This book report is of the
ethnography of Guatemalans in the Aftermath of Violence by Kristi Anne Stolen, was published by
the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2007 and there are 236 pages. The story
takes place over a range of time depending at what part of the story you are
at. Some parts are reminiscing in the past before even the times of the
Guatemalan war, but the majority of the time it is set in the present, and what
the people are facing currently on a daily basis to be able to survive on their
“new” homeland. The story takes place in Guatemala, but specifically in Petén and
Ixcán but even more specifically the village of La Quetzal and some surrounding
villages there. In this ethnography, there are many eyewitness accounts within
the book, but there are no concrete characters that follow through the whole
story to be able to describe.
In
this ethnography the author Kristi Anne Stolen just processes many eyewitness
accounts of the Guatemalan war and cross-examines them with the theory set out
by many other various authors of the time, about the war. It is crucial for all
of the viewpoints and eyewitness accounts to have been added into this
ethnography because they give the reader a good sense of their home lives
before the war, during the war and as well as now, after the war. It is
important for the reader to have a good sense of their home lives and how they
may have been raised in certain situations because it really places the reader
within the context of the book and allows the reader to develop a well
described image in their mind with little or no problems. In the book, Stolen
uncovers many problems faced by the returnees in Guatemala in all the different
locations that the refugees had returned to. Some of these problems include a
matter of retaining their land again, building after their homes and central
buildings had been destroyed in the war and readjusting to life back in
Guatemala. Obviously these eyewitness accounts are catalysts in the story and
are what move the story forward through a progression of events.
In
this ethnography there are many recurring themes such as racism, power
imbalance, and sexual inequality. All of the themes are equally important to
the book and it is hard to narrow just one specific theme to describe. With
this being said, racism and sexual inequality cause a power imbalance. This
means that two recurring themes actually join together in order to form the
third and another prevalent theme throughout the book. The racism in Guatemala
was prevalent from the very beginning eye witness accounts in this book from
even the times before the war occurred and follow through the whole book, right
into the racism experienced in Mexico when they were received as refugees and
again as they returned to Guatemala. Many other Guatemalans that had remained
in Guatemala during the time of the war think that the Guatemalans who had
returned should have stayed in Mexico because now they are receiving financial
help because they are refugees, but the others are not. They do not think that
is fair. This is one current example of racism detected in the novel. This
current example of racism shows that although they are in fact the same race,
the Guatemalans who remained there the entire time of the war, no longer
consider the refugees as Guatemalans but rather as more Mexicans. Sexual inequality was another large theme
throughout the whole book, but was more prevalent in the beginning than the
end. At the beginning of the book it was clear that men and women were defined
by their traditional roles and no one should ever dare step outside of those
boundaries. However, after the returnees came back to Guatemala, the women had
been very enlightened and learned that it was okay for them to speak up for
their rights as well as to exercise their rights when necessary. It was made
possible for these women to stick up for their rights because they were backed
by different international organizations that helped to show them, what rights
they had and how to use them. What this means is that the Guatemalan women
before would have never dared to speak out because it would have gone against
the men’s wishes, and in most cases they would have been beaten for speaking
out. With international organizations backing the women, it provided them a
source of comfort to stand up for what was right. These two problems were most
important at the beginning of the story when it starts out with the eye witness
accounts of a time before the war, the power imbalance continues throughout the
whole story. Just as the racial problems and sexual inequality problems seem to
diminish near the end of the book this is a similar case with the power
imbalance struggle. At the beginning of the book there is a large gap in the
power imbalance and this is a large catalyst for the civil war in the first place.
All
three of themes being carried throughout the book made the book much more
exciting to read because every time you put the book down, you were almost left
wondering if the situations would ever get better for the people, and at the
end it describes to you how their lives have improved. Obviously their lives
are not perfect, and one cannot expect that, however, it is nice to feel an
emotional attachment to the dialogue because of the eye witness accounts that
are placed within the text. The eye witness accounts are for me, the most
important part of the book, because not only are they the most interesting, but
they are the most thought provoking and insightful. Stolen’s research and
incorporation of other author’s works is interesting, but not nearly as much as
the actual eye witness accounts themselves. For me, the eye witness accounts
provided more information and insight into the lives of the Guatemalans than
her analysis did.
Stolen’s
main argument throughout the book is that the Guatemalan guerilla movement did
not receive as much support from the indigenous population as was supposed
originally. In fact, after she had done much investigating and interviewing it
was clear that most indigenous groups strongly opposed the guerrilla movements
in Guatemala. I feel that Stolen did achieve her purpose because she made clear
the lack of support for the guerilla movements by the indigenous, as well as
the hardships faced by the groups, as discussed above. The racism, sexual
inequalities, and power imbalances were portrayed and explored well in her book
to show the reader the full impact on the people of the civil war. The guerilla
movements were just as bad as the actual military movements, and this was the
reason that the majority of the indigenous population did not in fact want to
support the guerilla movements. The indigenous chose not to support the
guerilla movements because they did not want to lose everything that they had
gained not long ago, but they ended up losing it all in the end anyways.
