Back to beginnings-- Guatemala

GUATEMALA! As I have said before, my first trip to Guatemala five years ago changed my life. At the time, I was an insecure 18 year old with a big heart, but little life experience. My path to Guatemala actually began four years earlier: I was taking a Spanish class at the high school and a group came and talked to us about their service trip to San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. I was mesmorized, and in December 2003, I finally got my wish: I was accepted to go on the Guatemala trip.

To say that it changed and impacted me is a laughable understatement. Much of what I am today; much of what I am passionate about and people on campus knew me for: coordinator of trips to the School of the Americas protest, president of the Latin American Sustainability Education and Development, and the Latin American Studies Club, fundraiser for sustainable development and humanitarian aid projects, advocate for social justice-- much of all this was born out of and shaped by my time here.

We have been here five days and it´s amazing how quickly things come back. The smell of wood-burning stoves, the sounds of marimbas and ranchero music, the colorful huipiles (women´s traditional woven blouses), the stunning scenery, the smiles and ¨buenos dìas¨of everyone you pass, and the overwhelming feeling of being at peace: all uniquely spell Guatemala to me. It is incredible coming back to a place that played such a pivitol role in shaping the person I am today. There is something about this place that fills me with such unbridled happiness and peace, and at the same time such a motivation and drive for social justice work. So far, our time here has been spent sorting coffee beans, working on reforestation projects, helping make wooden artisan works for sale, and going to other communities, learning all we can about guatemala, social justice and liberation theology (and meeting some wonderful people along the way!).

San Lucas Toliman is located in the Mayan highlands of Guatemala on the shores of Lake Atitlan, surrounded by three volcanoes. This is an area of at once rich cultural heritage and a devistating history of bloodshed. In the 1950´s Guatemala had it´s first democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz, and one thing that he recognized people were suffering from was lack of land (at this time about two dozen families owned almost all the land in Guatemala, forcing the vast majority of Guatemalans to ´work´on coffee plantations (work is a relative term, it would be looked at more like indentured servitude today)). Anyways, one of the biggest landholders in Guatemala was the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita). Arbenz decides to go through with his land redistribution, so notifies United Fruit Company and tells them that the government will pay them per acre the value of their land, as they claimed on their taxes. Well, United Fruit claimed much less than it was worth, and they were furious, and some of the board members were also in the CIA. So, in 1954, the CIA orchestrated a coup d'ètat to depose of the democratically-elected Jacobo Arbenz. There was a devestating 36-year civil war, which culminated with a horrific genecide at the hands of (among others) General Efraín Rios Montt in the 1970s and 80s. Death squads, dissapearances, massacres of whole villages, extortion, rape, and assasinations were commonplace, many times daily occurences. According to the U.N. Truth Commission, the Guatemalan government forces were responsible for over 93% of the human rights violations during the war. During the first 10 years of the war, they targeted students, workers, religious persons, professionals, and opposition figures, but in the last years it was thousands of mostly rural Mayan farmers and non-combatants. Over 450 Mayan villages were destroyed and over 1 million people became internal and external refugees. The civil war ended with the signing of the peace accords in 1996.

Despite all the bloodshed and violent past, Guatemala remains the most entrancing, loving, and, yes, magical, place I have ever been. It´s ironic how a place with such a violent past (and, very often, present) inspires the deepest sense of peace I have ever known.

Well, it´s back to work for us. Cory just left to shoot a wedding in Mexico for a week, and so it´s just us girls holding down the fort for awhile. Here are some pictures courtesy of my friend Mira, from my last time down here:

Market in Santiago AtitlanAna and Miriam