smaller disbursements over a one-year period. Their project included training the community’s adults to install a so- lar panel on each of the community’s 36 mud huts. Solar energy from the panels would be used to power five LED light Alejandro Santos, SGP National Coordinator, explains to CPSS grantee member about better bulbs per hut, displacing the use of en- planting and plant maintenance techniques. vironmentally harmful fuels such as diesel for generating electricity. These bers could design and carry out their own the export, hydroelectricity and ecotour- solar-powered lights would allow CPSS projects without SGP’s careful guidance. ism operations of the syndicate. The youth children to study at home at night after a As we drove away, my colleagues once of CPSS will become literate and learn long day of school and work in the fields. again emphasized the challenges faced valuable life skills currently foreign to their Following the solar panel installation, by a largely illiterate leadership and parents. And sometime in the not-too-dis- CPSS members, with the help of SGP, di- what a triumph it was that such a group tant future, they are likely to manage their versified their environmental initiative by is now capable of sustaining fruitful en- own micro-development projects without reforesting nearly five acres with 8,000 vironmental projects. Thinking back to the need for the outside assistance from native trees, thus helping to reduce land Amartya Sen’s development concept of which their elders benefited. Despite the degradation. “capability,” it was clear that the learning clear distinctions between these projects, Santos spoke to the group about its tools made accessible by SGP had proved the transition to the next generation may priorities for the project in its final phase. catalytic in shifting CPSS’s vision from bring a convergence in its achievement of He probed group members for ideas on one of mere subsistence to one of enrich- the exact brand of self-sufficiency that is how they would utilize the final grant ing both the environment and the poten- the aim of SGP’s programs in 123 develop- disbursement to achieve the best pos- tial of its youth. Though it is not imme- ing countries worldwide. sible results in the realm of reforestation diately obvious, CPSS is as much a star of and climate change mitigation. When the Small Grants Programme as STIAP. David Daepp is Associate Portfolio their responses drifted from the central There, people without access to financ- Manager with the Small Grants Pro- premises, he guided them back on course ing, expertise, or training were provided gramme of the United Nations Office with helpful suggestions. credit and empowered through practical for Project Services (UNOPS), where he The SGP team also addressed the hands-on education. manages the Latin America & Caribbe- treatment of women in the community. The projects I visited in the Guatema- an portfolio. He holds a B.A. in Econom- Aware of a history of domestic violence lan highlands with my colleagues both ics from the College of the Holy Cross and mistreatment of the women in the faced challenges of access to resources and an M.A. in Development Econom- community, Santos talked with the group and tools for development. And while ics from Fordham University. He has about the importance of gender equality they both were assisted greatly by SGP, written previously for ReVista as well and respect for women, making it clear their paths to the present are undoubt- as Américas magazine (published by the that abusive practices were unacceptable. edly distinct. Organization of American States) and Much work still needed to be done to Looking to the future, we anticipate The Long Term View (Massachusetts bring the individual and collective capac- that the youth of STIAP will be the ones to School of Law at Andover). He can be ities of CPSS to a level at which its mem- manage the ecotourism hotel and expand contacted at [email protected].

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 59 guatemala: legacies of violence

Making of the Modern An Architectural Photoessay by Peter Giesemann

The postwar return of several young Guatemalan architects Our architecture has slowly evolved from its pre-Columbian like myself, graduates from mainly Mexican and U.S. universi- heritage represented by massive stone constructions richly dec- ties (including the Harvard Graduate School of Design) gave orated with bas-reliefs and stucco masks, and stellae inscribed rise to the development of what would be known as Guatema- with delicate carvings of noblemen and Mayan glyphs. la’s modern architecture. The Spanish Colonial Period brought in churches and im- Like the country’s traditional architecture, modern build- portant buildings influenced by the Renaissance and European ings are inspired by the country’s privileged climate and luxu- Baroque, along with domestic constructions which consisted, rious vegetation, favoring a style that integrates interior space basically, of a central courtyard surrounded by rooms and with the outside and permits greenery and light to assume a roofed with clay tiles. very important role in diverse environments. Both tendencies produced in our architecture a very strong

60 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 Photos by hugo pérez (mayan ruins), unknown (cathedral), ange Bourda (ixchel museum, deck house, Galerias Miraflores Shopping Center), andres Asturias (Oakland Mall Shopping Ctr., Private Residence, patio house) development and beyond

Photos (clockwise from top left): Mayan ruins, Guatemala’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Textiles and Clothing, patio house, private residence, Galerias Miraflores Shopping Center, Oakland Mall Shopping Center, and deck house.

aesthetic base and a very particular sense of proportion reflect- University in Guatemala City. ed in most of its magnificent examples of modern buildings. Here, in this photoessay, you can see the legacies of the past The 20th century brought us movements that were flourish- and the shaping of a modern future of modernity. ing in the Western world, particularly in Europe. These were exemplified by Art Deco, the principles of the “Nouveau Esprit” Peter Giesemann, a member of the Harvard Club of Guate- of Corbusier and the dictums of the Bauhaus School. mala, graduated from Harvard College in 1961, received his Since the early 1960s, Guatemala’s young architects have Master in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of produced a very rich array of building styles. One example, Design in 1965 and became affiliated with the Universidad de where the Mayan textile design blends in with a central court- San Carlos de Guatemala in 1968. A practicing architect, he yard scheme, is the Museo Ixchel at the Francisco Marroquín has published widely in magazines and books.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 61 guatemala: legacies of violence

Central America Competitiveness Project

A Harvard Legacy by Emmanuel Seidner

Harvard University has played a key role Central American business school found- With the understanding that com- in developing a “culture” of competitive- ed in the early 1960s by Harvard Business petitiveness involves all the sectors of ness in the Central American region and school faculty members. society, the initiative to develop a Na- especially in my country, Guatemala. Through short-term research and tional Competitiveness Agenda for Gua- The 1996 Guatemalan Peace Accords analysis on urgent problems of the re- temala needed the active participation were a turning point in creating an en- gion, the project members collected data of government entities, manufacturing vironment of peace for the first time in and built the understanding necessary and labor sectors, academic institutions, more than one hundred years, and bring- to form policy recommendations. These journalists, civil society groups and the ing hope for social change and economic were delivered to the regional govern- international community. Accordingly, growth in our region. With the war over, ments and formed the basis for a series we held 19 dialogue workshops bringing it was time to face the challenges of of studies that explored the strength of together Guatemalan men and women achieving a sustainable economic devel- the economy, the prospects for the tour- from every social sector and every region. opment and protecting the natural envi- ist industry, the ecologically sound use of The resulting report, the National Com- ronment while advancing social and hu- natural resources, and the judicial system petitiveness Agenda 2005-2015, pulled man development. with a focus on property rights. together the vision, feedback and expec- The Central America Project began in Guatemala was the only country of tations of almost 500 Guatemalans from 1996 under the sponsorship of the Har- the region to implement a joint public- all sectors of the society. It incorporated vard Institute for International Develop- private effort in the spirit of these studies, the input of many studies and proposals ment (HIID). Led by senior faculty mem- the National Competitiveness Program made previously by individual leaders or bers at the university, the project aimed (PRONACOM), founded in 1998 and institutions, and was especially inspired to provide research, analysis, and policy continuing under three different demo- by the methodology that the Central recommendations that focused on the cratic governments. This has been an ini- America Project from Harvard Univer- long-term growth and economic integra- tiative I have followed very closely since sity and INCAE brought to our region in tion vital to Central America´s develop- its inception: I was the first Executive Di- the late 1990s. ment. The three-year initiative was led by rector (1998-2000) of the Program and The National Competitiveness Agen- HIID, along with other Harvard faculties, was Presidential Commissioner of Com- da of Guatemala (2005-2015) is based on and the Instituto Centroamericano de petitiveness and Investment during the the cooperation of the private and pub- Administración de Empresas (INCAE), a Berger administration (2004-2008). lic sectors. It seeks to achieve a healthy,

62 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 artist credit name and url educated, trained and inclusive soci- ety; modernization and institutional strengthening; balance and environ- mental sustainability; decentraliza- tion and local development; techno- logical and productive infrastructure; and strengthening production and export. The Agenda presents proposals for action and economic and social poli- cies in the short, medium, and long terms on the national, regional, and municipal levels. Local economic development is a key element in the strategy for so- cial and economic development of Guatemala. It can only be achieved if the country moves forward in its decentralization, strengthening local governments and encouraging social participation. This process requires investment and making institutional adjustments that strengthen rural development in an integrated man- ner and improve the ties between dif- ferent cities around the country in a framework of equity and respect for cultural and ethnic diversity. Harvard University began an effort 15 years ago that has contributed to develop a “culture” of competitiveness Development Strategies in the Central American region that is meant to reduce many existing gaps and the 1996 Peace Accords and promote a sustainable develop- ment for all the citizens of our region. Promising Peace and Perpetuating Violence? Competitiveness is not a sprint of 100 meters! ... It is a marathon and we by Leah Aylward need to keep going and continue on the right direction!

