Guatemala Days of the Dead: Dia de los ñatitas

October 31 -November 1

Kalista, Karli (Karletta), Erica, Amanda at Cemetario General de Guatemala

                Arriving at the Guatemala City airport in the evening director  Cristian Silva met me at the airport where we hopped in a tiny taxi to headquarters in Zone 2. Located down the narrow streets it is an old house for both our living quarters plus the offices and analysis room where fragments of skeletons are layed out. The room beside our bunks have two skeletons. I drop my things off and Cristian, Kalista, Amanda (who are from Alberta), and Erica (from Los Angeles) head out for dinner around the cornerwherre the local family restaurant was waiting to serve us roasted pollo. Kalista and Amanda have done their undergrad in Archaeology while Erica is doing her masters in Forensics.

                The next morning we stroll around looking for breakfast, where I have my first cups of fresh black Guatemalan coffee and Jamaica (hibiscus tea). We decide we would like to go to the large main cemetery where families all over will be attending all day for the All-Saints Day/ Day of the Dead holiday. 

Former loved President Jacabo Arbenz Gusman who had created the Agrairian Land Reform

Cristian didn't feel comfortable with us walking through some areas so called his reliable taxi of which we crammed into. Being the shortest, I was dibbed for the rest of the day to lay across everyone so we could all fit in to the tiny white taxi. Guatemala upside-down is an interesting experience. Thousands of people paying their tributes, whole large families pick-nicking beside their dead families, gorgeous flowers arrangements being sold all around visualizes the importance of death rituals and respect and memory for their loved ones. 

The detail of the mausoleums were incredible, some meticulously kept, others paint chipping or glass broken, even some open and empty. A large banner reminds families that they must pay their cemetery fees or else their family's bodies will be excavated and removed to make room for others. Cristian runs into a seῆor whom he had done some  forensic excavating with, gives us a little tour around and ask some questions he had insight from as a local. 

We walk though the high walls of rows of catacombs, some numbers in red point we guess the ones who have not paid while many to do with the missing family members and unsolved cases since the Civil War.  Walking over some garbage piles we get to the edge of the cliff where we overlook the vast abyss of garbage dumps below, some ant-sized individuals are sifting through, while tents pitched on the side. The mix of smells of rotting garbage and sweet flowers definitely provides an intricate aroma.

                Piling back into the tiny taxi, we head back to the base to get refreshed in plans to head out to experience the ritzy VIP movie theater while lazy boy couches and food service. It felt rather uncomforting while a few blocks down more impoverished area. The film turned out to be (in my opinion) extremely fitting to the fear and violence experienced here in Guatemala. While this was set in a mass uprising in Thailand, an  American family is the target in the psychological thriller No Escape with Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnon. It reminded me how universal fear is for everyone, fear for one's own safety and one's family for survival. It was for me a humbling and empathic reminder of just exactly these lost souls would have felt before they were slaughtered and the fear that embedded the society of Guatemala and around the world, no matter what race, ethnicity or socio-economic. 

Some of the others did not seem so humbled by the fact that this was very much a similar case as to where exactly we living in for the month, while Cristian really did try to explain that it was indeed a very realistic scenario. I believe that was what led us to have an open discussion when back about the horrid extent of violence people will exert upon each other. And for what? Fear, the ingrained distrust, and disrespect for others, are indeed factors. Some were having a hard time grasping their heads around the madness, while Cristian decided to bring out some photographs or freshly mutilated bodies, some 13-16 years old, faces cut open with machetes, strangled, dis-embowled, and bent backwards. Meanwhile, the police, either not caring, corrupted or just not properly trained, pull the bodies by their feet off the scene of the crime which crushes the forensics' evidence, and while no one will give the truth as witness because fear of being ratted out. Definitely

a great insight into the results of the lack of justice.

Into the Real World and Reality : Off To Field Work in Guatemala Uncovering the Mass Graves of Genocide

Have you ever experienced the pain of not being able to say goodbye to someone, or even worse, not knowing if your family, friends or loved ones are alive or deceased? Even if you thankfully have not experienced this, you can imagine just what it would be like. Mass atrocities of group persecution that have amounted to a genocide have happened and continue to be committed around the world, far beyond WWII's Holocaust . The most unfortunate part is that they are preventable and would not happen at all if we did not continue to discriminate, promote hate speech or blame groups.

Recently I was accepted into a November field work and training in uncovering intentionally-hidden Guatemalan mass graves, and to learn intensively on how to best document in acquiring evidence to these mass atrocities. The International Field Initiatives and Forensic Training is multi-disciplinary initiative which supports the justice system and moreover to help provide a sense of closure to the families who have lived in morning and fear for their lives for decades of which their state has failed to do so.  Providing  support and reconciliation to those affected by genocide, particularly the Mayan indigenous who  have been under continuous persecution and near extermination, is imperative to the healing and mourning process. It is important because like around the world fear and grievance continue the cycle of violence and conflict.  Prominently occurred during the country's Civil War (1960-1996), internationally it has been neglected to consider that just because a declared war has stopped does not mean the violence and pain has stopped.

  Below is an excerpt from International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (1948):
"Article II:  In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious groups, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III:  The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide. "

So Why EFI-IFIT?
Over the course of completing my undergrad in Conflict Studies and Human Rights, I have become increasingly aware of how much I feel the drive to work hands-on in this field by actively making a difference in improving not just individual's lives but for societies as a whole. Being made of the current global concerns in peace and conflict resolution initiatives, I have been seeking out realistic and attainable initiatives and career work. I had learned about the International Field Initiatives and Forensic Training from a couple fellow participants in the Third Annual Professional Training Program on the Prevention of Mass Atrocities, where we had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire and discuss initiates on child soldiers, the use of hate speech in media in provoking cases of genocide, Boko Haram and ISIS. After researching the program and weighing the options, it was the first time I really felt that this was for me, combining perfectly my interest in archaeology, human right protection, forensics, and counselling.

I look foreward to sharing my learning and experience with you!
PLEASE Tune In!