Keeping Them Safe: Interview with Norma Cruz of Fundación Sobrevivientes (Survivors Foundation)

November 13, 2015
I first heard about the work of Fundacion Sobrevivientes (Survivors Foundation) from our translator of Equipo Forense Interdisciplinario's Cristian Silva's thesis on Gender-based Violence in Guatemala. The Organization was created by Norma Cruz and her daughter Claudia Maria Hernandez Cruz who were first hand victims of rape within the home. We were honoured to hear her story.

Arriving at Fundacion Sobrevivientes (Survivors Foundation), the door was answered by an armed security guard since their facilities and the women that seek help  have been under death threats from their abusers. We walk into the waiting room where there are men, women and children waiting to be assisted by reception. Norma personally greets us and we head upstairs. We sit down at a round table, Cristian introduces us and I am allowed to film, as we ask her questions and she shares her stories of how her organization came to be.

Norma pushed to created the organization after finding out her own daughter had been abused.  When asked if she could share her personal experience about her daughter, she hesitated but did begin to tell the story.

Guatemalan artist depicting the Civil War

At the age of 6, she had lost her parents, and at 6, you have to mature fast. She was born and grew up during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996). It was during the course of her studies that she learned and witnessed the corruption and impunity of not justice. She explains, that "education is quite important here or else you are not fully aware of how to effectively work to reducing corruption”. As a student at 19,  she witnessed the burning of the Spanish embassy and the loss of many of those she worked with at the Catholic Church. Then there was the Rios Mont military coup, which forced her to go in exile in Nicaragua. In 1985, Claudia was born. Then in 1988 she decided  it was safe enough to return to work with the church again to work on human rights issues. Her and her partner decide to part ways as he wanted to stay in Nicaragua. She started building her new life with a new partner, a well known political figure.

By  1999,  Claudia was 15. Here in Guatemalan culture, turning 15 is a big celebration for a girl. As Norma describes it as a parent, "It is something you live up to, prepare for", but she began to notice Claudia did not care about turning 15. Norma kept insisting that all her friends cannot wait to be part of it.But then on her special day, all she said was "All I want is to die." Claudia's step father had been sexually abusing Claudia while Norma was not around.

As Norma explains,  we all make up our minds in how we perceive or see things. When Claudia told her, Norma, at first, did not want to believe it but she knew she needed to confront both her daughter and the father.

Even today, people choose to blame Norma, for leaving her alone during her active work in stopping the injustice. She begins to tear up here, but only for a moment. She is so strong. She remembers that after her father died,  she promised herself  to never leave her children alone.

"Violence and abuse we knew was around us, army violence, abuse of governments,  but did not fully realize that I could  find violence in my own home. I  was totally new to the violence that comes inside your home." The most frightening thing was that before finding out, she had been seeking assistance and help for Claudia's depression. All the available psychologists would say or diagnose that what she needed was more discipline. No one could 'figure out what was wrong' with Claudia or at least open to the options of parental rape and abuse. Instead. they were blaming both of them.

Once again nobody knew what to do in this case, especially when the partner was a well known figure. There was no expert in the country who would or could deal with the case. Finally, a lawyer from Colorado specialized in PTSD came to her said she was going to solve this case. Norma barely scraped by but she managed in increments to pay. She had found out in that time that Claudia had been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Norma realized too, her son would feel the effects of this family trauma so she decided to work with him too. They did eventually get their case recognized and he was given 30 years in prison. Unfortunately, he only ended up serving 4 years of the 30, and still has power in politics.

The organization sprouted from these experiences. Norma knew that if this had happened in her family that there must be countless others in the similar situation. So alongside a media blitz  and teaching herself about these matters she was able to begin incorporating and training others in the similar situations on how to deal with therapy, and steps towards justice in prosecuting the perpetrator or abuser.

Before it was officially a foundation, it was an association of victims and survivors. But to create and sustain an association you need to make money, and the government had no interest providing funding. So for years she would work a separate job, at lunch she would knock on doors and talk with victims, and from 7-10 do workshops, seven days a week. On weekends she started doing workshops in rural areas where she received some extra money. By then Claudia had another boyfriend. In his little car, they would help move victims from place to place such as the Public Ministry. And not just women, came to her association. Norma had started talking to men who had lost their daughters to violence and murder. At the beginning, they asked how they could provide their service while many of them had other responsibilities, families , jobs that would limit them from coming. What about evenings  and weekends? They would need the facility to be always  open. They would need to ensure, comfortable, safe,  and flexible hours for whole families. For you "cannot just deal with one victim.” They would then need to start providing, legal support. “You are suddenly dealing with victims of a crime, so you need psychiatrists, lawyers. And that is when Canadians did a lot of work for us. You need enough witnesses or else you have lost your case. This is when we sought for techniques to prosecute.