Emmanuel Seidner, a John F. Ken- The civil war ravaged Guatemala’s social continue to mark the lived experience of nedy School of Government Mason and political fabric for over three de- many Guatemalans. Fellow (MPA 2001), is president of cades. It came to an official end with the When I first visited Guatemala in Au- the Harvard Alumni Association signing of the 1996 Peace Accords and a gust 2003, I saw some of the effects of the of Guatemala and vice-president of sense of anticipation for the country’s fu- country’s insecurities and inequalities at INCAE in Guatemala. With more ture. The Accords gave rise to optimism first hand. The contrast between the city’s than 12 years of experience in areas that a reduction of violence and social high-rise buildings and gated communi- of sustainable development and injustice could be achieved through de- ties complete with heavily armed security competitiveness, he now heads up his velopment. Yet, more than a decade after guards and the simple dwellings along the family’s pharmaceutical company in the signing and the implementation of road in rural Guatemala was sharp. What Central America and coordinates the subsequent national and international I remember most clearly from the trip Guatemala chapter of the Business development frameworks, extreme lev- were the impressions from the bus ride I Council of Latin America (CEAL). els of poverty, inequality and violence took from Antigua to Lake Atitlán.

photos by: carlos Sebastián/prensa libre (left), laura blacklow (above) drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 63 guatemala: legacies of violence

As I peered out the bus window, I a more nuanced and better understand- (CEH 1999) concluded that the violent watched many indigenous men and ing as to why high levels of violence and conflict was marked by antagonistic and women in brightly woven clothing with socioeconomic inequalities persist in discriminatory economic, political, social bundles of sticks, flowers and corn walk- Guatemala despite more than a decade and cultural factors that had historical ing alongside the road. I was mesmer- of development strategies aimed at over- roots. The CEH determined that Guate- ized by the beauty of their textiles and coming these problems. mala’s political system was entrenched the landscape of their home land. And Violence in Guatemala is far-reach- in an economic structure in which the distressed by the conditions of poverty in ing. In the past few years, the country concentration of wealth remained in the which they lived. has experienced rising levels of diverse hands of the non-indigenous ladino mi- “If only they had increased access to forms of violence: from politically mo- nority. Moreover, the continued absence markets to sell the products they are car- tivated violence, drug-related violence, of an effective state social policy accentu- rying,” I thought to myself, “their lives and violence against women to countless ated the historical dynamics of inequality would unquestionably improve.” As an acts of killings and kidnappings. Guate- and exclusion of indigenous groups dur- undergraduate at Harvard and at EARTH mala’s homicide rates make it one of the ing this time. University in Costa Rica, I had been taught most violent countries in Latin America. Conceived as a turning point in Gua- that development was the panacea for The United Nations Office on Drugs and temala’s history, the 1996 Peace Accords many social problems, and that the lack of Crime has concluded that Guatemala’s were supposed to help overcome these market integration was a key obstacle to violence can be explained by the country’s factors that fueled violence during the bettering the lives of small-scale farmers high levels of socioeconomic inequality civil war. The Accords’ hundreds of sub- throughout Central America. I thought and poverty, which appear to be “linked stantive commitments sought to bring that the problems of poverty, inequality to both crime and human rights abuses, about significant changes to the social, and violent conflict in Guatemala could be because of justifiable resentment on the economic and political structures of solved through further development. And, part of the excluded and justifiable fear Guatemala. The Agreement on Identity increased economic growth and enhanced on the part of the advantaged.” and Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the in- market opportunities would improve the Violence, inequality, and poverty per- digenous agreement) and the Agreement standards of life for the rural indigenous sist despite Guatemala’s stable econo- on Social and Economic Aspects and the populations of these countries. my and continued moderate economic Agrarian Situation (the socioeconomic It has now been seven years since my growth since the signing of the Accords agreement) were two of the thirteen first visit to Guatemala, a country I’ll re- and implementation of market-led “devel- agreements that focused on overcoming socioeconomic inequalities and social ex- clusion in order to redress the country’s high levels of violence. These agreements Why do high levels of violence and inequality persist in spelled out the need for a more equitable Guatemala despite more than a decade of development distribution of wealth and resources, agrarian and land reform and increased strategies aimed at overcoming these problems? participation of the population in devel- opment processes. Both agreements maintained that turn to before the year is out to conduct opment as economic growth” initiatives. the government had the responsibility fieldwork for my Ph.D. studies. But this Sustained economic growth has not led to to restore or pay compensation for plun- time, I find myself completely challeng- a more equitable distribution of wealth, dered lands of indigenous peoples and ing my previously held beliefs that Gua- however. Neither has it led to widespread to provide access to land for small-scale temala’s problems can be solved through implementation of social policies or to im- farmers. Likewise, they highlighted the mainstream development practices. My proved social indicators in health, educa- importance of a more equitable distribu- research aims to develop a critique of tion or nutrition. Indeed, income inequal- tion of wealth and of greater participa- mainstream perspectives that argue that ities have increased over the past several tion of the country’s inhabitants in de- violence is caused by a ‘lack of develop- years, and Guatemala continues to have velopment processes in order to generate ment’ and can be mitigated through in- one of the lowest per capita social spend- political, social, and economic structures creased economic growth and market ing rates in the region. that could focus on the consolidation of opportunities. By following an alter- Searching for the causes of the Gua- peace. Though the agreements shared native analytical approach, one that is temalan Civil War that took more than these development objectives, their strat- historically grounded and that includes 200,000 lives from 1954 to 1996, the egies and polices put forth to achieve ethnographic fieldwork, I hope to gain Commission for Historical Clarification these aims differed greatly.

64 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 The indigenous agreement focused primarily on substantial legal reform. This legislative reform was considered necessary to protect indigenous peoples’ rights to manage their own internal affairs in accordance with customary norms, to own land collectively, and to determine their priorities with regards to social ser- vices such as health, education and infra- structure. The reform would provide a legal basis for wealth redistribution and for holding the government responsible for providing the funding to indigenous communities to achieve these goals. In contrast, policy prescriptions in the socio- economic agreement shifted focus away from legal reform and redistribution of wealth and land in light of historical in- equalities and exclusion. Instead, develop- ment strategies within the socioeconomic agreement centered on citizens “meeting their own needs” and on integration of the individual into the market. Substantial land reform as conceived in the indigenous agreement was also rejected, as state-led land redistribu- tion became reframed and undermined through market-oriented development prescriptions laid out in the socioeco- nomic agreement. Instead of compensa- tion for or restitution of indigenous lands through legal and judicial reform, the so- cioeconomic agreement promoted the es- tablishment of a transparent land market and a land trust fund to be set up within a national broad-based banking system that would provide credit and promote savings, preferably among micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. This adherence to market norms and market relations was also prevalent in policy prescriptions leading to increasing participation in development processes. Whereas the indigenous agreement an- ticipated a move away from market-based development mechanisms towards alter- native social and economic frameworks, policy prescriptions set forth in the socio- economic agreement focused on citizen participation in market-based terms. In- dividual market integration was deemed important in order to promote productiv- Photographer Laura Blacklow captures the image of a boy on a boat and a Mayan girl with a ity, economic growth and wider use of the woven ribbon.

photos by laura blacklow/ www.lblacklow.com drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 65 guatemala: legacies of violence

labor force. Hence international and na- with the desire of the elite to maintain minor reform of existing legal structures tional frameworks associated with achiev- their concentrated land holdings, has also or through mainstream conceptions of de- ing the development objectives laid out in contributed to widespread unrest in the velopment focused on market-relations. the Accords also relied, almost entirely, on countryside. Moreover, market-led land Through my ethnographic fieldwork market-oriented mandates and neoliberal reform has not led to substantive land re- later this year, I hope to deepen my un- policy prescriptions to redress the coun- distribution, compensation or protection derstanding of the linkages between de- try’s social problems. of communally owned land. By the end velopment, social injustice and violence This emphasis on “development as of 2008, the government had not acted by giving a voice to people who are affect- growth” and market-oriented mandates, upon the 2006 recommendations of the ed by violence in their daily lives. How however, is extremely problematic in the UN Committee on the Elimination of Ra- do these people view the relationship Guatemalan context. Though such ap- cial Discrimination, which outlined the between specific development policies, proaches may increase economic growth government’s responsibility in adopting social and economic inequalities and vio- in terms of GDP, they do very little, if a national bill to demarcate historical in- lence? What are the complexities and di- anything, to substantially lessen socioeco- digenous lands and return territories tra- verse factors that influence their under- nomic inequalities and forms of violence ditionally owned by indigenous groups. standing of these issues? I also hope to that stem from these inequities. Without Overall, the mainstream (neoliberal) articulate development alternatives of- redistribution of wealth and land and pro- “development as economic growth” ap- fered by certain groups within the coun- vision of quality social services, reliance proach has led to continued, if not wors- try. What sort of competing perspectives on these market-led development policies ened, conditions of inequality, unequal of development exist in Guatemala? Can has actually precluded the achievement land redistribution and exclusionary links be drawn between these perspec- of broader objectives of social change laid processes of development in Guatemala, tives and areas of the country that are ei- out in both agreements. all of which were acknowledged in the ther more or less affected by violence? Pressures from the IMF and World Accords as factors for violence through- The “development as growth” ap- Bank to stabilize the economy, reduce out the civil war. Indeed, much of the proach to solving the country’s social governmental social expenditures and lift violence in the contemporary context problems has not worked. Exploring de- price controls on basic necessities, com- can be linked, at least partially, to the velopment alternatives is critically impor- bined with the country’s continuing low government’s choices in following the tant for Guatemala’s future and for bet- tax levels (despite provisions set out in the policy prescriptions laid out in the socio- tering the lived experiences of individuals socioeconomic agreement to raise taxes), economic agreement. and communities throughout the country. What I have learned since that bus ride that sparked my interest in Guatemala’s social issues in the first place is that cer- Emphasis on development as growth and market- tain conceptions of development are not oriented mandates is problematic in the Guatemalan necessarily or always consonant with the reduction of social violence, socioeco- context with its socioeconomic inequalities. nomic inequalities and social exclusion. If competing claims of development, such as those articulated by groups involved with have left more than half of all Guatema- People wanted change. The provisions the drafting and signing of the indigenous lans experiencing poverty and unemploy- of the indigenous agreement sought to agreement, are recognized and taken seri- ment with little access to social services. transcend the existing order and to pro- ously, then social and political change that The results of limited spending on social tect the rights of people to develop and will lead to the reduction of violence and needs have also been disastrous. In the participate in a range of social and eco- long-term peace just might be possible. past ten years, food crises have lead to se- nomic development alternatives. Draft- vere malnutrition and death. Almost half ers of this agreement considered that new Leah Aylward, Harvard College ’05, is a of all children under the age of five in the legislation and a shift away from the eco- Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science and country continue to suffer from malnutri- nomic and political status quo would be International Studies at the University tion. In the urban areas, approximately a necessary to ensure that indigenous lands, of Queensland, where she is writing her quarter of Guatemala’s population lives in customary norms and rights to their own thesis titled “Development and Violence: slums that lack basic services. development and social processes would Rethinking the Analytical Framework.” The deteriorating economic situation be protected. In other words, the indig- Her research focuses on Guatemala and of Guatemala’s rural poor under market- enous agreement recognized that these Colombia. She can be reached at leahayl- led policy prescriptions, in conjunction objectives could not be achieved through [email protected].

