'Movimiento de Desarraigados' and the Crippling Effect of Corruption

Morning visit in Nebaj

November 23: 

Fredy

In the morning, our first stop in Nebaj was meeting the team at 'Movimiento deDesarraigados'  (Organization of the Displaced)  with which the organization I am with, Equipo Forense Interdisciplinario (EFI) partners in this field region. The organization was first created before the '96 Peace Accord. 

Their first goal was to claim back what lands citizens in the area had been lost. Following this was to find people that were lost and taken. Since the other members only spoke Ixchil, there was some double translating. 

Fredy spoke the most during our stay as he was fluent both in his native tongue and Spanish. Cristian as always, was our translator. Fredy, like the individuals he serves, lived through the atrocities of the conflict, being 12 years old when he escaped to the mountains. He is now the economic coordinator, dealing with the politics of the limited amount of money that goes in and out of the organization. 

He notes that in the last years the finances have gotten worse. This organization, like Blanca Hernandez's FAMDEGUA, is greatly affected the international cuts and removals due to the continuous corruption of Guatemala. 

Anna helps with the legal aspects for families in seeking helping finding their missing to applying for the reparations that are supposed to be granted. The first things these families need is personal identification who they are looking for to the organization RENAP when Guatemalans must go to register for birth and death certificates. the problem with this, is many from the rural communities living during the conflict, never received identification. She says she does not stop until these families get their reparations. 

The third individual is Gabriel of which we are honoured to be in the field with. He is the orienter as he knows these mountains inside out. He conducts the first interviews with families for descriptions of where the remains might be buried. He then scouts out the geography where he believes the remains are buried.

Anna

During the discussion with these three members, we discussed some of the main setbacks which limit them from providing effective and successful support for their community.  In the initiative's infancy, the main question was 'how do you coordinate and organize people to approach the State when you are hiding in the mountains with no power or roads?'

 The first step was to empower the communities so that the silence could come to an end. The goal remains to approach every single form of government in order to show how important reconciliation work is in order to influence long-term social healing and progress. 

To some extent, after the Civil War, they were able to get access to a military garrison where "our people were tortured". The organization, comprised of locals no different from their community members they try their best to support, still are waiting for answers from the government. 

Especially Civil War cases like this, they wait till all the family members are available to be a part of the uncovering process. As EFI member Juan Carlos reminds us, he had never experienced the trauma of the civil war while coming here as a scientist to do his job. He reminds us that we must never forget that we are all humans. 

He says many people including professionals tend to push this aspect out of the way or to separate themselves from the family and the work of uncovering bodies. Even though you are dealing with bones and uncovering remains, you should not think less of these people. This is especially important for the family members you are doing this for. Even though it may be difficult, at first, to work when they may want to be all over the excavation site, you must be understanding, leave time for their prayers or ceremonies, but most of all to work together. 

Particular in the remote and rural areas, the interview processes towards a forensic anthropological exhumation with EFI, must take into consideration the language barriers and language that is lost in translation. This is the case even for native Spanish speakers because there are many dialects and Mayan languages. That is why the forensic anthropologists in the field, bring a colour scale to ensure an accurate description when interviewing family members for both searching for the unmarked grave location and in identifying the remains. Not only do you need to ensure the right understanding, but you must also ensure cultural sensitivity. 

Gabriel and Juan Carlos

They reminded us that governments and aid workers cannot forget that even when the remains are back to the family, there are scars that cannot heal unless helped to mend. Initiatives must consider these issues and thus follow through to the end. 

Like Indigenous peoples within Canada, they understand that the root to so much modern violence is the result of undiagnosed and unsupported post-traumatic stress these families continue to suffer with and alcohol as a coping mechanism. They say, that is why initiatives like  'Movimiento deDesarraigados'   assist the families till the end; they know the reconciliation process is not set up for actual assistance. 

The organizers emphasize they will be there before to help break the silence, they are there during to help with documentation and legal process for the exhumation and to be able to mourn in dignity. They then make sure they are there after the bodies are found. This is not only because it takes months if not years to process and get confirmation currently from the Guatemalan government for small amount of reconciliation fees, but also because there is very little support or initiatives helping with psycho-social and mental health issues. Despite what little funds they have themselves, they do not charge families, while helping assist with transportation to the city offices for documentation processes.

Fredy says the organization does not care if individuals were in the army, guerrillas, or civil patrollers, they give no favours if they committed crimes even though they cannot deny 97% were ordered by the government.One of the girls on my team asked if this work was their therapy since they've experienced the same trauma. 

"Our work makes us stronger, even if we cannot find or take back what happened to our friends and family, we can at least use our emotion to help others," Fredy answered, similarly to Norma and Blanca (refer to previous posts)."We all have experienced loss and trauma." 

