Comments on: Testigo http://blogs.haverford.edu/guatemala/2008/03/14/testigo/ Haverford.edu: Poli Sci / Hist 233 trip to Guatemala Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:28:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Renata Avila http://blogs.haverford.edu/guatemala/2008/03/14/testigo/#comment-561 Renata Avila Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:39:01 +0000 http://blogs.haverford.edu/blogs/guatemala/2008/03/14/testigo/#comment-561 I am a Guatemalan “ladina” as some call me. I work for Human Rights, I am a lawyer. My whole education was a farse and only because I am curious and I read a lot I could realize that the system was designed to create”compatible citizens”, to neutralize social movements, to cover the truth…

“the degree of inhumanity needs to be acknowledged” as you said on your post. It was extremely brutal, people still remind in extreme poverty and what makes Guatemala transition different from Chile and Canada is that survivors are extremely poor, isolated,vulnerable. They cannot afford by themselves a trial, their voices are hardly heard in media, they lack spaces. And the youth is a-historical, self centered and extremely conservative.

Thank you for caring about people on this side of the World, and feel free to contact me if you need anything

]]> By: George Fee '84 http://blogs.haverford.edu/guatemala/2008/03/14/testigo/#comment-21 George Fee '84 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:44:46 +0000 http://blogs.haverford.edu/blogs/guatemala/2008/03/14/testigo/#comment-21 An eye opening experience for the ‘Fords who experienced Guatemala, I have read your posts and seen your expressed commitment to making sure that this horrendous Civil War will not be forgotten. After I graduated from Haverford in 1984, I moved to Central America, spending three years living in Honduras, two living in Guatemala, and five living in Panama. I was in Guatemala from the latter part of 1988 until mid 1990, a period that saw much bloodshed (though fortunately for me not too much in Izabal where I spent most of my time). While my experience was different than that of someone living in the highlands (where most of the war occurred) I do want to share with you my impression of the most enlightened person whom I met during my time in Guatemala. Ironically, he was a Military Officer, the Commanding Officer of the Guatemalan Naval Forces along the Caribbean. Well read, with a clear sense of history and social justice, he was exactly the type of person needed in a post civil war era. Regardless of the country where it occurs, a civil war is not over until the entire population that was involved has passed on (reference our own civil war). Reconciliation is much harder than continued hostilities, and although no longer a “shooting” war, it will take at least a generation for the Guatemalan populace to come to grips with the thirty-five plus years of inhumane abuse. Enlightenment is needed from all people in such a state.
“One can never forget, but must learn to forgive” was a phrase spoken to me late one night in June 1990 in Managua, Nicaragua by a returning Contra commander, who was about to meet his younger brother for the first time in seven years (the brother being a Major in the Sandinista army). Both had fought against each other, sometimes in the same area, and both had survived and even advanced their respective military careers during the conflict. The man who I spent the majority of the evening talking (and drinking copious amounts of the local rum -Flor de Cana) with, was clearly more nervous and scared at his approaching fraternal reconciliation than he had been going into battle. I have thought of him often in the intervening years and hope that he and his brother were able to find peace.
It pleases me that Haverford is offering such an opportunity to its students as a Guatemalan history / poli-sci. class today. Makes me proud to be a ‘Ford.

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