66 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 immigration

The lives of immigrants are increasingly connected to their homelands. A declining global economy and traumatic family separations create new challenges. Guatemalan immigrants often have unusual circumstances as they are Mayas, often with little or no Spanish skills. The Postville immigration raid in Iowa drew special attention to these problems.

n Increasing Visibility of Guatemalan Immigrants 68 n The Postville Immigration Raid 70 n A Mayan Financial Crash 72

artistphoto bycredit carlos name Sebastián/prensa and url libre guatemala: legacies of violence

Increasing Visibility of Guatemalan Immigrants

The Great Raid in Postville, Iowa By Susanne Jonas

Guatemalans have been migrating to the United States in large numbers since the late 1970s, but were not highly visible to the U.S. public as Guatemalans. That changed on May 12, 2008, when agents of Immigration and Customs Enforce- ment (ICE) launched the largest single- site workplace raid against undocu- mented immigrant workers up to that time. As helicopters circled overhead, ICE agents rounded up and arrested 389 undocumented immigrant workers at the Agriprocessors kosher meat-pack- ing plant in Postville, Iowa. Of those arrested, 293 (three out of every four) were Guatemalans, the rest Mexicans. Although prior raids had affected many Guatemalans, seldom before had Guate- malans been so prominent in the United

States as a specific national-origin - im Rosario Toj, a worker under house arrest, looks out the window at an Iowa winter’s day. She migrant group. Also notable, a signifi- was saving up money to buy her father in Guatemala a new prosthetic foot when she was cant number of these Guatemalans were caught in the raid. Mayas, for whom Spanish was a second language, and whose comprehension of them. Pleading guilty to the slightly less- restees (and of the 306 charged criminal- Spanish was faulty. er felony of Social Security fraud would ly) were found to have used the Social Se- After their arrest, buses from the mean accepting a five-month detention curity numbers of real people, and these Department of Homeland Security (the (nearly the maximum sentence) in a U.S. were primarily the unlucky ones impris- parent agency of ICE) took the undocu- federal prison, and subsequently being oned. Most of the 270 convicted—232 of mented workers in chains and shackles deported without a hearing. If they re- them (86 percent) being Guatemalans— to the National Cattle Congress facility in fused to plead guilty, they would spend pleaded guilty, in order to be deported nearby Waterloo, Iowa, which ICE had an indefinite time (at least two years) in as quickly as possible and reunited with rented well ahead of the raid. This facil- prison before facing trial on maximum family members back home. After be- ity became a detention center, and the charges and being deported. Because ing charged, over 40 of the arrested Electric Park Ballroom within the com- they were being processed in groups, at migrants, mostly women, were released pound became a makeshift courtroom an unprecedented speed and without from prison for “humanitarian” reasons, for expedited, “fast-track” processing of adequate access to legal counsel (the mainly to care for their children. But the the hundreds of arrestees—in groups lawyers for their “defense” were criminal conditions of their release were far from of ten, with nine of these groups being rather than immigration lawyers, and humanitarian: they were not permitted processed daily. ICE officials, supported each lawyer handled some 17 cases), the to work to provide for their children, and by other federal and state enforcement immigrants had virtually no time to con- they had to wear heavy ankle shackles/ units, pressured the arrested migrants sider their options. Many of them did not GPS devices that required daily recharg- to plead guilty to the felony crime of “ag- even understand what a Social Security ing while on their ankles. Moreover, gravated identity theft” for their use of number was. many were separated from family mem- Social Security numbers not assigned to In the end, 270 of the original 389 ar- bers, who served prison time in other

68 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by Jennifer Szymaszek immigration

states and were then deported. ICE program “Endgame,” designed in excesses of U.S. “enforcement-only” im- There was another significant dimen- 2003 to find and deport as many deport- migration policies of the early 2000s, sion of this case: Agriprocessors’ massive able immigrants as possible. Longer- with its mass criminalization and de- violation of U.S. labor laws, such as with- range, ICE had intended to establish the portation of undocumented workers. It holding pay, employing under-age chil- Postville raid as a precedent and model revealed just how deeply exclusionary an- dren, as well as exposing workers to toxic for future mass raids against immigrants ti-immigrant measures had become em- chemicals and dangerous machinery. using false Social Security numbers. bedded since the landmark 1996 laws— Some of these charges were already being But it never became a precedent. affecting Legal Permanent Residents as investigated before the raid; they also led Among various factors was the signifi- well as undocumented immigrants—that to debates within Jewish communities cant national publicity about the meth- stripped away rights and services for all about whether these abuses violated the ods used in this raid—first exposed in the non-citizens. Furthermore, it highlighted standards for kosher-certified products. national spotlight when court transla- the goals of ICE’s “Endgame” deportation But when the time came (June, 2010) for tor Erik Camayd-Freixas went public in program that was part of the post-9/11 the trial of Agriprocessors’ owner Sho- June/July 2008 with a detailed account national security agenda. lom Rubashkin regarding those 9,000+ of all that he had seen. This was followed blatant labor violations, he beat these by Congressional House Judiciary Com- The View from Guatemala charges, because the jury simply did not mittee hearings in July. In addition, many From the viewpoint of the Guatemalan believe the testimony of the immigrants, different aspects of the raid were kept in immigrants, Postville revealed migra- including the children who had worked the national public spotlight for over two tion’s downsides in the beginning of there under-age. (In a separate trial in years by the New York Times both in news the 21st century: the realities of fam- June 2010, however, Rubashkin was con- coverage (primarily by Julia Preston) and ily separations and cross-border family victed on charges of financially fraudu- in editorials. In subsequent workplace disruptions and damages. Some of the lent practices, some involving practices raids (such as in Laurel, Mississippi, in deportees were returned to Guatemala vis-à-vis immigrant workers.) August 2008), criminal charges were lev- without their U.S.-born children. Such In the aftermath of the raid, the Post- eled only against undocumented work- traumatic family separations and result- ville case has raised major debates about ers who had actually committed crimes. ing damages were graphically shown in ICE workplace raid policies directed In April 2009, a Colorado judge halted Public Broadcasting System’s “Frontline” against undocumented migrant work- an investigation into ID theft charges on May 11, 2010, in the segment “In the ers. This was by no means the first mass against undocumented immigrant work- Shadow of the Raid” (made by Greg Bro- workplace raid. But the specific novelty ers on the grounds that the investigation snan and Jennifer Szymaszek, see next article). Many of the Postville migrants returned to Guatemala not as respected family members sending vital remittanc- The realities of family separation and cross-border es to their hometowns, but humiliated and owing thousands of dollars they had family disruptions became apparent with the Postville borrowed to get to the United States in raid. Some of the deportees returned to Guatemala the first place. In two of the main towns of origin of the Postville migrants—El without their U.S.-born children and without work. Rosario (Sacatepequez province) and San Andrés Itzapa/San José Calderas (Chimaltenango province)—there were of this event was the en-masse accusation violated their rights. And in May 2009, still no viable jobs for the deportees, and of the several hundred arrestees with the Supreme Court ruled unanimously they were forced to scramble for part- a criminal violation of the law, “aggra- that the felony of “aggravated identity time work just to pay the interest on vated identity theft,” a felony rather than theft” cannot be applied to criminalize their loans. Obviously, they were unable an administrative or civil violation of the undocumented immigrants unless they to help family members pay medical and law. (Almost none of the arrestees had “knowingly” use the Social Security num- other expenses, as they had intended to a prior criminal background). From the ber assigned to another actual person. In do when they uprooted their lives and perspective of ICE, the Postville opera- this respect, while Postville was a human embarked upon the dangerous, life-risk- tion was initially declared to be a major tragedy for the immigrants, it backfired ing routes through Mexico to get to the “success” (ICE Press Release, 5/23/08). as a long-term strategy for ICE. United States. Some were experiencing It also upped the agency’s compliance While failing to become a precedent, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after the with quotas for deportation under the the Postville raid was emblematic of the ordeal, especially those who had previ-