He uses the example of families affected by the  9/11 Twin Towers tragedy of people who still cannot find family members, who have no sense of closure, and are still putting candles at Ground Zero. He adds, what about the First Nations in Canada and all the missing persons from the past to today. 

Guatemala has made November 1st a commemoration of Day of the Dead, a day for paying tribute and memory to their deceased loved ones at the cemeteries, thousands of people have no grave to go to.  But if you do not know where they are buried, the family cannot be at peace. They have had 80-year-old woman begging them to help find their loved ones so they can have a proper burial for them before they die themselves.

A lost and murdered loved one

Locating bodies are always difficult despite clues from interview processes where witnesses may remember vaguely where the victim was last seen. But because of so many missing, disappeared and displaced during the Civil War era, the odds are that victims can be buried anywhere. That is why when citizens find out that an exhumation is about to take place, the excavators will have a large audience of families, just in case it may be another's family member.

Justice and Genocide

Fredy says the major contemporary setback since the international and national community agreed during the '96 Peace Accord to provide reparations to those who have suffered and lost members during the Civil War, is that these funds have barely been seen. 

From the 1996 Peace Accord, the international community had set out some 300 million Quetsales for the National Program of Reparations under the responsibility of the Guatemalan government. There were supposed to be five major active programs including the investigation of genocide, taken land claims, development, housing and hiring psychologists. 

Unfortunately, so much of these apparent funds have gone missing says Fredy. What housing that has been built were discovered by some building inspections that they were not even proper to live in. Programs are still doing their part and sending proposals in search of funding, but still the citizen created initiatives are not seeing any improvement but rather a decline since the 19 years since the Accord.

If this is not frustrating enough for those who are already working with no form of payment to help these victims, the Guatemalan government's existing reparations and justice application processes are extraordinarily unattainable for those they were set up for in the first place. 

As I now have heard the inside of the hard-working initiatives of Movimiento de Desarraigados, EFI, INACIF, FAMDEGUA, and Fundacion Sobrevivientes, they are all struggling continuously with these unattainable processes. With fee after fee, miles of extra transportation, limited access and time to assist these victims and their families, people begin to feel helpless and hopeless. 

The Public Ministry and the National Reparations Program expect monthly reports from these forensic anthropologists, archaeologists, lawyers, and/or psycho-socialists who are assisting the families. The extent to which these reports are demanded is limiting to their work and efforts on further investigation progress, losing weeks to months, and in cases years need to complete the final stages of the job. 

This, in of itself, Freddy and Cristian describe as another form of genocide by halting the process and making it inaccessible for the victims. By waiting for these people to die, the government does not have to give out the money. Using these discouraging methods the victims begin to lose hope, or to just not bother because they cannot afford the time and money, meanwhile continuing to live in fear and pain. 

I wonder if the international community that involved themselves do not care to follow through, just how their money and effort is being spent. Do they ever talk to the individuals and organizations directly affected?

Basta Ya protesting outside Cultural Palace

Here, much more so than other countries, it is understood you can buy out crime in any aspect of life. One of the first things done, is getting out of paying taxes. No one seems to be able or has the inclination to go after the nationals, not until the recent establishment by  the international community of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala. As mentioned above, the Guatemalan organizations that I was able to meet with are facing the consequences of the systemic political corruption, many of their critical funders are leaving the country, such as Embassy of Holland and next year Norway, because they are seeing no progress.

Karli Zschogner, 2014

I had the opportunity in my undergrad to study indicators, the effects of corruption and what the international initiatives have done to promote greater transparency.  One of  cases within the fifteen former USSR countries where I asked: “With this consideration it was asked, does a perceived high level of corruption of a state also correlate to a loss of freedom of civil liberties for these independent former Soviet states?” 

The variables of the Freedom House Index focus on political rights as an electoral processes, participation, and functioning of the government, and also civil liberties as surveys of freedom of expression, organizational right and personal autonomy. The index measures ‘freedom’ of states on a scale from 1 through 7. The scores of perceived corruption the Transparency Index range from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), and include the measurement from surveys of perceived legitimacy, petty corruption, bribery within politics, and the limit on access. 

From graphing the scores from these two databases I confirmed that there is a correlation between the two variables. In other words, it was found that less civil liberties and political rights available within a country were present where there is greater perceived corruption. Where there is higher perceived corruption there is also evidence that the sense of legitimacy in their government is low and where civil unrest grows. 

Even though it is incredibly useful to compare country cases to grasp a fuller understanding, you can never fully get accurate, realistic, and useful findings to put into practice until you factor in all of that country's, history, culture, geography, values or connections, of which many cannot do unless having lived in it and among its population for a long time. For example in the case between Estonia and Uzbekistan, what is evident is that it is almost impossible to buy foreign currency at the official exchange rate in the banks of Uzbekistan. This is why the black market was the only available source where people could acquire foreign currency (Urinboyev; Svensson, 2013, pg. 377). 