One of the main questions we had was on the barriers of how do you then get the victims to come out and talk? How do you protect them when their abuser is always close by or their family refuses to accept? I remember outright from Human Sexuality and Forensic Psychology stats that the percentage of actual reported cases for rape victims is incredibly low  and the data is administered does not accurately match the actual cases. Well, her answer ended up in the form of little newspaper ads and daily words of advice. There is a well known newspaper El diario in which they would submit information on steps to take after rape: to not shower or clean one’s self, to save clothes and make sure to say something and submit themselves to a clinic.

From reading Cristian's thesis on the increasing gender-based violence since post-Peace Accord in Guatemala, I had been made aware the issues around societal views towards women but I wanted to hear more from her.

As she points out, during the conflict hundreds of women and children were raped and murdered. The stats of men murdered were just as high. However, the way women were and are being murdered is notably different as far more cases of mutilation and torture are involved. Prior to and after the '96 Peace Accord which formally ended the Civil War (but might I remind that the formality of a treaty does not end the systematic problems), there is little information and research on victims and family's trauma because there was little consideration of the human rights abuses of gender-based violence. "Suddenly we find ourselves in the Peace Accord era and nobody knows where the numbers of femicide are coming from. A lot of people believe this is something new but it is because no has paid attention. “At the end of the Peace Accord was when both parties signed , then in '97 there was an expected start fresh of no violence but yet finding 100 women murdered. Then in '98,  200 women murdered,  and in 2000 the numbers start increasing more. "We were asking  where this was coming from."

"When these doors were open, women were coming not for themselves but for their daughters, but asking how they wouldn't be raped and abused like themselves." They questioned why this may be. And this is where the acknowledgement of socio-cultural history on expected gender roles of machismo and marianismo of which I previously discussed in a previous blog post.  During the conflict as a woman you had to be silent. There were no rules on domestic violence. If your father was committing the crimes, your father would just kill you if you said anything. When talking about silence, Norma had been silenced, when standing up for political views, especially gender issues. Also during the conflict, there was little consideration of the effects experienced by both urban areas like Guatemala City and the rural areas. All women were affected, whether you were literate or not. Here, like in other parts of the world (just think India’s Daughter ), "women’s inequality and the lack of dignity and respect for the other sex is at every level, no matter what background you were from". In this case violence towards women is and was not discriminate to who you were or where you where from. “All women were and are at risk of being raped and abused”.

"Still people are afraid. During  the conflict,  society blamed women for  giving birth to guerrillas and communists, so it was giving the OK to kill women. To whatever happened to them was justified. You go to the police, you were told you better go home before I beat you up,  And they still remember those issues."

Then she notes the cultural violence, "Societies are at fault for this justification and continuation. They justified murder in paper.  Their death of abuse was their fault, It was deserved, It was their fault for being out at night too late, dressed too provocative. You have piercings, shorter skirt, nails painted or nailed painting; she was probably a worker. And that is justified for rape, violation and murder.” Unfortunately, this is not an isolated concern. Such justifications and the impunity of horrendous murder and violence we seen in Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women or the many unsolved cases of the Long Island women, meticulously documented in Rob Kolker's Lost Girls.

"During the Conflict, if you saw a body in the street, you though, 'He or she was probably doing something wrong, he or she was probably a Communist'. Now, after the conflict when we have cases of femicide, people say 'She was probably out too late, she was probably dressed to provocatively', and the police are saying the same thing."

To start with her personal case, Norma was up against a whole system against her from the process of organization and identification to the public ministry. When collecting the bodies, they were not respecting them. They'd strip the bodies naked on the street and then would sweep their privates using a comb right in the street. There was no appropriate training or respect. You have to treat the victims, dead or alive with dignity and respect, as probably the family is  watching. In the beginning of her research, 99 % of these cases were not  being investigated and that was 10 years ago.