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 69 guatemala: legacies of violence

ously been victims of the Guatemalan army’s great repression during the The Postville early 1980s. Yet, as Guatemalan anthropologist Immigration Raid Ricardo Falla pointed out, some of the victims were able to exercise “agency”: Like a Great Flood by Greg Brosnan one Guatemalan worker at Agripro- cessors, for example, escaped the raid by hiding in a refrigerator for 15 hours (Prensa Libre, 7/31/08). After the One spring morning two years ago, immigration debate. But on this May raid, others obtained protection at St. disaster struck a poor valley in the high- morning, news of the mass arrests swept Bridget’s Catholic Church, and sup- lands of Guatemala. A local woman said through the Guatemalan countryside port from various U.S.-based organi- it was like “a great flood.” Someone else long before hitting the U.S. nightly news- zations such as the ACLU. In addi- compared it to an earthquake. But this casts or even the blogosphere. tion, a few Guatemalan agencies and was no natural disaster—it was man- Most of the arrested workers came foundations (e.g. “FUNDAGUAM,” made and happened thousands of miles from El Rosario and San José Calderas— linked to the Catholic Church) and to the north, in a small northeastern Iowa two neighboring villages wedged between Guatemala’s Foreign Minister de- farm town. misty volcanic peaks that tower over the nounced the raid; his Vice-Minister On May 12, 2008, federal officials de- colonial tourist town of Antigua. Young for Migrant Affairs later visited Post- scended on the Agriprocessors kosher men and women from these villages had ville. Guatemala’s Nobel Peace Laure- meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, in been making the risky journey north for ate, Rigoberta Menchú, also went to the biggest workplace immigration raid years. For their families back home, their Postville to show solidarity. in U.S. history, arresting nearly 400 un- wages from the plant were an economic Meanwhile, the tale of the Postville documented workers, most of them from lifeline that suddenly had been severed. raid is being preserved for current au- Guatemala. Helicopters whirred over the “Twenty minutes after the raid every- diences and future generations. It has sprawling plant as hundreds were driven one here knew we’d been caught,” Willian inspired films and plays in both Gua- off to the nearby cattle fairgrounds to be Toj, one of the first to be deported, told temala and the United States— for processed, jailed and eventually deported. us after arriving in El Rosario. The father example, by Guatemalan-American In the coming months, iconic images of four added, “People here cried here as film-maker Luis Argueta AbUSAdos:( of orange-suited plant workers shuffling much as in Postville.” La Redada de Postville) and Colora- to detention in chains would place Post- My co-director Jenn Szymaszek and do playwright Don Fried (Postville). ville squarely at the center of the U.S. I were first inspired to start a film proj- While the Postville Guatemalans will not benefit directly from these mani- festations of solidarity, their trauma may spare other migrants such ex- treme violations of legal and human rights. And as a group, they will be remembered as an important collec- tive social actor in Guatemalan/U.S. migration history.

Susanne Jonas, an expert on Gua- temala for more than four decades, is working on a co-authored book on Guatemalan migration to the U.S. Her book, Of Centaurs and Doves: Guatemala’s Peace Process (West- view Press, 2000), was designated by Choice an “outstanding academic book.” She has taught Latin American & Latino Studies at the University of Amputee Rafael Toj lost his foot crossing the U.S. border. His daughter Rosario was saving up California, Santa Cruz, for 24 years. money to buy him a new prosthetic foot when she was caught in the raid.

70 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photos by Jennifer Szymaszek immigration

ect when we read about the Postville raid When we followed their stories back But the raid’s economic devastation in a Mexican newspaper. We had been to Guatemala, the emotional climate re- didn’t end at a winding dirt road in Gua- working together—I as a writer and Jenn minded us of the scenes of hurricanes or temala. Postville, a local anomaly for its as a photographer—on stories about how landslides we’d covered in the past. Ev- multi-cultural make-up, and prospering the U.S. recession had affected Mexican erywhere we walked, people pulled us before the raid, saw its economy grind villages dependent on migrant cash. We into their homes to show us how their to a halt after losing a large chunk of its had seen how workers from a particular lives had changed on May 12. population and seeing the meatpacking town or village flocked to specific U.S. Guatemalans deported from the Unit- plant go bankrupt. As a hardware store destinations, building up cross-border ed States arrive several times a week, owner on the main street told us: “When kinship networks. Given the sheer size of clutching little more than plastic bags, you take 400 people out of a town of the Postville raid, we figured that some- as they pour through a battered metal 2,000 people, it hurts.” where a village dependent on Postville door in the rear of La Aurora Airport. When people watch our film, they was falling apart. We met Willian Toj there, rode with him tell us they are moved by the stories of Two weeks later, in Iowa, we met with on the back of a pickup truck to El Ro- hardship from Guatemala. But it’s the women from El Rosario and San José Cal- sario, and watched as he rushed into his scenes of local Iowans lining up at Post- ville’s food pantry in the snow, in what a local aid worker called “the heartland of America that feeds the world,” that may Postville, Iowa: “When you take 400 people out of a linger longest after the credits roll. town of 2,000, it hurts”—hardware store owner. Greg Brosnan is the co-director of In the Shadow of the Raid, a documentary he deras who had been arrested in the raid, parents’ arms. He’d been working at the made with his fiancée Jennifer Szy- but were allowed to remain in Postville to plant for only 20 minutes when he was maszek about the cross-border economic look after their children as they awaited caught. He was penniless and $7,000 in impact of the Postville immigration trials. Banned from working, they had debt, mostly to a local moneylender who raid. Brosnan is a former Reuters text been fitted with clunky GPS ankle tags had lent him the money for his trip, tak- journalist. Szymaszek is a freelance to limit their movements. They told us ing his simple home as collateral. Over photojournalist. They pooled their stories of life and death, of treks through the coming months, as many as 200 of skills three years ago to form produc- Mexico and long days earning cash in the his Postville co-workers would return to tion company StreetDog Media . They live in betes, a father with a prosthetic foot. similarly destitute. Mexico City.

Former plant worker Rosita, under house arrest in Postville. Notice her ankle bracelet that she Willian, depicted above, returned to Post- had to wear at all times. She was sending money back to her mother Alejandra in Guatemala ville penniless. He had been working at the before the raid, but had to stop sending after she was arrested. plant only 20 minutes when he was caught.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 71 guatemala: legacies of violence

border-crossing in search of a better life. A Mayan Financial Crash Nebaj was hit hard in Guatemala’s civil war (it’s one of the towns for which geno- The Case of Nebaj By David Stoll cide lawsuits have been filed), and it has received more aid projects than any other Mayan town. Yet no amount of aid will ad- dress a basic problem. Thanks Next to an ancestor cross, to vaccination campaigns and where Ixil priests make regu- potable water projects, most lar offerings, lives one of Ne- children are surviving to adult- baj’s better-known financial hood. Nebaj parents have been speculators. Doña Alfonsa slow to reduce their pregnan- (not her real name) has eight cies, women still average six children and sells food in the children and the population is market. She doesn’t own a approaching five times what it motor vehicle but she does was before the Spanish Con- have a cell phone. Her story quest. The land base has be- is well-known because she come so fractured that most has repeatedly apologized for Nebajenses do not inherit it. In 2005, Alfonsa and her enough land for subsistence husband began asking their farming. Local jobs pay four neighbors for huge loans. to eight dollars a day, which is They offered to pay interest enough to feed a family but not of 10% and 15% per month Nebaj community members: people become commodities. enough to pay for the consum- and presented their house and er goods that Nebajenses now agricultural land as collateral. Then they she was about to lose her house when the admire and want. transferred the funds to four acquain- bank agreed to refinance Q225,000 of So in the 1990s the aid agencies in- tances who promised them interest of the debt. She and her family will be able troduced the gospel of microcredit—why 15% and 20% per month. Of their four to keep their home as long as they make not just loan the Nebajenses money? business partners, three were K’iche’ mortgage payments of Q3,000 a month. This would avoid the many accountabil- Mayas who said they were guiadores de The only way they can generate Q36,000 ity problems of communal projects and préstamos (roughly, loan advisers) send- (US$4,600) a year is in the U.S. labor enable each household to devise its own ing local men to work in the United market, to which end Alfonsa’s husband solutions. Loaning money seemed like States. The fourth, an Ixil village leader has joined their son in Houston, where such a good idea that, by 2008, Neba- and former functionary of the Guerrilla the two are washing dishes in restaurants jenses could borrow from at least twen- Army of the Poor, said that he needed but having trouble finding enough hours. ty-three different projects, microcredit seed money to attract an international If they hang on in the United States, and agencies, savings–and-loans, and banks. aid project. And so the couple borrowed if they remit faithfully, their house will be One problem to which the lenders didn’t circa Q500,000 (at 7.8 quetzals to the in the clear as early as 2024. give enough attention was, exactly what dollar, US$64,000) and turned it over to If you had told me this story a few were Nebajenses going to do with all the four. They expected to reap millions. years ago, I wouldn’t believe you. How that credit? Presumably they were going What they didn’t know is that their can Guatemalans with household in- to become bold entrepreneurs, which is partners invested the funds in, not emi- comes of $1500 or so per year make why Nebaj now features hundreds of re- grants or projects, but a Mam Maya $10,000 loans? How can they charge tail outlets without enough customers. priest who promised riches from the vol- each other monthly interest rates of 10%, Opening modest lines of credit to Ne- canoes of Quezaltenango. At last report, 15%, even 20%? How can they believe bajenses was a good idea. But pumping this spellbinding practitioner of Mayan that wealth comes from volcanoes? Last large amounts of credit into a crowded tradition was the object of an arrest war- but not least, how can their scramble to mountain environment with few agricul- rant, a problem that was not interfering earn dollars in the U.S. make them poor- tural or industrial possibilities was, in ret- with his used-car business on the Mexi- er? These are not easy questions, but the rospect, not such a good idea. No one has can border. Back in Nebaj, the title to answers lead back to two sacred cows in been able to come up with a game plan Alfonsa’s house fell into the hands of a the current pantheon of wishful think- for turning Nebaj into a high-productivity bank, she was summoned to court, and ing: 1) microcredit and 2) unauthorized consumer economy. The most exportable

