War Perspectives

Through out these first couple of weeks in Guatemala we have been provided to a number of lectures giving various perspectives of the time of armed conflict here. A colonel in the Guatemalan National army and he gave us a presentation of the "facts" of the armed conflict and what the army's part in this 36 years of violence. It was very interesting to here how the army saw the guerrilla fighters as terrorist whose sole purpose was to over through the government and initiated a communist regime. Although I (along with my fellow students) found the presentation a bit inflated with propaganda I did really appreciate hearing what he felt was a rational explanation for the army's role in the fighting. He also gave a lot of historical facts about the origin of the conflict, including the role Cuba played in funding the guerrillas, which I didn't know before. However when it came time for the question and answer portion the air got a bit thick with tension. Some students braver then myself ask somewhat difficult questions regarding the political workings of the army. He answered some of these questions in round-about ways and flat out refused to answer others. It was a very informative presentation and a peck into perspectives I don't think I would ever have discovered with out this conference. However I was happy when it was over and we all passed through the doors of the Hotel we had the conference in (our school is considered an area of peace and compromise so army officials are not allowed within its doors) and away from the 4 military members holding automatic machine guns guarding the entrance to the colonel.

A few days later we were expose to the oposite persective to that of the military and it was a very special occation. Every year that this program is held the directors set up a conference with an officer in the military and a former member of the guerrilla forces. They try to invite officers in the from the guerrilla forces but are not always lucky to obtain one. This year the school opend its doors to one of the highest ranking officers of the guerrilla forces our group has ever been able to meet with and along with us, the majority of the other students studying spanish at this school came to listen to this woman speak. Victoria is one of the most powerful women I have ever had the oportunity to hear speak. (with a mother like mine im sure this speaks volumes to those of you who know me best) She began her service with the guerrillas at the age of 15 and survived (obviously) till then end fighting in the area of Guatemala where the majority of combat took place. I've heard a lot about Guatemalan history and especially the history of the armed conflict but she has more knoweldge about her own contry then any other person I've spoken to yet. She also has more passion for her culture and her people then anyone I've meet. She spoke for almost 3 hours and the room (filled with probably 50 people, foreign students and native guatemalan teachers alike) was completely silent for the whole time. For a woman whoes never had formal teaching in public speeking or teaching she could hold training for this a be outrageously successful. Every word she spoke dripped with sincerity and emotion. Fortunately I was siting in the front row, preventing me from seeing anyone else in the audience crying and enabling me to hold back my tears. I could hear, and thankfully not see, that others behind me had no such luck. She spoke of the passion she saw in her companeros. One of the things that stood out to me the strongest was when she spoke of the equality amongst the guerrilla soliders. Her words still ring in my head " there was not gender, no sexes in the trenches" women and men held the same positions and the same jobs. Equal sharing was done in the labor, the cooking/cleaning and decision making. The only two differences were that the women had a lighter max load that they carried with climbing the mountains and then women got first pick of uniforms when the new ones arrived from friendly alli donations. I wish I could convey more about her speach but the emotion is what is most important to me. Towards the end she spoke about the people of the united states. Unfortunately the american goverment had a lot to do with the causes of catastrpohy in this country (whats new) and she spoke about that through out the presentation when giving dates a fact of various conflicts. But she also spoke about a number of, in their eyes, 'heroic' americans along with other foreigners who saw this injustice. In the end she spoke of the knowledge the guerrillas had and that a number of guatemalans still have, between the Goverment of the United States and the People of the United States. It was a moving presentation and an incredibly moving ending. Afterwards many people hugged and cried and the majorety of us milled around the court yard for some time. If they felt like I did, not sure what to do. Mind so heavy with thoughts of sadness, happiness, weakness, strength, pride and shame. I hope to obtain her power point soon and will post it when I can.

Although the previous two perspective were given by people very close to the war, byfar the most interesting perspective in my opinion was that of civilian. Edwardo is a teacher at our school and is actually the professor of one of my fellow group members. He is from the town of Cantel, which is about 15min outside of Xela. He grew up as civil citizen not belonging to either side of the conflict. He told many stories about loosing close friends or neighbors in his town due to unprovect violence from the military. One particularly sad story about a classmate of his in high school who was mistaken as a guerrilla spy and supsequently tortured to deal. He told three 'edge of you seat' stories of how he narrowly escaped being kidnapped by the army and forced in to servitue. He also had relatives and friends with no such luck. At times the army would literally hold their own soliders at gun point to foce them to do hanace acts. He also talked about how the guerrillas, while good intentioned had an ideal that wasn't necessarily shared by all indigenous guatemalans and that there presence would sometimes put inocent people in harms way. If a guerrilla outfit came into a town to peacfully ask for support or to buy food to feed there soldiers it was very likely that within a few days a goup from the military would show up and demand to know who was supporting the guerrillas and sometimes kill people to 'make a point'. These indigenous people did not ask the guerrillas to come in to their town just at the guerrillas did not mean to put anyone in harms way. Edwardo pointed out that in this war it was not either side of the conflict which suffered the most but the people caught in the middle. Over all Edwardo spoke of lose, of tradgedy and how people come together to stay stong and how one person grows stronger on their own. Taking what life has given you and deciding who you are going to be because/despite of this and how your going to think about live and the world after this.