In going back to the Peace Accord, both sides signed, but the judicial system still in place that had been  created to coerce people, police to torture people. How do we deal with this when it was created and perceived to coerce people. Ministries did not know how to operate in this time or how to properly investigate these crimes. Families instead, had reverted to leaving it to god justice when the system was not there to provide justice. So society has decided to  just to forget about it. If a body was found, it was just left , and not investigated. Before,  fireman, police, funeral homes, there was no investigations. In '98,  after she found out about Claudia, she organized this in her house. As victims,  you needed to make sure they collected all the evidence, so "we had to do it ourselves, at times." To put in perspective, how would we put denunciations on perpetrators when authorities still blame you. She pushed for more credibility in having a legal background, they needed a  lawyer, a forensic pathologist, start making authorities accountable, we were there. But people did start approaching her, wanting to help, volunteer,  so started educating herself. A student in law helped her on how to properly make forms to present these cases. She believes it was in 2004, it was the first time she was invited to do a lecture in LA. By 2005 they had an organization with name and their first donor from Oxfam of $5000. They were able to put enough pressure to sustain 200 legal cases, by 2005 they had 6000 denunciations, and today 5600 investigations.

Norma and her daughter have worked so hard together to hold these  abuses and crimes accountable in order for these victims to remain safe and respected. Norma has never stopped being active despite hundreds of death threats. She stresses that it is really important to note that this organization was not founded by an international community like most NGOs. Her goal was to make the Guatemalan judicial system and government accountable and responsible. She has gone on countless number of hunger strikes at National Palace. She has gone after 150 congressmen. It was her works that directly was impacted in pushing the Guatemalan congress to pass  the 2008 Law Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women, as officially recognizing femicide as a punishable crime. But most importantly, "when you talk about violence, we are seen as feminists. But when we talk about victims, we do not talk about genders.  We are all affected and we cannot separate genders here, We consider all victims as a whole and that is why our staffing is is equally balanced with the same opportunities. My first goal was to make sure people had place to go, safe place, a shelter. Now Fundacion Sobrevivientesis the best in Central America. Their legal team is now 1500 and the 20, 00 victims who ever came for help are still safe and alive.

Later in her office we saw a picture of her with Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama In 2009 she was awarded the International Women of Courage Award!

“From Guatemala, Norma Cruz. We are recognizing her
    for her unyielding efforts to end the culture of impunity
    surrounding the murder and other forms of violence against
    women in Guatemala. At great risk to her personal safety,
    Norma Cruz has been outspoken and extraordinarily brave, and
    we are honored to have her with us today.”

Norma Cruz & Claudia Hernandez Cruz

Claudia here is the executive director, and next year is going to be a criminologist. And that boyfriend, they are happily married with two daughters. "As you can see I have my granddaughters. My goal was to prove that these victims can be happy again. I do realize that I have to start take caring of self, as those hunger strikes did affect me. But I am not going to stop, still following up and continue to follow up.

See Also:

Norma Cruz: Pueblo de Guatemala
Fundación Sobrevivientes Facebook

To Fight Femicide in Guatemala, New Law, But Same Culture

Femicide: Can naming a deadly crime prevent it? 

Mujeres Iniciado in Las Americas
Femicide Information

2016 International Women’s Day: Highlighting Guatemala’s Sepur Zarco Case

Please enjoy: Woman (Oh Mama) - Joy Williams (see original video)

March 8 is International Women’s Day. It is sad for me when some people laugh at the idea that there is a day in recognition of women. Therefore, I will pose a reminder: International Women's Day is a international day all about celebration, reflection, advocacy, and action - whatever that looks like globally and at a local level; reflecting on the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. It is a collective day of celebration and a call for gender equality. No one government, NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution, women's network or media hub is solely responsible for International Women's Day. "The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights," says world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and political activist Gloria Steinem.

Many organizations declare an annual IWD theme that supports their specific agenda or cause, and some of these are adopted more widely with relevance than others. International women’s day is both a reminder and a call to action; gender equality is still not a reality and there are many issues affecting women all over the world.

This International Women’s Day I will dedicate my time and efforts by attending multiple panels on Gender Equality, and will also raise attention to the thousands of men and women affected by rape and murder committed through the case of Sepur Zarco. Sepur Zarco was one of military bases where by the Guatemalan military committed mass killings and rape against the local populous beginning in 1981 through 1988. I have a personal connection to this case, I learned of it while I was working in Guatemala and had the opportunity to interview individuals who were directly affected, many I spoke with had lost their loved ones and continue to suffer to trauma.

