Re: help!

karl h schwerin (schwerin@UNM.EDU)
Mon, 30 Oct 1995 09:28:15 -0700

On Mon, 23 Oct 1995, Molly Anne Kenney wrote:

> To anyone who will take the time to read this-----------
>
> I am an undergraduate at North Carolina State University and I have
> enjoyed reading antro-l for some time now and i finally might be
> able to use this list for more than just interesting reading
>
> I am trying to get information for a paper on the indigenous people of
> Guatemala and I'm having a problem finding recent information.
>
> The class is ethnic conflict and nationalism so i need information on how
> the indigenous peoples are continuing to be victimized in government
> campaigns against supporters of leftist insurgency that began in early
> 1960's
>
> if anyone has any suggestions or info that might be helpful i would
> grately appreciate it!!!!!!
>
> Molly Kenney e-mail address --- makenney@unity.ncsu.edu
>

a good general bacground on Guatemala and its Indians is:
Smith, Carol A. (ed.). 1990. Guatemalan Indians and the State 1540 to
1988. Austin, TX: Univ. of Texas Press

You can also get lots of specific human rights information from Amnesty
International, 322 Eighth Ave. New York, NY 10001 and
Human Rights Watch, 485 Fifth Aveneue, New York, NY 110017
write for their catalogs of current publications

Following are some sources on human rights in Guatemala that I know about
Schirmer, Jennifer G. 1993. "Those who die for life cannot be called
dead": Women and Human Rights Protest in Latin America, pp. 31-57 in
Surviving Beyond Fear, ed. by Marjorie Agosin. Fredonia, NY: White Pine
Press (this only includes a few pages about Guatemala. I would also warn
you that some of the material in Agosin is pretty strong stuff - very
graphic - I had trouble believing that any human being would treat another in some of the
ways that are described). Other sources:

Amnesty International. 1992. Human Rights Violations Against the
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. New York: Amnesty International USA

Carmack, Robert (ed.). 1988. Harvest of violence. The Maya Indians and
the Guatemalan crisis. Norman, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press

THE DARK LIGHT OF DAWN. 1987. video, 28 mins. film by E. Reyes & G.
Brown. Chicago, IL: Facets Multimedia, Inc. (recent years of conflict
in Guatemala, manipulation of political power, human rights violations,
repression of Indians, "disappeared")

DEATH SQUADS OF GUATEMALA. video, 23 min. Huntsville, TX: Educational
Video Network

Falla, Ricardo. 1993. Massacres in the jungle, Ixcan, Guatemala,
1975-1982. Boulder, CO: Westview Press

1993. Guatemala: Impunity: A question of political
will. New York: Amnesty International

Harbury, Jennifer. Bridge of courage. Life stories of the Guatemalan
companeros & companeras. Monroe, ME: Books for an Informed Democracy

Human Rights Watch. 1995. Disappeared in Guatemala. The case of Efrain
Bamaca Velasquez. New York: Human Rights Watch

Jonas, Susanne. 1991. The battle for Guatemala. Rebels, death squads,
and U.S. power. Boulder, CO: Westview Press

1985. Little hope: Human rights in Guatemala. January
1984 to January 1985. New York: Americas Watch

Manz, Beatriz. 1993. Refugees of a hidden war. The aftermath of
counter-insurgency in Guatemala. Albany, NY: SUNY Press

Menchu, Rigoberta. 1984. I, Rigoberta Menchu. An Indian woman in
Guatemala. London: Verso (this is a compelling first hand account by
the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner of her own life and evolution into a
human rights activist. My students are really moved by it)

Montejo, Victor. Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan village.
Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press (written by a native Mayan who
received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Connecticut in 1993)

Perea, Victor. 1993. Unfinished conquest. The Guatemalan tragedy.
Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press

Stoll, David. 1993. Between two armies in the Ixil towns of Guatemala.
New York: Columbia Univ. Press

Wilson, Richard. 1991. Machine Guns and Moutnain Spirits: The Cultural
Effects of State Represssion among the Q'eqchi of Guatemala. Critique of
Anthropology 11(1):33-61

Karl Schwerin SnailMail: Dept. of Anthropology
Univ. of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131
e-mail: schwerin@unm.edu

Much charitable endeavor is motivated by an unconscious
desire to peer into lives that one is glad to be unable
to share. . . . . Edward Sapir