Strength and Determination: Interview with Blanca Hernandez of FAMDEGUA

November 9 

Today seemed incredibly themed, or the Guatemalans were trying to prove a point to me.

Blanca and Cristian, her son Oscar in the fireman hat

Bright and early, we got invited to talk to a Guatemalan women who, like so many individuals, has gone through hell and back and yet still has the strength to give her will to others like her. She was gracious enough to tell us, and the others around, her story even though the wounds reopen every time she talks about it. Blanca Hernandez, now 68, is the creator of the Association of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared ofGuatemala (since 1992) (FAMDEGUA). It is a non-governmental, humanitarian and solidarity organization which focuses on cultural and educational services to those who still have no sense of closure. There are no other services offered. In Guatemala, in addition to the over 200,000 who died during the Civil War, there are over 46,000 who forcibly "disappeared". Many of them were tortured and killed; tongues, fingers and nails cut off. Guatemala also has the largest number of victims of forced or other forms of disappearances in all of Latin America. These victims were not limited to one group but to anyone who was deemed, at the time, a threat: peasants, indigenous, farmers, community leaders, students, professors, doctors, veterinarians, political leaders, children.....

The room where we sit down with her is filled with pictures of the disappeared. As she describes them,(and I filming) we learned that all of them just wanted a safer, more just Guatemala. A photo of her son Oscar is on the bottom row in between all the others. He was involved in his local community, a volunteer firefighter, and wanted a better Guatemala. And for that he was taken. He was 22 when he disappeared. Her fear is that she will die without finding her son.

The things those eyes have seen: Blanca Hernandez

Blanca explained to us that, "Our goal was to create this organization even though there was a lot of oppression in this country. It was a dangerous thing to do. We did it because our goal, at that moment, at that time, was to find our sons, our family members, alive. This was a really hard time. Some of our members were tortured, they were captured, they were murdered. And we lost a lot of friends and family and members of this group. A lot of them disappeared as well. We joined the lines of the people who were looking. Suddenly we became part of the disappeared ourselves."

The organization members hope that they would find their loved ones alive.They just want to know. As Blanca described they are worse off than those who know their loved ones have been murdered. This situation brings me back to the research in the psychology of death and dying. Despite the vast cross-cultural differences in which we chose to mourn for the loss of loved ones, the feelings and processes in accepting loss are universal.  As described by the works of Corr, Doka (task-based theories), Kubler-Ross (stage theories), and Bugen (intervention theories), grieving is part of the intrapersonal dimension of coping with loss, while mourning is part of the interpersonal aspects of social expression, or social expression of grief. Furthermore, physical symptoms as well as depression of unresolved grief are a sign of unresolved grief.

Psychology of Death and Dying

As Blanca went on to say in Spanish, "When somebody takes a family member and makes them disappear, it is the most horrible act that anyone can commit against somebody else. Sometimes people will die, people will be murdered, but their families have something that we don’t have. You have a body; you can mourn them, you can bury them, you can visit them. But in our case we don’t have a place to go. In our case, they are not dead and they are not alive; it is a circle that has no end. We are still mourning them, because we cannot stop, we cannot move on with our lives".

The victims’ families cannot properly mourn. With no remains, they have no place to mourn at. Healing is limited or cannot take place at all. That is why it is so important to seek out and identify the remains of these families.

Protesting in front of Cultural Palace, Guatemala City

In great need of a walk to recollect our thoughts after that powerful two hour meeting with Blanca Hernandez, we headed toward the del Palacio Nacional (National Palace). On the front steps, a man was shouting. He spoke about corruption of the state (the government was apparently planning their Christmas Party during their morning meetings), the president's promise of new jobs turn out to be only a few new positions within the government with little worth or purpose, and the little worth of the Quetzales to Dollar (maybe make new sentence about worth). Moreover, he was stressing how Guatemalans need to rise up together to discontinue corruption; not with arms but with our voices, intelligence and common sense. He spoke of the man behind him on a hunger strike who has prostate cancer. To him, this man is representative of many others without access to health care, and urged people to act now because one day they might be in a similar situation. The man on a hunger strike is Carlos Izaguirre, a kind soft spoken man who does not have access to medicine for his painful cancer. He is camped out in protest of state corruption and the lack of resources for hospitals. One of his signs reads, “I have the same right to health as Baldetti”. Baldetti was the former Vice President who resigned after a corruption scandal. She recently sought private health care because the public health care system was not to her standards. Cristian said that such a protest would not  have happened 15 years ago without the police showing up and hauling the men off. In May, people of all ages regularly were showing up at the plaza every Saturday because of the President and Vice President’s corruption. They peacefully protested and cleaned up after themselves, which is wonderful to hear such progression.

Carlos Izaguirre hunger-striking with cancer

We stopped by later and brought the man on a hunger strike some water and Ensure powder. He was very grateful though he definitely deserved our thanks more, for his bravery in speaking out. Carlos said he has been standing up against the corruption and violence since he was a university student and is now in his 60s. He continues fighting for the youth and hopes to one day be at a place where his country owes him nothing and he owes his country nothing.He hugged all of us as we left.

Of the few hand written signs he had beside him, one stood out most powerful and true:

“Solidarity has no borders. It’s not something you ask for, it’s a gift.”

I have felt at times like the situations within countries like Guatemala are hopeless. However, listening to Blanca, Carlos and the protesting man speak was an encouraging shift. They are reminders of the strong determined people working towards making things better despite death threats and cuts to funding. People keep working even when their organizations have no money to pay their salaries, like the staff  at EFI-IFIFT and (soon to see) FundacionSobrevivientes .  Most importantly, we, including the media, need to focus our efforts on documenting the strength and determination of people like this. We need to see that one is not limited to the amount of money, or formal education; you just have to have an open mind. Their lives' work is not just for themselves but to help others. They know others have suffered just as much as themselves, and for that they will work together to make their struggles worth the effort. And it so very true! In a society of individualism, our lives will not feel as meaningful if we are just working to improve ourselves. We must, therefore, work for the betterment of our community and/or society.

Blanca will continue her search, Carlos his protest and Cristian his excavations despite the dangers. What will you do?  

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http://pueblodeguatemala.blogspot.com/