After more than 30 years of shame, the women had received a form of justice when the court declared: “We believe you … it wasn’t your fault … the army terrorised you in order to destroy your community.”

"This is historic, it is a great step for women and above all for the victims," said Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, who attended the hearing.

On February 26, 2016, after the last 20 days of traumatic testimony, Francisco Reyes Giron and Heriberto Valdez Asij were found guilty of crimes against humanity in a precedent setting case for sexual slavery. Francisco Reyes Giron, who was the commander of the Sepur Zarco military base, was found guilty of holding 15 women in sexual and domestic slavery and for killing 20-year old Dominga Cuc Cocand and her two daughters. Heriberto Valdez Asij, a paramilitary who carried out commissions for the army, was convicted for the same, as well as the forced disappearance of seven men. The victims have been demanding accountability for the crimes at Sepur Zarco for decades. Like so many other areas of the world, Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, rape was widely used as a weapon, according to human rights groups. But last week’s ruling marked the first time, anyone had faced justice for sexual violence during the conflict – and the first time anywhere in the world that sexual slavery perpetrated during an armed conflict had been prosecuted in the country where the crimes took place.

Former army officer Esteelmer Francisco Giron

The post-war Commission for Historical Clarification documented 1,465 such cases, and almost 90% of the victims were indigenous women. But as for anything in seeking legal action, evidence and witness’ accounts are crucial. Finally giving a voice to the victims is so important as they were the ones silenced. According to the prosecution, the military set up camp in the village of Sepur Zarco at the end of 1981 where the armed forces repeatedly attacked the village of Sepur Zarco and killed or took away Mayan leaders who had been applying for land titles on which their families had lived and farmed for centuries. The men were accused of being associated with left-wing guerrillas.

Agustin Chen, one of the men who survived said the soldiers took him to a cell and beat him every day.The court heard how military commanders considered the women to be "available" without their men and had then taken them into sexual and domestic slavery. They were required to report every third day to the base for "shifts" during which they were raped, sexually abused, and forced to cook and clean for the soldiers. In a report to the court, anthropologist Irma Alicia Velasquez Nimatuj said military outposts were installed in the region "to give security to the landowner's farms and to take possession of the lands". For some of the victims, their ordeal lasted as long as six years until the base was closed in 1988.

Former paramilitary fighter Heriberto Valdez Asij

Throughout the trial, the 14 surviving victims aged between 52 and 75, sat very still in court with their heads covered in traditional embroidered shawls, just a few metres away from the accused.

The court heard from Petrona Choc Cuc who said, her husband, and their four children fled to the mountains in 1982 as soldiers rounded up their neighbours. “At night we wrapped ourselves up in nylon sheets. We got rained on. There were many insects … This is not the product of my imagination; I lived this. We suffered a great deal.”

The family was eventually found by soldiers and Choc Cuc’s husband was killed, but the children managed to flee deeper into the mountains until they could no longer endure the dire conditions. “We went to the military base and got on our knees and begged them to forgive us, to not kill us,” she said in her recorded testimony. “Many times I was raped. One of my daughters was raped too … Every day I suffer because of what they did to me.”

A number of women testified that they were forcibly given contraceptives by military medical staff. Demecia Yat de Xol explained how she was raped at home and then forced to live on the camp for months as punishment for searching for her disappeared husband. “They put us [women] in a room and began raping us. I was pregnant at the time and suffered a miscarriage.”

Yat de Xol also testified that her cousin Dominga Cuc was locked in a small house at the base and raped by soldiers until she was “practically lifeless”. “I don’t know who gave the order but we could hear them shooting, then we heard that she had been killed,” she said.

Cuc’s elderly mother Julia Cuc Choc told the court how years later when the bodies were exhumed, “They found hair, clothes, and my daughter’s bones. But they only found the undergarments of my granddaughters. Their bones had turned to dust.”

Another witness, Rosa Tiul, described how she was forced to cook for the soldiers for six months during which time she was taken to different rooms and raped by up to six men at a time. The terror continued even after she was allowed to return home.

“The [soldiers] told me if I didn’t let them [rape me] they would kill me,” she said. “Sometimes they tied me down and put a rifle on my chest … They knew which ones of us [women] were alone … They treated us like animals.”