72 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 photo by david stoll immigration

commodity that Nebaj produces is labor. old to head north, the most obvious bea- have been failing to find enough work And so Nebajenses had a better idea—why con of hope is a pyramid scheme. This since 2006. Even before our current eco- not invest my loans in exporting the single is what snared Doña Alfonsa and her nomic recession, they were saturating the product that I possess in abundance to a husband. In Guatemala get-rich-quick ethnic niches for their labor. When they distant market where this product will be schemes combine the language of non- can’t find enough work to pay back their in demand? And so Nebajenses exported governmental organizations and devel- debts, migration has the paradoxical ef- themselves to the United States. Me urge opment projects with the ritual suppli- fect of swallowing their assets back home. ir a los Estados Unidos, men told their cations of folk Catholicism. But the crux Since 2008 remittances have plunged. wives. And so the Nebajenses joined an of many a scheme is human smuggling Judging from remarks at various agen- estimated 1.5 million Guatemalans who into the U.S. labor market. All told, the cies, remittances are roughly half what are now in the United States, the majority Nebajenses have sunk millions of dollars they were at the peak. Default rates have without legal authorization. from loans, land sales and remittances climbed into double digits and dozens of Some of Nebaj’s first wage pilgrims into the $5,000 per head smuggling fees foreclosures clog the docket at the local to go north were very successful. Most which Guatemalan-Mexican smuggling courthouse. Nebajenses are still going of the migrants are males between the networks charge to bring them to safe north, but in smaller numbers. The price ages of fifteen and thirty, along with houses in Phoenix, Arizona. of real estate has collapsed, making it some older men and a small minority of It is not just migrants who are lunging impossible for creditors to recover their women. From fragmentary remittance for the fabled riches of wage labor in El capital. And so the bubble has turned data, I estimate that something like Norte. A less demanding way to partake into Nebaj’s own version of the global 4,000 Nebajenses were in the United of El Dorado is to stay at home and be- credit crisis. In an uncanny anticipation States in late 2007 and early 2008. That come a moneylender. I know five market of the U.S. derivatives’ bubble and how would be 5.7% of the Nebaj population women who have borrowed money from it burst, Ixil speculators borrowed other and 20-25% of the male workforce over multiple credit institutions, typically at people’s money to multiply their gains, the age of 15. In the peak year of 2007 2% interest per month, in order to lend but only by incurring risks that are now I further estimate that Nebajenses sent it to migrants at 10% per month. They bankrupting them and their creditors. back $22 million, which would be $300 live off the difference until the migrants Microcredit, we have been assured, en- for every man, woman and child in the fail to repay. The chains of debt between ables the poor to make headway against municipio. Since $300 is roughly the an- migrants, moneylenders and other peas- poverty. But debt has long functioned as nual per capita income, the remittances ant investors extend deep into families a way to encourage poor people to “capi- were a tremendous multiplier of the because the collateral securing a loan talize” their activities and, when they fail, money in circulation. And yet this tidal belongs to a spouse, parent, or sibling. separate them from their property. We wave of prosperity was a shock wave for The “immigrant bargain” is how scholars also would do well to question whether every household that did not have a wage refer to these transactions--a quid pro there is enough employment in the United earner in the United States. The price quo in which a family takes on debt to es- States for all the people who want to come of houses, building lots and agricultural tablish members in a more remunerative here. Whether or not it is a good idea for land shot sky high. Nebaj experienced a labor market. The financial stakes are so Guatemalans to come north depends on bubble economy because the inflow of high that intimate kin relationships are whether the U.S. economy can provide donations, credits and remittances led monetized and the family takes on the at- them with stable jobs. Without stable to enormous price hikes for assets that tributes of an export business. jobs, they will be unable to recoup the cost are in fixed supply. Hyperinflation meant Once a kin network is in debt, the only of getting here and living here, endanger- that anyone who wanted to buy land way it can keep up with payments is by ing whatever property they have used as would have to undertake all the risks of maintaining wage earners in the United collateral. We should stop assuming that seeking work in the United States. States. If we widen the concept of debt coming to the United States is a benefit With inflation like this, every house- to deficits real or perceived, including for Guatemalans and their families. hold in Nebaj is under pressure to send the relative deprivation that human be- someone north. Not every household has ings feel when their peers outstrip them David Stoll is the author of Rigoberta done so, and not every household will, in consumption and status, remittances Menchú and the Story of All Poor Gua- but every household has thought about from the United States are an engine for temalans. He teaches anthropology at it. Thus the prosperity of some Neba- multiplying needs that can be met only Middlebury College. For a more complete jenses has meant deep anxiety for oth- by sending members of each household report on the Nebaj debt crisis, see his ar- ers. Remaining faithful to the routines north. Nothing on the local economic ho- ticle in the January 2010 Latin Ameri- of peasant subsistence means being left rizon can pay for these aspirations. Yet in can Perspectives. He can be reached at behind. For those who are too poor or too the United States, Nebaj’s wage pilgrims dstoll@middlebury@edu.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 73 making a difference

Learning through Libraries

By Debra Gittler

At the front of the room, in Nell O’Donnell and myself in large letters, appeared the September 2009, establish- question: “De dónde viene el ing school libraries at needy agua?” Where does the water schools in El Salvador is not come from? only about bringing books; The room was filled with the goal is also to help teach- nearly fifty teachers and par- ers and parents understand ents from Ahuachapán, the the diversity of ways texts can coffee-growing region of El be used to promote critical Salvador. Divided into groups thought. of four, they observed a cold LTL was intended to can of Coke dripping with the host a one-time book drive, moisture of condensation. culminating in a January visit They had eight minutes to to El Salvador to bring books draw a model explaining this to needy schools. However, scientific phenomenon. LTL was able to raise nearly This might not seem like $35,000 in cash and in-kind a workshop about establish- donations to send over 4,000 ing libraries and developing books, establish 5 school li- literacy, but for the student braries, and make significant facilitators from the Harvard book donations to 3 schools Graduate School of Educa- and 5 women’s shelters. In tion (HGSE), this was exactly doing so, we worked with the type of experience they over 160 Salvadoran parents, hoped teachers and parents teachers, principals, students, could recreate at school and local artists and educators. at home, to promote student Before coming to HGSE, learning and use of books. Af- I had worked in El Salvador ter the eight minutes, recent designing a national teacher- HGSE graduates Rebecca training initiative for the Sal- Utton (School Leadership vadoran Ministry of Educa- Program—SLP), Sara Yamaka tion (MINED), implemented (International Education Pro- by the local NGO FEPADE gram—IEP) and Lisa Mulvey (Fundación Empresarial (IEP) read a children’s picture para el Desarrollo Educa- book about the water cycle, tivo). Jill, who had taught in led a group conversation, Latin America, Nell, who had asking the small groups to worked creating libraries in revise their drawings before needy communities in the presenting them to the room. United States, and I all share For Learning Through a love for literacy and lan- Libraries (LTL), a student guage. My connections in El organization started at HGSE Salvador seemed like an obvi- by IEP students Jill Carlson, ous opportunity for us to pool

74 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 Photos: david melgar (top); courtesy of contextos (bottom) book talk

our passions and experience workshops. A small exhibit is and use our time at HGSE to still on display on the second Everyday Tales of make a difference. floor of Longfellow Hall on We partnered with Scho- Appian Way. Colombia’s Civil War lastic Books to get 50% off But LTL is growing beyond children’s books in Spanish, Harvard. Thanks to over- A Review by Chris Kraul Taca Airlines donated free whelming success and support, transport for three differ- LTL has established the non- ent shipments of thousands profit organization ConTextos of books, and FEPADE’s to continue establishing school Country of Bullets: Chroni- National Book Drive worked libraries in El Salvador, while cles of War, by Juanita León, with MINED to waive providing training for teachers translated by Guillermo customs fees and coordinate and parents. Bleichmar (University of New book distribution. Amigos ConTextos already has Mexico Press, 2010, Bilingual and MLK Schools gathered a Salvadoran team 223 pages) in Cambridge hosted book that will work full time, drives, collecting over 700 starting January 2011, in Of all the books I’ve read titles. The Harvard commu- 15 schools as part of a pilot about Colombia’s unend- nity also donated generously phase to establish libraries ing agony of civil war, drug throughout the year. and train parents and teach- trafficking, massacres, The HGSE administra- ers about using books to pro- kidnappings and mass tion, staff and students were mote literacy, critical thought displacement, Country an enormous component in and problem solving. of Bullets offers the most LTL’s success. In addition By continuing to bring vivid portraits of the people the rebels because he has to awarding small grants high-quality books at a low caught in the crossfire: the no options, and small-town throughout the school year, cost and offering more com- poor, the small town of- official Roberto Mira, who HGSE showed its support munity support, ConTextos ficials, the civil society field one day must confront at commencement, when aims to make a difference workers and the grunts in 4,000 displaced peasants in students waved Spanish chil- in the quality of learning for the armed forces. the town square. The reader dren’s books in the air. students in El Salvador. The power of Juanita learns of the needless deaths In all, LTL facilitated León’s book comes from its caused by the lack of medi- two visits of 13 students and Debra Gittler graduated context. She vibrantly shows cal care in a pueblo in no staff to El Salvador: one in from Harvard Graduate how victims came to be man’s land, and the courage January and another in June. School of Education in May vulnerable and, in doing so, of an unarmed indigenous During these visits, we led 2010 with an EdM. She is the sheds light on those circum- community that stood up to training sessions with teach- founder and executive direc- stances at the roots of Co- rebels. ers and parents about book tor of ConTextos, a non-profit lombia’s chaos and violence. The author takes us use and care, and helped cre- that originated as the HGSE The simple explanation is where the law of the gun ate libraries at schools. student group Learning the absence of the state, prevails, providing gripping HGSE representatives Through Libraries. To learn so that citizens in remote details of senseless collateral worked with Salvadoran art- more about Debra and Con- areas are forced to submit damage, including the kill- ists and educators to produce Textos, visit con-textos.org to the hegemony, by turns, ing of a scholarship student workshops for participating Next school year, LTL of right-wing paramilitaries, during a rebel takeover of school communities on the hopes to expand into other leftist rebels and criminal a town called Puracé. She topics of documentary pho- Harvard schools and work drug-running gangs. relates the slow spiritual tography, oral tradition, and with DRCLAS to facilitate But León digs deeper to death experienced by one of mural painting. LTL spon- visits to El Salvador. To learn show the complex web of Colombia’s legion of kidnap sored gallery exhibitions in El more about how to support human consequences that victims, a world record Salvador and Gutman Library LTL as Harvard student or arise from the vacuum. She 3,706 in 2002 . featuring photography by Sal- staff, email learning. writes about the guerrilla Author León is a for- vadoran students from these [email protected] recruit Oswaldo, who joins mer correspondent with