The
writing in this book is very effective; again I think personally it is most
effective and touching when reading the individual accounts of the situations
by actual returnees. That is the most authentic account that you can receive,
and for this reason it is very powerful. To think about all the hardships that
these Guatemalans have gone through and that many of their spirits are not
broken is incredible. After all of the injustices that many of these people
have been through, they are making a conscious, active effort to re-build their
lives on the land that before the war had belonged to them. The fact that many
Guatemalans had gone to extraordinary lengths to acquire those land parcels and
build on them in the first place, is incredible in of itself, let alone the
fact that they are fully prepared to re-acquire the land and start all over
again. This book is truly inspiring because of everything that the Guatemalans
have and still currently are going through just to get their lives back to
“normal”. I also think that the eyewitness accounts are what make the book
beautiful and unique. Of course there are many other books that one can read
that will entail eyewitness accounts, but the fact that these indigenous people
just keep struggling, and persevering to continue developing their lives makes
this story different from all the rest.
The
strengths of the book clearly are the eyewitness accounts and the number of
them, however, the weaknesses of the text are the amount of contextual
information that is provided via third-party sources and the analysis that
accompanies them. I think that without these two parts, or with these two parts
in a much more limited form it would have been a much more enjoyable read. With this being said, I did enjoy the book,
and for the number of first-hand experiences that were recorded in the book, I
would have liked to see even more. I know though that it was mentioned in the
book that Stolen was only able to get so many indigenous returnees to
participate in her study, and this was more than likely a limiting factor, but
I feel this would have greatly increased the reader’s enjoyment of the book.
I
am not entirely clear on Stolen’s qualifications to writing on the topic other
than she did a 3 year field study there, which in my opinion constitutes a
large qualification to write about the area. It is also clear in her writing
that she has done a large amount of research in order to make comparisons and
analyses between what the indigenous people had said and how to connect with other
author’s previous works about the region. I do agree with Stolen’s conclusions
and arguments. At first I was skeptical of what she was trying to convey to me,
but the more I read, the more convinced I became. Stolen proved to me that she
knew the topic that she was analyzing and because she knew this topic well the
reader should put a certain amount of “trust” in her knowledge of the region. I
think this is particularly important in the case of Guatemala because out of
all the Latin American countries, Guatemala is one of the least studied and
talked about countries in the region. For whatever reason, many of the
countries in the whole of Central America are usually largely disregarded, but
Stolen definitely conveyed to me that the indigenous people did not in fact
want to support the guerilla movements at all.
My
overall response to the book is that it was a very well-written book, even
though I would have enjoyed to read more individual accounts from the
indigenous people there, and maybe even of other perspectives. This would make
the book an even better read than what I already consider it to be. I found
this book extremely interesting because I was not very familiar with the war in
Guatemala before reading this book, so for me, the whole book was an entirely
new experience, so to speak. The book I think was interesting most of all
because of the individual accounts of every individual perspective that she
tried to capture, to assemble somewhat of a puzzle montage storyline. This book
was very moving for me in the sense that I am going to make sure that when I am
learning about Latin America in the future, I will make sure to take a closer
look at the other countries not necessarily discussed in as much extent as the
larger nations. Specifically, I am going to pay more attention to Guatemala and
the people there. It seems odd to me that so much common knowledge about Mexico
is possessed in the minds of so many, yet, the country that shares borders with
Mexico seems non-existent to the rest of the area.
I
would recommend this book to others because it was an interesting read, and
because I know that not a lot of people go out of their way to learn about
Guatemala. Another reason that I would recommend this book is because I think
to know about the civil wars in different countries in Latin America is very
important so that in your mind you can form the framework of being able to link
all of the movements and wars together in one way or another. This book for me
was very interesting even though I had skeptical thoughts about it to begin
with. Stolen is a great author that conveys her message and opinions through
her thesis well.
In
conclusion, the ethnography written by Kristi Anne Stolen portrayed many
different aspects of the Guatemalan culture and hardships incurred by many of
them due to the war torn areas. Most of the refugees that went back to
Guatemala after having lived in Mexico were making the best of what they were
given. It will take a long time and a lot of work to restore the Guatemalans to
what they had before the war however, with the support of international groups
it is possible.
Bibliography
Adams, Abigail E.
“Journal of Latin American Studies.” 42.2 (2010): 436-438. Online. http://journals.cambridge.org.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/action/displayFulltext?type=1&pdftype=1&fid=7837614&jid=LAS&volumeId=42&issueId=02&aid=7837612. Accessed June 19, 2012.
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