One of the most stirring moments of the trial came in the second week when the court was presented with 38 boxes containing the remains of 51 victims recovered by forensic anthropologists from Sepur Zarco and another nearby base. The bones were so badly decomposed that only two of the victims, including Rosa Tiul’s husband, have been successfully identified. In fact, towards the end of my stay in Guatemala, a couple of the EFI-IFIFT members were contacted by the court and asked to come back to testify about the mass graves of women the forensic anthropologists had discovered. They told the courts told that a mass grave had been uncovered right outside the army barracks and that the victims had been disposed of like trash. The EFI-IFIFT members lacked faith in the system, as they had testified about these findings 6 years before, and still the case was being dragged out, with no sign of a resolution.  The  people Guatemala lacked faith in system as well due to the “Guatemalan legislature’s continued refusal to ‘recognize crimes against women despite the 2008 passing of Ley Contra Femicidio y Otras Formas de Violencia Contra la Mujer (Law Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women), which called for longer penalties.

At one point, Reyes’s defence lawyer Moisés Galindo – who previously defended the former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt at his 2013 trial for genocide – caused uproar when he accused the victims of being prostitutes, and dismissed the experts and protected witnesses as liars. In his own defence, Reyes repeatedly denied working at Sepur Zarco, even though there are records of his placement there.

“Prostitutes” or not, confining someone and forcing them against their will to be raped over and over again is rape, no matter who it is or what their occupation. This accusation is only used to dismiss the victims claims and justify the violence committed against them and should be disregarded by the courts.

The Guatemala City supreme court has technically sentenced the two former members of the military to 360 years in jail for the murder, rape and sexual enslavement of the Q’eqchi women. But we must not forget that the perpetrators rarely serve their full sentence. Rather, we need to refrain from a sigh of relief like the problem is solved because it is not. Far too often a case becomes no more than a public stunt to appease those short-term. The women were “awarded” ( much of the article uses this term but it is  improper to “award” compensation to people whose rights and lives were violated in the first place) compensation for the long-term physical, psychological and economic harm suffered. But can there really be justice when those accountable do not accept punishment or guilt? What about all the other hundreds in the country who experienced the same. This case only recognizes only a small portion of victims who suffered. Still, this is a major step forward in victims receiving the justice they deserve. Catalina Ruiz Navarro exclaims “ Guatemala sexual slavery verdict shows women’s bodies are not battlefields.”

Lastly, I cannot stress enough that this is not something in a far distant place. Assault and rape is all around us. Many of us do not hold uphold gender equality, or the dignity we all deserve. Rape and indiscriminate violence are legacies of colonialism. Similar to Spanish conquest, Chris Hedges in the book I am reading, Days of Destruction Days of Revolt, accounts on the rape and disrespect of others in the American indigenous history. He writes, ‘Soldiers on the western frontier who passed captive squaws from tent to tent joked that “Indian women rape easy”, as accounted by Ben Clark, General Custer’s chief of scouts about Custer’s 1868 Washita raid’. From then on after, families after families continue the cycle of violence on their children or neighbors. Moreover, one of the EFI-IFIFT  Cristian Silva’s thesis, Importance on Gender-Based Violence in Guatemala, 97 percent of the atrocities committed towards women, girls and senior women (60 and above) were committed by the armed forces to ensure that the “effects of sexual assault” maintained a patriarchal legacy of “long-lasting shame, fear, and self-degradation”, and entire communities were left facing “silence and denial”. Impunity is entrenched in Guatemalan social life. The perpetrators of femicide continue to do so without fear of consequence.

So then what about the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada? We continue to perpetuate with name calling and ostracizing, even if you say it is “just a joke” (Dear daddy video). Like the 97 year old Petronilia who we interviewed or the hundreds of contemporary cases of gender-based violence post Peace Accord, they will never get to see their daughters again. It takes two. Together, man and woman we are the ones to make a difference.

...One to sign off to: Rise Up -Andra Day

Justice at last for Guatemalan women as military officers jailed for sexual slavery
Guatemala: Rape Sentences in Landmark Military Trial

Debate Begins Outrages in Sepur Zarco
Sepur Zarco: Accused Refuses to Discuss Case
Sepur case Zarco: International Organizations Celebrate the Start of the Trial

Why don't you just asked the people who lived it before making your assumptions? : Centre Cultural Tejidos Cotzal Fair Trade

November 23:

                Our next stop after 'Movimiento de Desarraigados'   was Cotzal to visit some families and what initiative they are working together for their community. Our first stop was what looked like a gated school. In fact, it is an ongoing project for indigenous Widow Weavers affected by the bloody civil war.  It is a cooperative and sells handicrafts typical of the Ixil region ( Cooperative Y Venta de artesanias tipicas de la region Ixil). The project is located in the Centre Cultural Tejidos Cotzal Fair Trade building, and within the next year they will have it completed as a place of eco-tourism specifically a place for travellers to stay. We were met by Pedro and two women, one 12 and the other in her late 70s.  Pedro was approached by the the two women, who are the founders, to be their spokesperson. For us he translated Ixchil to Spanish. to understand why this cooperative is so important to this community, you have to consider the historical-cultural separations and gender roles held strong in Guatemala. Recall my discussion of the machisto and marianismo gender roles which hold men and women in, most often, dangerous positions of aggressive and powerful versus meek and powerless. We have seen this trend around the world, across history. Due to this gender role separation, only men worked with outside and women in the house. And when you lose thousands of men targeted during the war, women are left helpless. They are unable to tend to property or provide for the rest of the family, especially in the rural and isolated areas. So when families lose the males in the family, or are stuck hiding and running away from the violence, women are (I use present tense as this is still a continuous issue around the world) never taught  how to live and provide for themselves as the rest of their families left behind. This is what this cooperative attempts to alleviate. They train the local women and provide an avenue for them to make their own money, in a way they can afford. Other than their skill in weaving these incredibly detailed and beautiful materials, they teach each other how to work the land, purchasing seeds, so they can pass it on to the next generations. That is where the eco-tourism is about to come in so travellers can experience 100% locally grown and made products.

Weaving bicycle wheel

As the two ladies were setting up their waist weaving, Pedro showed us their other weaving room. It is just about completed, made only out of wood. Inside, I see an alternate weaving mechanism that is home-made and welded with a bike wheel and chain. My inner bike nerd came to life seeing the clever design of reusing. He then shows us where the restaurant, kitchen and shower areas will be. Outside the building grows what they call "foreigner tomatoes".

Weaving all this to make a purse

Pedro explains that in order to fully complete the fully functional  eco-tourism accommodation they will need to make  70,000 Q ($12,301CAD). The whole point of this vicinity is for there to be another avenue for these women to make and provide services on their own. It is an avenue to teach locals and foreigners the skills of their families and for those who have lost loved ones, of which is incredibly empowering.

With these hands: Photo Cred Kalista Sherbaniuk

So much time, energy and work

The two women have strung up their weaving from  a post to their waist as they kneel. The older lady in Ixchil and Pedro in Spanish tell us a little about herself as she works. The older ladies first husband turned on her and would beat her. She finally mustered up the courage and managed to leave. She later decided she would let herself fall back in love again, only for him to also beat her. She says she has had enough of men now and instead just works. She hand weaves all of the material with the waist belt method. Even all the string she uses she hand dyes from roots and other natural products.  They both repeatedly tie individual knots to make the patterns like animals while using pieces of wood to separate the strands to than push it tightly downward towards their stomach. The traditional handmade huipil shirt and skirts you see, will often be the only clothing they wear, because it represents who they are and because it is expensive for them to make and buy. Traditionally the huipil she wears represents who she is and where she  is from. You normally can differentiate the differences in huipil depending on one's age; darker colours for older, brighter colours younger. She typically spends around 20 days on a bag she is making now. Spending over 5 hours at a time on her knees she will sell the bag for 60 Q ($10 CAD), once a zipper is added. Our hearts drop to realize how little money that is for the time and effort it takes.  In Guatemala, the reality is the manufactures do never have a fair wage, and that is how the government system is set up.

The Coffee is Roasting: Katerina and Juana's home

            After lunch, Pedro takes us down a steep narrow dirt path to one of the founding women's house. Katerina, an Ixchil woman of around 66 (she is unsure of her certain age).  She invites us into her tiny home made of tin and introduces us to her daughter Juana (who is 29) and two children. Throughout our stay I cannot help playing peek-aboo and sharing making with faces with them as they giggle. We sit around a little fire where she begins roasting them over the fire. We are invited to ask questions and as it gets more personal she accepts to tell her story and why they both live without husbands. I offer to her to continue attending to the coffee beans as  she goes on to tell of her experiences during the 1960-1996 conflict, and how the struggle for women like her never ended at any Peace Accord and reconciliation.