Maybe then, if it is common in that country for police not to take an investigation into the black market or politicians deal with bribes, it is seen as normal and therefore citizens will not see any difference and will not proceed to prevent it.

"Justice is like a snake, it only bites the Barefoot"

From what I can conclude from the many experts and people who have lived among such impunity,  if you want to combat international corruption and atrocities, you have to internationally hold governments accountable through monitorization of those who do not respect universal human rights. 

As marked in the 10 stages to genocide, when governments and leaders use their power to tell citizens they must join one force or die (this includes what we have seen through humanity's history once we have labeled individuals as enemies as Communists, guerrillas, homosexuals, terrorists) these are grave warning signs that the worst indeed is about to happen.

To the international community, young or old we must act to ensure this force is de-legitimized and punished. For what I have seen, the worst thing you can do to someone is put them in a position that jeopardizes their life or their family's if they refuse to cooperate. 

One can use these situations to easily predict mass atrocities where civilians become the perpetrators. You cannot make humans choose between their and their family's life and safety. Fear creates monsters; it the worst psychological torture you can put someone through. 

"Even though I am not coming back to see you Acracia (anarchy) [Democracy] will prevail"

I guess that is why governments, armed groups and other civilians across the world and across history have used this tactic, as it will quickly disperse their own responsibility, and aligns the justifications for their actions they are about to commit.  Just consider the aftermath of the Holocaust, Rwanda, child soldiers, the Cold War, and in this case, the creation of Guatemala's Civil Patrollers forced to capture, murder, and rape their own neighbours.

Before we left, Fredy reminded us that we were welcome back anytime and welcomes anyone who is interested in these issues. This is a multidisciplinary issue and therefore important to have multidisciplinary academic and skill.

Please See Also:

Failed States Index 2015

Guatemalan Truth Commission

http://sheilapeters.com/tag/movimiento-de-desarraigados-del-norte-de-quiche/

Guatemala BASTA YA

INACIF

War and Remembrance

The five of us just finished watching the incredible film Innocent Voices, on the true story of a boy and his community during the 80's El Salvador conflict, where there was forced child military recruitment. Cristian living in Central and South America during the conflicts confirms it is truly accurate of the trauma war does to children, recruitments and their families, and how soldiers can turn children into killing machines. It brings me back to Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative and his work TheyFight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children. Cristian explains that he was in the area in 2005 for the film. Carlos Padilla now lives in Mexico as a writer and film-maker.

Realizing the eve of Remembrance Day to my fellow Canadians, I feel a great pit in my stomach if I do not write. I write not to offend but because in reflection of the years I have been on this earth, I have realized Remembrance Day has been a touchy subject at times; for example the white peace poppies. Every year I question if and why I see so much anger and backlash when people have  a discussion of how it makes them feel or from what see as anything against the general and traditional narrative we have heard since WWI and II. My intent is not to hurt or offend, but only the sharing of knowledge and to help create a greater understanding of others.

Quoted from the official VeterensAffairs holds great importance:

"These wars touched the lives of Canadians of all ages, all races, all social classes. Fathers, sons, daughters, sweethearts: they were killed in action, they were wounded, and thousands who returned were forced to live the rest of their lives with the phsical and mental scars of war...
Yet for many of us, war is phenomenon seen through the lens of a television camera or a journalist's account of fighting in distant parts of the world. Our closest physical and emotional experience may be the discovery of wartime memorabillia in a family attic. But even items such as photographs, uniform badges, medals, and diaries can seem vague and uncconnected to the life of their owner. For those of us born during peacetime, all wars seem far removed from our daily lives.
We often take for granted our Canadian values and institutions, our freedoms to participate in cultural and political events, and our right to live under a government of choice... "

In retrospect, one important distinction made in Conflict Studies is acknowledging that war and warfare has greatly changed from the narratives of Carl von Clausewitz's On War, and therefore the methods and narratives should follow suit. But many of the contemporary issues that surround  us today is in part due to the narratives of war not being updated within society. Reflection and progression is important because new and unforeseen issues arise and thus tactics and what is found to important ever changes. Yes, in some aspects we never seem to learn from our mistakes in history, but maybe we have learned, just those narratives are condemned or silenced.

Once you have seen country case study after case study of conflicts or mass atrocities you realize how frightenly similar they all are. Hitler does not seem so distant and horrendous because you realize how quickly and commonly these events have slipped into action, citizens, neighbours, brothers and sisters turn on each other, while the other parts of the world or even members of their own country are 'oblivious' or paralysed from action of resistance. Or if they have, are turned around and branded as "stubborn", "allies to the enemy", or this century's favourite: "terrorists". The contemporary cases seem endless: Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Chile, El Salvador, Uganda, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, or in my current work and study in Guatemala. And of course may I not forget USA and Canada.