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 75 book talk

Semana, Colombia’s indepen- areas they dominate. She de- citizens, ordered off their confines of the capital city.” dent weekly news magazine, tails their arbitrary jurispru- land by one group to deprive Speaking for my publica- and for the last two years, dence in cases ranging from the other of local support and tion alone, I can assure her editor of La Silla Vacía, a alimony to paternity disputes logistics, to separate the fish that the Los Angeles Times political news and opinion and bad debts. from the ocean, as noted in routinely ventured outside website based in Bogota. She “As I heard the cases, I a local saying derived from those confines. The Times’ is intimately familiar with her tried to remember my classes Mao’s axiom about insur- then-bureau chief T. Chris- nation’s recent history and in law school to see whether I gency. tian Miller was briefly kid- politics, a knowledge that in- could guess the legal prin- The brilliance of the napped in 2002 by the FARC forms her writing. First pub- ciples behind the judges’ deci- chapter comes from images as he reported a story in lished in Spanish as País de sions. I gave up. Evidently, of suffering but also from the southeastern Putumayo state. Plomo in 2006, her book is, here were no criteria, just author’s analysis of how the In 2003, the paper’s special more than an assemblage, an a subjective preference for warring parties function, how correspondent Ruth Morris elaboration of her magazine one party or the other,” León both use dubious informants and freelance photographer reporting over the previous writes. to cull out sympathizers, Scott Dalton were kidnapped five year period, a crucial time The FARC’s recalcitrance informants who try not to by the rebel group ELN for in Colombia’s history. to negotiate—León said the get caught, often by falsely 10 days while on assignment The book begins in 2001, rebels never sought peace, incriminating others with in eastern Arauca state. I when a demoralized and only to strengthen their grip whom they have scores to suspect other foreign news nearly failed state under Pres- on Colombian cities—led settle. We witness paramili- organizations have similar ident Andrés Pastrana was to the resumption of war in taries pillaging the local bank, stories to tell. still in abortive peace negotia- 2002 and the end of Caqueta- looting the granaries and Country of Bullets leaves tions with the Revolutionary nia. That same year, get-tough ordering young boys out to unanswered the riddle of why Armed Forces of Colombia President Álvaro Uribe was rustle cows so the animals Colombia continues to suffer, (FARC), after giving rebels elected, and soon govern- may serve as living mine- more than four decades after control over a Switzerland- ment forces had regained the sweepers. the FARC and ELN launched sized swathe of land in the battlefield initiative, with $5 One of the young boys their insurgencies. What it eastern jungle plains. billlion in military aid from enlisted for the task is Jaime does do is tell human stories One of the book’s most the United States under Plan Giraldo, and he said he cried that catalogue the countless compelling chapters is her ex- Colombia, the largest U.S. for- as he was forced to steal from ways in which the Colombian cursion into that short-lived eign aid program outside the his friends. “I know how state, through its absence, much effort it takes to buy an failed its people. It will be at animal,” he told León. One of the top of the list of books the losers was peasant cattle- read in those halcyon days to There is much to like in this brief dense man Virgilio Davíd, who lost come when, dare we hope, book. Some portraits are worthy of a 100 cows, “all my patrimony, the violence ends and future earned over the course of 45 generations of Colombians García Márquez short story. years.” Giraldo, Davíd and turn to accounts like this one other Peque portraits are to learn how bad it was. worthy of a García Márquez mini-republic or “cleared Middle East and Afghanistan. short story. Chris Kraul is a Bogotá- zone” called Caquetania that There is much to like My one quibble about this based freelance writer. His 22 was ruled by the FARC for in this brief, dense book— otherwise remarkable book years as a Los Angeles Times three years. She describes the expertly translated by Guiller- has to do with the foreword reporter included stints in the strange interaction between mo Bleichmar—but my by Cornell historian Mary paper’s Mexico City and Bo- the strutting rebels and the favorite part was the opening Roldan. She rightly prais- gotá bureaus. He also covered journalists and civil society chapter about a town called es León’s courage and that of the wars in Iraq and Afghani- groups who came to look at Peque in northwest Antioquia other Colombian reporters, stan. He studied journalism them close up. She also sat in state, and how it was whip- but accuses the foreign press at the University of South on a summary court set up sawed by successive takeovers corps, “with scant exceptions,” Florida and worked for many by the FARC to settle local by the paramilitaries and of being timid consumers newspapers, including the disputes, a common service FARC. The principal victims of government pablum who San Jose Mercury News and provided by the rebels in were thousands of displaced “rarely venture outside the the San Diego Union-Tribune.

76 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 ties receive such influences of the revolution and its Out of the Glass Closet? in the context of their own aftermath, lesbian politics histories, conditions and lo- were pursued with a more A Review by James R. Martel cal and regional actions. explicitly political goal; there, One of the most fascinat- lesbian politics was engaged ing parts of this book is the with the “larger polity…as The Politics of Sexuality in section that considers what messengers for a new way of Latin America: A Reader on political strategies have thinking about sexuality” (p. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and proven most effective in 164). Here, we see that even Transgender Rights, by Javier establishing LGBT rights. as Latin America is itself a Corrales and Mario Pecheny, While the right wing in Latin unique case, each of the soci- eds., (University of Pittsburgh America has traditionally eties that compose this vast Press, 2010, 454 pages). eschewed the LGBT move- region offers its own specific ment altogether (with a few contexts and problems. Has there been a massive strange exceptions such Another fascinating dis- “coming out” in Latin Ameri- as the opening of sewing cussion for many people in ca for the LGBT population in schools for transvestites Latin America is the extent the last decade? The authors in Chile, as Héctor Núñez to which the question of included in The Politics of González describes), the left LGBT rights is itself redolent Sexuality in Latin America has not always proven recep- of a North American liberal suggest that there may have tive to LGBT issues either. political agenda. Rights are been, but qualify both the suc- That has been changing of often seen as a middle-class cess and extent of this change. their parents, add up to a late, at least on the left. concern, and even the con- The particular social, histori- formidable barrier against Democratization across cept of homosexuality itself cal and economic conditions the widespread, openly queer the region and a rise in leftist is seen as an identity that in Latin America provide a lifestyles that one increasingly parties help explain some of smacks of bourgeois North very particular context and finds in North America. Yet, the changing legal status of American and European no- set of challenges for LGBT since 2000 there has been LGBT people, but the actions tions of personhood. As Re- people. In their introduction a wide range of pro-LGBT of LGBT organizations and nata Hiller states in her essay, to the volume, editors Javier legislation in countries from individuals are also key to “the image of the GLTTBI Corrales and Mario Pecheny Argentina to Brazil to Mexico, success. Again, diversity rath- community that the media explain that on the one hand, producing new rights and er than one common set of disseminates [in Argentina] unlike many English-speak- possibilities. The sea change strategies prevails. In Mexico, is based on the stereotype of ing states in the Caribbean in attitudes, both political and as Rafael de la Dehesa notes the white gay man from the and North America, Latin social, as well as the ongoing in his essay, LGBT rights upper middle class. This… American states do not have challenges facing the LGBT were largely pursued through creates the impression that as strong a legal tradition of population, is the focus of this alliances with particular po- this is a privileged minority” criminalizing sodomy. On new and worthy volume. litical parties, while in Brazil, (p. 216). Indeed, Eduardo J. the other hand, social mores, The overriding impression gay interest groups offered Gómez notes that the very imparted in part by the that the reader gets from this political support in exchange idea of homosexuality as an Catholic Church, still militate volume is that one cannot for favorable policies. Mil- organizing concept does not against open homosexual make generalizations about lie Thayer, in her analysis necessarily have long roots behavior. Instead of openness, global phenomena, including of lesbian movements in in Latin America. He writes one finds what the editors, LGBT lives and politics. Al- Central America, notes that “it was not until the 1980s citing Michael Musto, call a though there is something of in Costa Rica, lesbian politics [in Brazil] that the term “glass closet” (p. 36), a status what could be called a “queer and identity were largely a homosexual was adopted as of active engagement in same- international demonstration matter of protecting private a category of sexual identity. sex relationships from within effect,” i.e. that “gay culture” and group spaces, carving This definition was…adopted a heterosexual marriage or is being produced in and out a terrain for lesbian from the United States by another socially sanctioned exported from U.S. enclaves identity amidst the extensive Brazilian medical scientists position. That, and the fact like New York’s Chelsea and and stable networks of civil and quickly adopted by that many young adults in San Francisco’s Castro, Latin society in that country. In upper-class intellectuals, Latin America still live with American LGBT communi- Nicaragua, given the turmoil gradually trickling down to