Juana and her daughter

            After her brothers and other 62 others were killed, the army came back and told the community where bodies were, but they only had until 10am the next day hours to claim them. most of them who were able to come to retrieve the bodies where the women and children. If that was not traumatic in of itself, the was army was on either sides on order to watching to see if they were crying. If they were caught crying or show any emotions or else they would be labelled as Communists, sympathizers of enemies of the state. If they did not have time to bury their family member  in the cemetery  they had to bury on own property. She had to frantically collect some wood and nails to make a coffin. Her first husband killed in '81. He was forced to be a civil patroller where he was sent to the mountains. She had actually been with him, collecting crops, collecting milpas for maize. Then one day, the guerrillas recognized him, and calling him a traitor, pulled her hair, pinned her to ground, and fired the shots.

Erica is comfy

            Around this time, between '80-82, the Guatemalan army decided to put  up a military garrisons in Cotzal. Everyday, she describes was an endless fire squad. They had then ordered the community (remember mostly just women and children left) to give their food  rations to army. If they did not hand over what they deemed a sufficient ration, they would call them Communists:  traitors to the state, accusing them of sharing with guerrillas. Then sometime family members would come, the next day, calling them traitors, for sharing with the army. Because of the violence, she decided to run and stay with another family. And when she was finally to able to get a night's sleep, the army decided to show up at other house, burning everything, and killing the chickens.

She then fled to coast because of the danger. Since so many men were gone, farmers started hiring women. But obviously not out of sympathy. Under those conditions, she had to give up all of what was left of her possession, which would mean she was already was owing him. Living in room and board, the women like her, would lie together on the dirt floor. They were given only 6 tortillas a day and had to work 30 days straight. You could not complain or else you were kicked out or threatened to go to another farm which would treat them worse. She explains this as the loneliest year on the coast, unable to be in touch with family. But then she met someone and they fell in love. They had decided to move back to Cotzal but by that time, the army had another military base in a school. The military already had a list of everyone while coercing people to tell them everything. So as a new person, the first thing they did was arrest him in assumption that he was probably a guerilla. The municipality, told her she would have to go to the garrison with proof that they were married. She was terrified, but went because of her husband. The head of the municipality, a military officer, at the time was actually Otto Perez Molina (to be Guatemala's last president ending in September,  tried for corruption). At the time nicknamed Tito, he came to welcome her to have a drink with him. Wondering why he was being so kind, she became even more worried from witnesses' warnings that if you are offered  a meal you were dead next. Having no other choice, she repeated she was here because she wanted her husband back. He responded that he was proud of her, to have brought a man back to community. "Now", he said, "I will make him a civil patroller with his own group." Just like that, her second husband was recruited without either of their acceptance or real choice.

She ended up following him to the mountains, because he did not know the area or even how to use a weapon. They were both terrified. From '84-86 she said he was recruited as a civil patroller, around the food crops in the mountains. She said the army would take the patrollers there to destroy  the crops. Then during one of operations he never came back. She still is not sure if he was killed or escaped.  Her daughter Juana was four at the time. They never saw him again.

The only place she felt safe was in the coast, so she worked in coffee fields with Juana on her back. They did not come back to Cotzal till '94. Juana in that time had gotten married, but there was no work nearby, so they decided to move to capital. If you knew how to use a machete, there was some form of security.  They were totally broke so Juana’s husband would have to work 73 hours a week.

Peek-aboo

Then one day in his last hour of that week, the husband was patrolling and he got killed. She was at home, when the public ministry came to tell her he was dead. So she came back home.

The women then showed us 3 photos of him. One family picture and two of him dead. The baby in the picture is the boy who currently playing with her sister., the daughter she was pregnant with when he died. Cristian explains that it is common in some communities to take pictures of the dead in memory.

Katerina, the mother said that she never learned how to weave as a teenager But by  '97, learned along with her daughter at around aged 12. That is when they made the decision to be part of the cooperative of weavers. There were 5 women that came together in the community and now there are 45 of them.  She notes that they are still poor, and always still owe people something, like the 'owner' of the property that has always been hers.

The whole coffee process while hearing their story

We ask if Katerina and Juana still do not have rights to this property even though this has been here most of all their lives ? The answer was no. There was no paperwork, no death certificate, even from her brothers and first husband. Their goal of these women was that once they had reclaimed the bodies of her brothers, they could receive a death certificate to recognize their ownership to the property. Even though she was told that after they were exhumed she would have access to rights, they still have not been recognized. The only thing they have been able to do is rent from a man, for an exuberant price which continues to hold them back from saving anything. Cristian reminds us that because of this continual machisto society woman continue to have no say. He reminds us that, here in Guatemala, women were not allowed to vote until the '80s, and even those that could prove that they were literate (and note,  women in areas are still not valued enough to go to school).