The use of 'Never Again' is repeated throughout the generations ... but it has come into much criticism and debate because of the fact that it does happen again, again, and again. Indeed much of the foundations of International Law as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were founded on this drive. It is not to be naive and hope for eternal 'peace and freedom' but we have the ability and choice as individuals of how we treat one another, actively or passively.

Then the question turns to the quote in the third paragraph on 'unconnected' and 'removed'.  Maybe the issue revolves around because we only deem reflection and remembering the loss one day of the year. Maybe it makes us wilfully ignorant to the reality and effects of war and conflict and the general use of violence in attempts to solve problems. For example, I will never forget the short video I saw on, African Men. Hollywood Sterotypes in relation to all the North American warfare films and games. The closer you are to conflict, indeed you see much less of a interest and demand for this 'entertainment'. For war and violence is ...and those who are actually put in those surroundings, will deal with the most traumatizing times of their lives, during and after. And boy have read, talked and interviewed those who were affected by war and violence, first or second hand, civilian or soldier, from around the world, and from different backgrounds and history, and the trauma is very real.

We all justify for our actions or inactions. We cannot deny this because it is our human nature, But we cannot forget that our justifications are human nature because it is used for both the most positive and the most horrendous of action, and from those deemed most brave or courageous of sacrifices and to those deemed the most cruel or monstrous.

So can we really 'remember' when it's not yet in the past?

Rabinal and the Lives of Others: We are all in this world together

November 7-8

Oscar, another Coordinator of Social Anthropology of EFI-IFIFT invited us to join the local university San Carlos archaeology field trip to Rabinal, Baja Verapaz his hometown located in a rural valley 4 hours drive up and down mountain sides. Crammed into the mini Toyota bus, all 17 of us headed out of Guatemala City. Their professor specializes in ceramics in archaeology.  All throughout the trip there were so many wonderful and unique 'chicken buses'. Driven down from the US Auctions, these old school buses have become the pride and joy of these Guatemalan owners, of which I recommend you watch La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus on Netflix. One man's trash is another man's treasure, and boy, do they get used! Cristian (understandably) was not interested in us take them and can attract some sketchy people.

"chicken buses"

 The windy roads become a roller coaster of adventure to what sharp cliff or awing scenery awaits the next steep turn, as driving through all-but-white fog up the tops of mountains. It's a wonder how hard Guatemalan vehicles work, as the driver has to down shift to 3rd and 2nd, at times just barely making it up the hills. The smell of burning metal brakes reminds me of the times going up and down the mountains of the Cabot Tail, Nova Scotia.  Death to whomever gets car sick, as this turns show no mercy. I have to thank my upbringing in bush planes for my strong stomach and sense of adventure.

Tuk Tuk's 

The little three wheeled 'tuk tuk's' mozying down the highways along with the normal traffic reminds me of the tortoise and the hare, and how much I still want to live in India to see more of them. The more rural the community, you see more of them, as a taxi. Also if I forgot to mention, Guatemala is a haven for mopeds and motorcycles. Don't mind traffic safety, pile as many people on them as possible, the better.

All along the way, I notice left over campaign signs for the recent election and in the most remote and random places. I recognize quite quickly that any surface can be dibbs for election advertisement like red ' Lider" party painted on every surface: rock faces, hydro polls, and even people's shops and houses. I feel slightly uncomfortable about this as feels no different than vandalism.

We abruptly arrive at our first destination off a dirt road and an abandoned cement structure. We walk down a narrow grassy footpath, garbage strewed all around until we stop at an encirclement of old cement and wood huts.

A gracious family indeed

Here Oscar introduces us in Spanish and Achi. The whole family is around, their grandmother shelling nuts, when I realize they are serving us a treat they made us. I instantly get butterflies in my stomach and get the feeling to drop to my knees and tear up. Here is this poor family, to our standards to having nothing, and they serve us all well fed beings their food that they made my hand. Served in their painted Jicaro gourd bowls, the pudding-like serving was called Atol, white maize and cocoa growing from the branches overhead. 

Jicaro gourd they turn into bowls

Feeling extraordinarily humbled, Cristian does remind us of the proper etiquette to eat it all, and the use of thumbs to eat clean is suggested, of which I graciously continue to do.Then the mother takes us and shows us the clay she retrieves and uses to make figurines and bowls with. Her daughters curiously and shyly peer out behind her. I smile and say Buenos Dias, and the little girl holds her eyes and giggles. I must have opened her confidence because after she came to the front to make her own figurine and to repeatedly show me. Showing us the different forms of dyes as clays, they also shared with us their family method the precision and process to make these bowls: carve them out, soak them, clean them, sandpaper them with a specific leaf, paint and polish. We are given the chance to mold something our self. Asking "cuanto questa? " I buy a yellow and red bowl, and lady figurine. I realize how cheap they are selling it for the work and effort it takes to make them and leave them some extra. 