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 77 book talk

the masses” (p. 249). activists—involve hitching If I had one criticism their cause up with other, Multiple Windows of this wonderful volume, more established (and it might be that theory non-LGBT) NGOs. Clearly, on Mexico is underplayed here in strategy is critical for suc- favor of description and cess for a movement always Hilo de Pasión narrative. What theory is in flux, busily defining itself evoked tends to come from into existence. Rather than A Review by Nancy Abraham Hall sociology, including social be overcome by its complex movement and resource divisions, this case and mobilization theory. There others in the volume show is only a smattering of po- that it is possible to effect Hecho en México, by Lolita “Este libro, si yo fuera mayor litical theory and even less change even in the face of Bosch, (Barcelona: Mondadori, se llamaría biblioteca per- “queer theory.” To be fair, an agenda that has no clear 2007, 407 pp.) sonal…es sobre todo, lo que yo however, queer theory has center—and even when that leo, sigo y uso de la literatura not had all that much to say agenda is itself in question. A happy result of Lolita mexicana para explicarme about Latin America (with The Politics of Sexual- Bosch’s decade-long residence otras cosas.” some exceptions like Roger ity delivers on its promise in Mexico City is Hecho en Those “otras cosas” echo Lancaster’s Life Is Hard). to cover a large swath of México, a compelling collec- the work of the late cultural The essays that do touch Latin America as regards tion of short stories, essays, commentator Carlos Mon- on theoretical questions, LGBT issues. It touches crónicas set to music, person- siváis, whose “En los albores however, suggest some on numerous fascinating al correspondence and poems de la industria heterodoxa” fascinating possibilities for subjects, some in depth, written by others during the sits in the center of Bosch’s further inquiry. As already some more superficially. last ninety years. Made ac- book. His interests, like hers, noted, Eduardo J. Gómez, The book itself mirrors the cessible to the general reader range from the stuff of head- in “Friendly Government, topic it covers; it is sprawl- by Bosch’s introductions and lines—drugs and unthink- Cruel Society,” examines the ing and fascinating. Along footnotes, the anthology also able violence, sprawl and degree to which identi- the way, the reader learns appeals to specialists, as the unbreathable air—to bits and ties taken for granted in surprising things (like the thirty-six well-chosen texts, pieces of culture: salacious North America do not have fact that Montevideo, on a in all sorts of registers, and slang, found objects, the poli- the same valence in Latin per capita basis, is one of accompanied by Alejandro tics of book fairs, an air-borne America. Gómez notes (as the most LGBT-friendly Magallanes’s startling graphic taxi and a delicate haiku do others in this volume) cities in the world, as Javier designs, cover a very wide crafted by José Juan Tablada that many in Latin America Corrales tells us in his es- range of important topics. in the aftermath of the armed do not see having sex with say). I would think that any Bosch, who was born in Revolution. Together, Bosch’s a person of the same sex as scholar interested in a wide 1970 in Barcelona and is a selections offer multiple being “gay” or homosexual, overview of the subject—a novelist in her own right, windows on the people, land- a view that depends on a subject too long neglected designed the collection to be scape and culture of modern series of factors including by academics—would find an “hilo de pasión,” unconven- Mexico, and are fueled by the sexual positions, gen- much of value in this superb tional: “He hecho este libro yearnings, frustrations and der, class and notions of collection. sin pensar en mis amigos,” considerable talents of those youthful play. With such a she writes in her prologue. who composed them. destabilized form of identity James R. Martel, a profes- “Sin pensar en la editorial. Sin Certainly one of Bosch’s (destabilized vis-à-vis its sor in the department of pensar en los vivos ni en los talents is the ability to sustain North American and proba- political science at San muertos.” She explains that a natural, intimate tone while bly European counterparts), Francisco State University, details of a writer’s era, gen- providing accurate, thought- the question of mobilizing is the author of Love is a der, fame, rate of publication ful, and often quirky back- on behalf of such a commu- Sweet Chain: Desire, Au- or residence—urban center, ground information to guide nity becomes paramount. tonomy, and Friendship in provinces, beyond the nation’s the reader through the col- The successful strategies Liberal Political Theory and borders—did not shape the lection. She does not assume that Gómez describes— Subverting the Leviathan: selection, nor did she seek that figures revered within specifically those adopted Reading Thomas Hobbes as to create a panorama of “the Mexico will be automatically by Brazilian LGBT AIDS a Radical Democrat. best” of Mexican writing: familiar, especially to those

78 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 book talk

like herself who grew up else- ha visto su obra traducida al (“Las mujeres de Juárez”) and where. On the other hand, francés, alemán y al inglés”) Grupo Exterminador (“Cruz she does assume that her into supplying personal de marihuana” and “Las readers are curious about all information to accompany monjitas”). The intransigent the arts, their respective tra- his short story “Bola negra” machismo that has long pro- ditions and major innovators. (about a self-cannibalizing scribed the lives of Mexican When in his performance entomologist named Endo women in general is also piece titled “Misa fronteriza,” Hiroshi) is a case in point: documented through popular for example, Tijuana’s inimi- En febrero de 2000 le mandé song—Paquita la del Barrio’s table Luis Humberto Crosth- nueve preguntas por email. “Rata de dos patas”—as well waite mentions José Alfredo En ese entonces ya éramos as “Tomate,” Sabina Berman’s Jiménez, Bosch supplies the buenos amigos, y como sabía chilling story of child rape and following footnote: que le daría pereza contestar revenge. Berman’s interpo- Me hubiera gustado decir mis preguntas, le escribí con el lated variants on her piece’s que José Alfredo Jiménez nombre falso de Rita Jiménez short but vivid title bring into (Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, y me hice pasar por una focus another thread that runs 1926-Ciudad de México, 1973) investigadora de la Universi- through Mexican culture as a era un mariachi, cantante y dad Complutense de Madrid. whole and Bosch’s anthology compositor muy popular en Durante un par de semanas una raza nueva que se ha in particular: the importance México, pero Luis Humberto Mario y yo nos comunicamos distinguido por sus virtudes of words per se, and espe- Crosthwaite protestó: “Una me- con cierta frecuencia sin que él guerreras y por el aborrec- cially of language play. On this jor definición para José Alfredo supiera que estaba escribié- imiento que le inspira todo lo score, Café Tacuba’s “Chilanga debería ser así: el máximo com- ndose conmigo. Finalmente europeo...,” readers are treated banda” is a memorable entry, positor de la canción vernácula mandó las respuestas y yo, de to a not-so-veiled critique of as is a slice of a dictionary of mexicana. Creo que no hay dis- parte de Rita Jiménez, le di las a system Ibargüengoitia con- over a thousand mexican- cusión en ello”. Y añadió: “Exijo gracias personalmente. sidered well-intentioned yet ismos compiled by former que si se tiene que explicar absurd. This particular brew attorney general, Supreme quién es José Alfredo, también Bellatín is among the most concocted by Ibargüengoitia Court Justice, Guillermo Colín debería explicarse quien es Led critically acclaimed writers —reminiscence tinged with Sánchez. Bosch’s excerpt from Zeppelin”. (Véase la nota 12 de anthologized by Bosch. Other pride, affection, exasperation Colín Sánchez’s work starts la página 46.) well-known figures include and even ridicule—character- with Albur (“Juego de palabras Tablada, Manuel Maples Arce, izes several of the best essays de doble sentido”), ends with And on page 46 we find Xavier Villaurrutia, Salvador in Hecho en México, includ- Alegre (“Reloj despertador”) the following “Nota para Luis Elizondo and Jorge Ibargüen- ing Alma Guillermoprieto’s and includes two phrases Humberto Crosthwaite”: goitia. Following a description “Ciudad de México, 1992,” and used to describe how a person

Led Zeppelin es el nombre of the latter’s diverse produc- Juan Villoro’s “El eterno retor- might speak: Al chilazo de una banda de rock and tion—novels, short stories, no a la mujer barbuda.” But (“directamente, sin trabas, sin roll fundada en 1968 por essays, drama—and his death Bosch includes many starker tapujos”), and Al chile (“con Jimmy Page, John Paul in a 1983 airline disaster at visions as well. The fate of sinceridad, con claridad” ). Jones al bajo, Robert Plant Madrid’s Barajas Airport, Bo- “El niño ki’andaba por ai” by These last two descriptors can como vocalista y John Bon- sch presents “El puente de los painter Gerardo Murillo, aka well be applied to the texts Bo- ham a la batería. Fue uno asnos,” a tongue-in-cheek rec- el Doctor Atl, depicts a society sch has selected and organized de los grupos fundadores ollection of Ibargüengoitia’s indifferent to human suffer- for Hecho en México, as well as de lo que se llama heavy school days in 1930s Guana- ing. In “Epílogo personal” to her own work as editor of metal y se disolvió en 1980. juato. From the fifth-grade from Huesos en el desierto this intriguing book. teacher, “el profesor Farolito, (2002), journalist Sergio Bosch’s sense of playful- llamado así porque se le González Rodríguez writes Nancy Abraham Hall (Ph.D., ness is always in evidence. encendían las narices cada vez of the mass murder of young Romance Languages and How she tricks rising literary que perdía paciencia, cosa que women in and around Juárez. Literatures, Harvard Univer- star and fellow dog-lover ocurría dos o tres veces diario,” With regard to Mexico’s drug sity), grew up in Mexico City. Mario Bellatín (“un referente to the history textbook that trade and associated crimes, She has been a member of the de la literatura latinomeri- stated “La mezcla de español Bosch includes lyrics by norte- Wellesley College Spanish cana contemporánea [que] e indígena produjo en México ño bands Los Tigres del Norte Department since 1989.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 79 reader forum

