Guatemalans in the Aftermath of Violence Analysis

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.