Clay making 

The older girls later hands me a figurine of the sheep smiling, I assume because of their gratitude! I try my best to say I have chickens to, and we all bid them a big Muchas Gracias, and head back to the bus. Cristian tells me, because Oscar in the past has been a guide in the past, he is has been making inquiries to some of these families to come into our home and show us what they do to live and make in order to live.

Our next stop was on the side of the road to Ceramica Artesanal Decorativa Saraliz where this particular family specializes in pottery. 

An expert crafts-family

All around are hundreds of pieces of pottery, while I realized we were walking through their house and personal property, I begin to feel guilty and humbled with their openness to share. We find the father outback working at his pottery wheel. The structure is made out of wood, and the wooden wheel he moves with his foot, he explains his profession of pottery was taught by his father and his father. He explains his methods, and within  15 minutes he has already made 5 different shaped bowls, flower pots, and vases! Consistency is most definitely the key, in making sure an equal amount of pressure while it spins. Once shaped, he let's the pottery dry for 8 days, sometimes 12 for the big ones, while on day 3, he can begin carving with incredible detail. He then let's us the chance to try at the wheel. We realize very quickly, how poorly we are, and how very skilled he must be; truly and expert. 

Us Anglophones found it amusing that every time someone went to the wheel the students played "Oh, my love - The Righteous Brothers from the Ghost soundtrack! 

The Skilled Potterer

Such detail

On our way our we gave some attention to the skinny white kitten, and then proceeding to choose out what we would like to buy. Hopping back into the bus the heat and humidity of 30 degrees, I felt I was going to melt. Talking with Erica who lives in L.A., we both cannot get over the differences in temperatures we can and cannot handle. I am definitely a northerner and she southerner.

We arrive in Rabinal at our enclosed hotel and drop off our things. We are famished, so head to the nearest restaurant, which is definitely someone's home. After refreshing ourselves, we head to our next destination, down narrower and and unbeaten roads. I still don't know how the driver never hit all the other tuk tuk's, cars and motorcycles. We pass by what looks like a soccer/sports stadium. Cristian tells me he is quite upset about this because it was over top what used to be an army garrison from the war, and the last time he, Oscar, and Heidy, were there they were exhuming mass graves there. When they were there they had whole families flocking to them crying to them if they had found their family members and why they couldn't stay longer. Cristian said that he could hear Heidy crying all night. He said solemnly, as I could tell he was very upset about it, it is a terrible shame because the well where they had dumped hundreds of bodies was now covered by cement. He very much suspects it was covered up by the government so they could no longer access it.

Foot Pottery

We park the bus and walk down a grass path between barbed wire, cow and horse dung. The smell gives me a slight comforting feeling, remember the smells when we had our large farm animals. We enter what looks to be the family's property, while a bunch of boys and men, give us curious stares. Further in, we see rest of the family and the husband and wife take us to an over hang to what I can assume to be their house. Here, they do a more basic method of pottery, of which they tend to make more for themselves. Here she shows us how to make  the clay into pottery with just her feet and hands. She opens for us to try, first showing how she puts first some sand help bind and stay, then she kneads the clay with her feet as it is much to straining of a task for the hands.

Chicken bowl

A few of us proceed to try. Then she takes a bit, to the side, adds water to her hands and the clay and begins to spin herself around, evenly molding the clay, only slightly using a piece of cloth for the finishing touches. The husband shows us some of the pottery they make as big pots, vases and chicken feeders. A few of us proceed to try; a taller student struggling greatly, getting dizzy, making it even or without it falling apart. After, we are explained that today their family is celebrating to remember a father, of which they will continue into the night. We are then invited to join in their celebration. I can definitely sense we are all overwhelmed by their offer and generosity in their very personal gathering. I go to the fire and see what they are making. I believe they were very happy I was so curious and approved of the smells. One girl shows where they have a large pot of tamale (covered in banana leaves) simmering.

Hot Tamales

We are then invited to where they have music and an alter set up with candles, and slowly burning pine branches which smells so wonderful, I wish  I could capture the smell (or you could now go and do so yourself). I am informed that the 3 marimbas (xylophone) players have been playing since 5 am when they began preparing for the food festivities and will continue till about midnight. There were two old men playing an old violin and a hand drum. If I could not feel even more humble and honoured, one of the older family members offered us a hot tamale and tortilla. He also offers us to drink from a goblet of their home-made spirit. The youngest of children to the oldest of grandparents, we're around us, some emotionless, some smiles.