Katerina begins grinding some coffee on a stone amongst the group. She tells us she realized the best way to make money is to cook.  The two had saved up for this grinding stone. Before  we left, she gave us some coffee. It was delicious, reminding me of chai. She says she adds pepper and cloves. The chirping of a lonely chick and a mewing kitten seemed to express their goodbye as we thanked them.

I See You

Pedro said he was taking us to another founding member. He lead us through a muddy patch, in between people’s house shacks , and across a little bridge over rapids. We pass a young girl spinning string with a wooden mechanism. Cristian explains she is making rope. Down the street there is a man lying on the ground fixing his tuk-tuk.  We pass a bunch of kids. They are intrigued by us white girls. I raise my camera with an inviting face. Before I raise it to my eye they giggle and duck under a gate. We end up playing this game and making faces as we sit in a house across from them.

We then meet another Petronila. She a very tiny lady, hunchbacked from a life of work and weaving. Pedro our guide, tells us she is nearly deaf and cannot see very well. We sit with her as she tells us her live story.

Petronila Son-in-Law

Petronila, her husband and her three daughters were working outside one day, when the army came. They took them inside, covered their faces and tied them up to chairs like we were sitting in. Then some officers came. They insulted the family and then took her husband. The room we were in was where they spent a lot of time as a family. The husband had made the chair behind us. Now there is a an altar of pictures of them around a cross. The man in one of the pictures was not actually her son , but was married to one of her daughters. He was found dead in one of the military garrisons just a few months ago. They are still waiting to get the remains back. To identify him, they had a picture of him wearing the same cloths.  They were able to get his body back. He is now buried in the cemetery. He was her everything. They did everything together. When he had to go to the coast she would come with him, just so they could be together. Under the military control here, everything was with a schedule even for the time you were making meals. They could tell by monitoring the smoke that would come from the pipes. So they had to be very careful, as they were not allowed to have meeting or get togethers. If they were caught, the military would come and burn everything. This was to prevent people from meeting. This was happening in the universities too. In this area universities were infiltrated, even to just have coffee with a couple of friends. They could not even do that.

The Taken Juana

            After they took her husband and her brother in law, one daughter had left to the city, who is still there. But then one night the military came again. This time it was not political, but they were looking for all the pretty girls. They tied them up, and told her they needed her daughter to please them.  She cannot remember now how old she was.  She still does not know where she is after they took her. It was devastating having her daughter taken away and that she could not do anything about it. The sad thing is she thinks she will never find her.

After they took Juana, the conflict got even worse, so she ran to the mountains to hide. Then one day she found a little girl alone, wounded with an infection in her leg. When she found her, the thought somebody must have decided to give her another daughter. So she saw it as a gift because she was not done loving her daughter. So it was up to her to take care of her so she brought her home. She did not know who her parents were, but she decided to call her Juana, like her taken daughter. She could not tell her age because there were no documents. But now she is the grown woman in the other room.

Little Pedro Walking Now

            Juana got married not too long ago. She never got married or started a life for herself before because she felt indebted to take care of Petronila. Now she cannot have kids. But Petronila heard of a young couple who just had a child. The father could not care less of keeping it, nor did the mother have the money to provide for the baby. Petronila  thought to herself that because all this time that Juana has taken for her and now Juana is going to die alone?  That when she decided to contact the girl and then adopted the boy, so when Juana  gets old like herself, she will have someone to be with her. "Because," she says, "a child is the one who fulfils your life as a mother."

            She decided to name the baby Pedro because it's as if her husband Pedro has come back as the little boy. She says she is old, she is tired. But even through though these two are not her blood, Pedro and Juana brought her the little bit of happiness to her life when everyone else was taken from her.

Back to Work: Petronila

She then stops Pedro to ask for the time it is because if its 3:30 she has another hour of light to continue working. We see her carrying a chair for herself as she hobbles out and sets herself up to weave. She is working on a beautiful red cloth.

I have never been so humbled and certain to make a purchase as I did for some items from them. They are incredible and the most durable scarves, bags and clothing I have seen! I invite you now to look into them. Open for group shipping or a place to visit on your next stay to Guatemala!

Centre Cultural Tejidos Cotzal Fair Trade:www.tejidoscotzal.org ; tejidoscotzal@gmail.com