in Latin America. I found movements and use of of walking past the GSD and the Post-Unsustainability public space and architec- seeing the flashing images of conversation with Mark Jar- ture. Students were sitting buildings on the screen. zombek thought provoking. I about the town and engag- Indeed, if you look think the new printed layout ing people with questions through the architecture is- is very successful, and the and conversation along the sue, you will find the proof of variation between column way. I am under the impres- your well-made point. Pablo size works to break up the sion that all the studios are Allard, who writes about the different articles visually (al- taught this way and that reconstruction of Chaitén, though the four column sec- studying how people over about as much about peoples’ tion at the end is a bit harder time use buildings and their movements and use of public to read in the current font). connected space is really the space and architecture as The color page section open- beauty of what they are all you can get, is a GSD gradu- ers help with locating items about. Next time I encour- ate. So is Oscar Grauer, who architecture and thinking more cohesively age you to do what I do oc- writes compellingly both of about a section as it is read. casionally and walk through lessons from Haiti and also Am thoroughly enjoying Likewise, the contributors the GSD building to see of the need for good design in the articles in your latest on the back cover are easy the student projects on the social housing. Not to men- issue, Architecture (Spring/ to spot. Although I prefer walls. I believe you would tion Alejandro Aravena, who Summer 2010). Might to read without a computer discover that the conversa- in his excellent work in both you consider adding more whenever possible, it is great tions are in large measure high-end and social housing, photographs to the website to have it online for quick about what people do, say, thinks constantly about the to complement articles? Too, reference. and think about the built relationship between people at some point, illustrative I wanted to comment environment. and their built environment. video clips would be terrific. about your last paragraph Barbara Fash I could go on and on, Richard Berger in the editor’s letter, which Director of the Corpus Barbara: Lee Cott, Flavio surprised me. of Maya Hieroglyphic Janches, Eduardo Berlin Dear Richard: Inscriptions Program Razmilic, Fares El-Dahdah, Thank you for your thought- “As I walk to work every day, Harvard Peabody Museum José de Filippi, James Brown ful comment. Our website is a I pass the Harvard Graduate and many of the other ReVis- work in progress and eventu- School of Design. As I peeped ta authors who have called ally, we do hope to add more into a large glassed-in audi- Dear Barbara, the GSD home as students, photos and perhaps video torium this morning, I saw Thank you for your ex- professors or fellows share clips. That’s an interesting that students were looking traordinary and thoughtful my feeling—and yours—that idea. But for now, we hope to at slides of buildings. It’s not comments on the ReVista buildings shape lives. make the site as interactive just buildings, I wanted to tell redesign. I would love to encourage as possible, so I invite you to them; think about the way As we often bump into debate in this cyberforum, keep commenting! that all those buildings have each other just outside the Barbara, but in this case I shaped all those lives.” GSD, I just wanted to clarify happen to agree with you! I the comment in my editor’s apologize for my ambiguous more online: The following com- I have worked with two letter and to say that I totally wording!!!! ments are from the online edition GSD studio classes that agree with you about the of ReVista: www.drclas.harvard.edu/ came to Copan and sat in conversations about the built publications/revistaonline. on their project presenta- environment. I certainly do Living the Environment tions at the end of the class. not mean by saying “think Latinotopia Editor’s Letter What struck me most was about the way that all those Beyond Buildings how anthropological their buildings have shaped all Puerto Rican Architects approach was to the project. those lives” that they weren’t in New York Dear June, Upon arriving in Copan the necessarily doing so already. What fun to have an entire first two days were spent It was merely a reflection on It is a well deserved recogni- ReVista about Architecture collecting notes on peoples’ my own physical experience tion of the important contri-

80 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 bution made by Puerto Rican to unprivileged kids in the architects and all artists to area allowing them to obtain the United States. sponsorship and attend Carmen Ruiz-Fischler private schools in town. We have so far put over 20 kids Thank you for your thought- in school. At the same time, ful comment, Carmen. That’s we organize summer camps why we included the article on and daily tutoring so they can Puerto Rican and Argentine progressively improve their architects in this issue. And education. Lidia knows very we would be delighted to hear well the project of Meredith about other architects from and Leonardo and we are Latin America working in the very happy to see these sort United States...or Europe...or of projects get recognized the Middle East...and making since many of these kids are a significant contribution to in need of opportunities to at- those cultures. tend school and improve their living conditions. Please visit Thinking Spaces, our page and get in contact Urban Places with us as we would like to Viewing Rogelio Salmona have you visit next time you are in Las Terrenas. Paul Philippe Cret at the OAS Thank you! Kristina Rosales Great article, June. This was a University of Miami great read, having been a little under a year since the OAS Colombia Art Museum of the Americas hosted the “Open Spaces / special Thank you Dear Editor, Collective Spaces” exhibit on A special thanks in the Guatemala issue is due to Gonzalo Mar- I recently discovered your the work of Rogelio Salmona. roquín of Prensa Libre, who was generous with his time, advice excellent publication, and Following “Open Spaces / and photo archives. And another special thanks to Anabella found that I can download the Collective Spaces”, and 2008’s Flaquer, sister of disappeared journalist Irma Flaquer, who helped articles of the issue, Colombia exhibition on Brazilian archi- me understand both the beauty and suffering of Guatemala and (Spring 2003), from your tect Oscar Niemeyer, the OAS Guatemalans. This October, on the 30th anniversary of Irma’s website. Thank you very is now opening an exhibit on disappearance, I dedicate this issue as a tribute to her and the much for the service. the work of the architect of its courage of the Guatemalan people. But is there any way I can own headquarters building order/buy that issue in print? (formerly the Pan-American Thank you, Union Building and also Making a Difference in LT right out of high school Esben Grøndal, Denmark known as the ‘House of the Summer Camp in Las in 2006 and have since then Americas’), Paul Philippe Terrenas, Dominican been very involved in that Dear Esben, Cret. The exhibition also Republic community. I travel twice a We are all out of the Colombia marks the Centennial of the year to work directly with issue (as several others such building. If anyone is inter- Educational Development in Lidia’s kids, a school estab- as Venezuela, dance, foreign ested, there’s more informa- Las Terrenas lished by a Dominican-Amer- policy and art). In general, tion here: http://www.oas. ican lady, Lidia Dickinson, however, we do welcome or- org/en/100/ Thank you Gabriela for in a very poor area of LT (El dering back print issues for Greg Svitil publishing your work in Las Manantial). For the past few personal or classroom use Organization of Terrenas. Similar to your years, we have been provid- on a pay-as-you-can basis. American States story, I also began working ing educational opportunities Thanks for asking!

photo by carlos Sebastián/prensa libre drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 81 Harvard University non-profit org David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies u.s. postage 1730 Cambridge St. paid boston, ma Cambridge, MA 02138 permit no. 1636

contributors

63 Leah Aylward, Harvard College ‘05, is a Ph.D. Candidate in Politi- del Traje Indígena in Guatemala City. 54 Mary Jo McConahay is author cal Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland of the forthcoming Maya Roads, a thirty-year narrative of a journalist’s in Australia. 24 Santiago Bastos is a Spanish anthropologist who travel in Chiapas and Petén. 44 Nancy McGirr is Founder and Executive researches indigenous Mayas. 13 Michelle Bellino is a doctoral student Director of Fundación de Niños Artistas de Guatemala/Fotokids. 30 in Culture, Communities, and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Holly Nottebohm Harvard College ‘62 has lived in Guatemala since 1963 Education. 70 Greg Brosnan is co-director of “In the Shadow of the and worked much of that time with the Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Raid,” a documentary about the 2008 Postville, Iowa, immigration raid. Dress. 20 Emily Sanders, MS Harvard School of Public Health ’10, has 57 David Daepp is Associate Portfolio Manager with the Small Grants lived and worked throughout Latin America. 17 Victoria Sanford, a Programme of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Bunting Peace Fellow at Radcliffe (1999-2000), is Associate Profes- 10 Kate Doyle is a senior analyst and director of the Guatemala Docu- sor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Human Rights and mentation Project at the National Security Archive. 39 Dina Fernández, Peace Studies at Lehman College. 62 Emmanuel Seidner, a Harvard Harvard Nieman Fellow 2002, is an anthropologist and a journalist. 60 Mason Fellow KSG 2001, has more than 12 years of experience in areas Peter Giesemann ’61, M. Arch. Harvard Graduate School of Design ’65, a of sustainable development and competitiveness. 6 Jean-Marie Simon, practicing architect, has published widely in magazines and books. 74 Harvard Law School ‘91, is the author of Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Debra Gittler, Harvard Graduate School of Education ’10, is the founder Eternal Tyranny, recently re-issued in Spanish as Guatemala: eterna pri- and executive director of ConTextos, a non-profit that originated as the mavera, eterna tiranía. 34 Adam Singerman Harvard College ’09, is the HGSE student group Learning Through Libraries. 41 Paul Goepfert is a Prep Program Fellow at the Instituto de Liderança do Rio (Rio Leader- journalist and resident of Central America for eighteen years. 78 Nancy ship Institute). 72 David Stoll teaches anthropology at Middlebury Abraham Hall (Ph.D., Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard College. 46 Kedron Thomas, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at University), teaches in the Wellesley College Spanish Department Harvard University, is the author of the forthcoming Securing the City: since 1989. 68 Susanne Jonas is the author of Of Centaurs and Doves: Neoliberalism, Space, and Insecurity in Postwar Guatemala, co-edited Guatemala’s Peace Process, designated by Choice an “outstanding with Kevin Lewis O’Neill. 2 Edelberto Torres-Rivas, DRCLAS 1999-2000 academic book.” 76 Chris Kraul is a Bogotá-based freelance writer. 46 Central American Visiting Scholar, is a consultant in the area of Hu- Kevin Lewis O’Neill (Harvard Divinity School MTS 2002) is an assistant man Development in the United Nations Programme for Development professor in the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion and (UNDP). 27 Irma A. Velásquez Nimatuj is executive director of the the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of organization, Mecanismo de Apoyo a los Pueblos Indígenas (Support Toronto. 36 Julie López, a freelance journalist working in Guatemala, Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples). She received her Ph.D. from the received the 2010 Felix Varela National Award for Excellence in Ameri- University of Texas at Austin. can Journalism on Latino issues. 77 James R. Martel, is a professor in with featured photography by: the department of political science at San Francisco State University. Laura Blacklow, Vicente Chapero, Fotokids 2010, Daniel Hernández- 32 Fabiana Flores Maselli is the Education Director of the Museo Ixchel Salazar, Carlos Sebastián and Jean-Marie Simon.