All generations

On our way out some of the woman and girls offered us to try making own tortillas over the fire. They giggled at up as the 3 of us where struggling to get the perfect sized circle, but we did share the watery eyes from smoke in our eyes. Before we headed out, and then them be before more guests started coming in, one gave me one of their bird bowls and the rest of our tortillas. The gratitude is and was overwhelming.

Getting to dusk, we decide on our way back to stop at the cemetery where some memorial are of the massacres in the region. Rabinal is the site of some of the bloodiest massacres in Guatemala's Civil War, including those of Plan de Sánchez and Río Negro. The actual town of Rabinal was also the site of a large-scale massacre during the Independence Day celebration of 1981. The monuments were set up by the Association for theIntegral Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi.

A monument does not fix the problems but does recognize it

There was one overhang with candles and oranges hanging in which families of those who have committed suicide because they can no longer deal with the pain put pictures there. The graves are raised due to the dry, hard dirt, and blacked areas to where the family would have burned the surface, probably left over from Day of the Dead. The realization hits hard for me in experiencing such generosity and kindness from the these community member only to be reminded of how much their community and country has suffered such trauma and loss.

We go out for dinner in the market as a big group. It feels refreshing being out with new people besides language barriers. Cristian had given the heads up that tonight would be our first night to have street food (he has been wary of letting us do so far), when some of the Spanish students invited me to go find something else beside chicken the others we going to set down for. And boy, am I glad I agreed: Gringas, smoothies and being able to finally talk with them, formally introduce ourselves. It is always a fun feeling when you have the time and opportunity in a group trying to effectively communicate when we all work together. They ask if I want to go dance. At first a bit of hesitation at first because not sure when the rest are, they end up all coming. Never would have expected to go to a local Guatemalan diskotek with such a diverse crowd. There definitely were a few stares from the local crowd but more curious than anything. Dancing in field clothes and big hiking boots was on the hot side but at least I had a firm grip to the ground! It was also a new experience dancing with so many people and rather amusing thinking of it, they all wanted turn with short Canadian girl?! Despite minor experiences from one of the other girls from crude "police officer", the vibe was definitely positive overall; a fresh outlook from the side of violence, and knowing people have got your back.

Morning came to a pleasant awakening to the sound of roosters, rather than blaring mufflers and horns of the city. Breakfast was good as usual. The only thing that kills me a bit inside is the lack of clean free tap water and having to by another bottle. The other thing is the amount of stray, skinny dogs. Here, the presence of dogs is not really a pet with another mouth to feed. From our experiences, if owned they are strictly for protection, and help save crops and livestock. Actually, it is rather a reflection of the extremes of some of the pampering done by North Americans and Japanese I have seen.

The family works together to put food on the table

Expert carving before our astounded eyes

Our final destination in Rabinal was at another family, down a dirt place, and 30 degree sun. This family specialized in the carving and painting of the Jicaro gourd. One of the family members who introduced us, showed us the stages of their processes and carved out a beautiful design had come to us in a police/security uniform only to quickly change once proceeding through the processes. It is a multi-stage process involving cleaning and removing, soaking, scraping, polishing with a specific plant that comes from a mountain, soaking in black natural dyes,  boiling this special read silk bugs for red dye, then carving, from other conversations with other family members I found out that their father had been killed in the Conflict, due to town member giving false accusation, and still in this more recent generation had had the same destruction happen with threatened neighbours who came and destroyed some of their work.

I was overjoyed when San Carlos students wrote well wishes on the drumsticks I had picked up from the night before. Reflecting on the way back up, down and around the mountains, I realized a recurring them from our destinations. Despite how 'little' these families had, or how much trauma they have gone through, they were still highly rich in family, generosity and skill. All times there individuals had showed us up with their mastered skill and creativity. Whatever kind of socio-economical difference, our dignity does not does not change . We all unique and wonderful capabilities in the world, especially when we share and work together.

Human Osteology: Skeletons and remains to under Massacres and Injustice

Anatomical Positions (very important and useful! )

November 3

I would have never thought I would have been able to put a skeleton in order, in the right and left positions, and names of the bones. I can now even go through the process narrowing down the age and sex of  the remains! With the sharing of their knowledge in Human Osteology, Erica, Amanda, Kalista and I spend the morning upstairs analysing the three remains who were victims of massacre from the Civil War. These remains are notably eroded due the way they were buried and the kind of soil they laid in.  Erica, having some experience teaching in her Masters (now interning in L.A. doing tool mark analysis in a morgue), gave the rest of us a refresher (myself, pretty much a first timer). To start, there are three main progressions of trauma on the body which forensic anthropologists look out for clues in case identification: ante-mortem (before death), peri-mortem (the time around death), and post-mortem (after the time of death). This includes whether there is any form of heavy ware on the bones from hard work or arthritis, any prior trauma or healing, what trauma killed the person, and what erosion or trauma to the body after the death. Especially, when the victim is found in the remains of bones or high erosion, the reliance on interview from families is critically important in order to correctly identify the remains. These questions include, their occupation, past medical history, any children, where last saw them, etc. Before I had left for Guatemala, I had come across novel in Library and Archives Canada, where I was able to grasp the insights of the field of which I highly recommend: The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the MassGraves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo by Clea Koff.

There is  few step process for ageing and sexing a skeleton and two main bones you focus on are the skull and the pelvis (ribs and clavicle fusion are two other indicators to sex and date). In summary on the processes, starting at the skull we analyse five areas of the skull: the Nuchal Crest (bumpiness at back of skull, Mastoid Process(length and shape back of skull), Supraorbital Margin (brow and eye socket), Supraorbital Ridge/Glabella (brow/nose), and the Mental Eminence (jaw). These areas are then measured from 1 (most feminine) to 5 (most masculine). 

Heading down to the pelvis, we seek out the other sex differences in size and shape of the pelvis. In summary, a male has a thicker Ventral Arc, while a female's longer. Looking at the subpubic concavity, males are generally do  not show dramatic concavity and edges are straight or very slightly concave. Females are generally more concave and thinner ridge. then looking at the medial aspect of the ischiopublic ramus, where females have a a sharp edge while males the surface is fairly flat, broad and blunt. Furthermore, one would look at the stages of fusion the pelvic bones are in to identify the age range, while positioned in their natural form, men have a narrower/triangular pelvis, while women a wider, circular shape for childbirth. Anthropologists can also confirm with clues with women sometimes with the texture and erosion from the amount of times gave birth from wear.

From our analysis, it was confirmed that the remains were of one female and two males at the age of 19-25, which could be confirmed by seeing that their bones had not fully fused. I had gotten the heads up that it was impressive how fast I understood, despite having the least official training!  In addition to, the femur, while the best places to acquire DNA and bone marrow, also aids identifying a estimate height of the person. Although, as anthropologists working in Guatemala and other Central and South American countries, much of the data on bones is outdated and limited in ethnic and racial diversity. For the only official documentation for comparison is European and Asian. This has become a notable barrier in confirming accuracy in identifying Hispanic or Maya bodies because there is so much variation in size, stature and bone density. Like Cristian and other practising forensic anthropologists in this region emphasize on the importance in creating and generating official research into new manual to accurately identify these ethnic groups; work and research for our newer generations to get into the works of (Hint Hint)!

In order to give some further context,  EFI-IFIFT  acquires the remains, only once families first confrontation them that they would like the assistance to find and identify their family members. Then they follow through further processes of interviews and geo-locating the estimated area for dig sites. In other cases, the families themselves (almost always far too poor to have access to the legal and technical methods), have to pay the government fees to keep the case open. Although, the directors of EFI-IFIFT, have separated themselves from other similar organizations, on working on helping covering the fees for the poor families, on the moral that everyone should have equal access to justice. Meanwhile, funding is always a necessity in order to uncover the cases in a timely fashion. Currently, such cases can take up to months, to years, if not ever. For the Guatemalans families who have suffered these horrendous losses, time is very much money. And the reality of how long it can take, with the lack of funds on either end; of the families and then organizations to uncover the crimes against these families. For the families, time is very much money, when they only live off a few quetzales  for whole large families, who have lost their family members to help provide. Taking the time off to file in the process of identification, is a tremendous sacrifice that many cannot afford.

http://efi-ifift.org/en/donate/

Por que estomos estamos? (Why are we the way we are?)

November 2

Por que estomos estamos? Exhibit, Guatemala City

Morning breakfast Cristian  took us to his favourite couple's daily eatery La Casa de los Melazas with beans, scrambled eggs and boiled plantain. From there we took a 30 minute walk to the interactive exhibit Exposcion Interactiva: Por que estomos estamos? (Why are we the way we are?) located beside rail road station museum. Collaborated with  Por una convivencia digna/ International Training Institute for Social Reconciliation and Centro de investigacianes negionales de mesoamerica, the original content was a research paper found to be so important the content needed to be shared. It is important to be shared in order to help locals open up about their trauma, and to understand how their history has continued with the outward prejudism and discrimination that has led to so much violence and segregation. 

"How do you feel when they tell you..." Uncovering the predjudices

Our guide  took us through the journey of  how outwardly Guatemalan social structures are visually discriminate based on appearance and dress. For example, from pigment of skin colour to clothing, a female dressed in more traditional clothing may not be permitted to enter a service or entertainment establishment on the basis on her appearance in assumption that she is just a maria, a domestic housewife, while in  one case in particular, she was highly educated.  If she was wearing more modern cloths at the time she may have been granted access.  Even though most of the population is 'native' Guatemalan, there continues to be a huge disparity control that has not faltered since the  500 years of Spanish conquistadors' divide and conquer. Our guide further explains how throughout history, the government and other forces have gained control and  power over groups through this empty racist and discriminatory justifications. That is why still today, if you are deemed indigenous you automatically earn less,  indigenous women even less, and black women even worse than that. Worst of all, this has not changed for decades, with only 4% access to health care.

Hop on the "chicken bus" and see the clash of classes

We further toured through the historical aspect of why we are who we are. Like so many other countries the effects of colonization and the drawing of political borders has destroyed past cultural cooperation and understanding. The process of colonization has also detrimentally effected the acceptance of diversity of Guatemalans. For there are over 23 distinct cultures and languages for centuries, but since Spanish was introduced, services on the other languages and cultures have been refused excluded in social serves as health care and education, and thus continuing to impoverish these groups. 

"Worldwide there are groups who suffer discrimination and racism", including Canadian First Nations

Furthermore, from the amount of censorship, Guatemalans only really have access to one narrative of official history. This, like it has for Canadians has dramatically affected our perceptions and prejudices of certain groups. In these cases the first nations and indigenous' narratives have been misinterpreted and misjudged by the ignorance of the past who called their ways of life savage. For the Spanish minority had created and enforced new laws separating and segregating groups of peoples into a vastly unequal hierarchy, and yet over 500 years later these laws and social segregation continues to go unchanged  and highly controlled, similar to the very reason there is still no fresh water  in the country because Coca-Cola controls their water industry. It has gotten to the point where native heritage has been treated so negatively  throughout history that when someone identifies as a Ladino expressing " I am Ladino because I am not indigenous".

"Where indigenous peoples lived when the Spanish arrived"

 The past most definitely continues to impact the present and future. Even from the original Missions that came to the country,  had the presumption that if you were darker skinned you were closer to Hell, which then led to the passing of the laws which did not allow the indigenous groups to own tools or weapons, land and other necessities of progressive life, leaving them vulnerable, underdevelopment, to helplessness. No wonder there have been so many guerilla groups and freedom fighters .

Seen during the Industrial Revolution,  the governments had pushed for more European overseas migrants so to blend the races to get a 'purer', 'whiter' race of peoples. 

"The colony left us a society which it values people by their origin and colour"

This all the while, passing laws and propaganda for the blacks and indigenous to work the migrants property, and giving them very little opportunity to fully develop their potential. And even since the Civil War (1960-1996), where the mass killings had taken place, their governments have limited the freedom of speech and social setting have not allowed them to talk about it; a part of contemporary history highly censored, that so many do not know about. From this lack of communication that revolves around the now embedded fear, distrust and corruption, today's circle of violence and abuse continues on beyond the '96 Peace Accord.

Second from the bottom: Castas people given the name translated "I don't understand you"

Indeed, the violence has not stopped. Femicide, the targeted murder of the female sex, is at its high. As it was and is practised in this strict patriarchal structure, Guatemalan women are placed in a protective sphere by the males of the families, but also within this repressive structure, women and their bodies are placed in the line of fire against male family members by perpetrators, continuing a cycle of abuse, gender-based violence and impunity (Sanford 2008: 71) . Testimonios of the majority of the violations towards women depict no regard for the suffering of their own bodies, instead their concern is for their fathers, spouses, and sons. Women have suffered similar oppression as men; the difference, according to Paredes (2006: 49), is that Maya and Ladino women are not owners of their bodies. Anthropologist Lévi-Strauss states that women are the community's “goods” and as such they are subject to use and changes. (Silva, 2007, 88). The violence against women has perpetuated from the  from the machismo gender role prevalent in Latin American; a male stereotype that is characterized or recognizable as a form of “male pride that combines courage…with an aggressive maleness that may also take the prestigious form of the successful pursuit of women, while other characteristics include drunkenness, individualness, and competitiveness (Hardin 2002: 2). In fact, these characteristics of machismo are traits or remnants left over by the Spanish, as a product of the conquest (Hardin 2002: 3). The Spanish were known throughout Europe to use sexual forms of violence as forms of terror against those they sought to intimidate and conquer. 

"Inequality is the desire to see a great world in which one cannot enter"

The coinciding ideas for women,  marianismo include those of feminine passivity and sexual purity, are which are taught through society to remain dependent, and holding these women vulnerable, and very limited to stand up for themselves, be paid equally, and treated equally in society. These traits continue to be seem and dominated around the world, and as long as it continues to be reinforced and perpetuated, you will continue to see such violence, rape and disrespect between men and women. The circle of violence continues through our pressures and acceptance of these gender specific roles, of which we are all held accountable.  I will leave you with some final reminders  our guide reminded the audience of how to address these problems as a society:  to start early/young, start questioning why and how we are who we are, and until you get answers, learn the history so you can better present yourself and your understanding. For we cannot gain peace as an individual until we can as a whole.