Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala / Edition 1

by V. Sanford

Overview

Between the late 1970s and the mid 1980s, Guatemala was torn by a civil war which came to be known as La Violencia. During this time of mass terror and extreme violence, more than 600 massacres occurred in villages destroyed by the army, one and a half million people were displaced, and more than 200,000 civilians murdered. 83% of the victims were Maya, the indigenous people of Guatemala. Buried Secrets brings these chilling statistics to life as it chronicles the journey of Mayan survivors seeking truth, justice, and community healing and demonstrates that the Guatemalan army carried out a systematic and intentional genocide against the Maya. Victoria Sanford provides us with an insider's look at the workings of the Commission for Historical Clarification through the exhumation of clandestine cemeteries. The book is based on exhaustive research, including more than 400 testimonies from massacre survivors, interviews with members of the forensic team, human rights leaders, high-ranking military officers, guerrilla combatants, and government officials. Buried Secrets traces truth-telling and political change from isolated Maya villages to national political events, and provides a unique look into the experiences of Maya survivors as they struggle to rebuild their communities and lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403965592
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	05/02/2003
Edition description:	2003
Pages:	313
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Victoria Sanford is Professor and Chair of Anthropology and Founding Director of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies at Lehman College, City University of New York, USA. She is a member of the anthropology doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She holds a doctorate in Anthropology from Stanford University where she studied International Human Rights Law and Immigration Law at Stanford Law School. She was a Bunting Peace Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 'The Bones Don't Lie' The Silencing of Maya Women The Phenomenology of Terror Ethnography of Genocide Part I: 'It Fills My heart with Sadness' Ethnography of Genocide Part II: The Exhumation and the Anti-Christ Guatemalan Army Campaigns of Genocide From Survivor Testimonies to Discourses of Power The Power Effects of Declaring the Truth Excavations of the Heart: Healing Fragmented Communities Genocide and the 'Grey Zone' of Justice

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This landmark book reaches out to those who are trying to understand Guatemala..."—Jim Przepasniak, El Paso Times

"...Sanford critically and eloquently documents the U.S.-sponsored violations of human rights in Guatemala."—Lilliana Patricia Sandana, San Antonio Express-News

"The genocide in Guatemala and how survivors have dealt with it constitutes, in Victoria Sanford's gripping and compassionate tale, a crucial lesson in ways in which to keep memory and hope alive."—Ariel Dorfman

"Victoria Sanford leads us into a powerful and heartbreaking history of testimonies. Her journey into this war zone—a world normally depicted by men—is clear-eyed, haunting and, above all, close to the ground."—Michael Ondaatje, author of Anil's Ghost

"No book on this topic has approached the thoroughness and raw impact of Victoria Sanford's Buried Secrets."—Christian Parenti, San Diego Union-Tribune

"Sanford confronts us powerfully with the everyday blood, sweat, and tears of the survivors of indigenous genocide in Guatemala. She demonstrates the possibility of justice and accountability for the Maya who have been massacred by the Guatemalan military for so many decades and brings to light their courageous, ongoing struggle for peace and recognition against all odds. She is taking anthropology right to where it belongs in the twenty-first century: into the struggles taking place on the ground to make 'Never Again!' a meaningful possibility around the globe."—Philippe Bourgois, author of In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

"Victoria Sanford makes an important contribution to the growing body of literature on memory and her insights into the Guatemala situation reveal deep similarities to the South African and other African attempts to deal with the past. This is a remarkable book that those who seek to understand Guatemala, but also other situations of suffering, cannot afford to overlook."—Dr. Charles Villa-Vicencio, Executive Director, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation South Africa

"Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala is the most sustained examination to date of more than 400 testimonies, to reconstruct, in readable form, the complex interaction of truth, memory, violence and genocide, and the process of collective trauma and healing in Guatemala. Sanford's book is an original and engaging piece of cutting-edge scholarship." —Arturo Arias, University of Redlands

Editorial Reviews

'No book on this topic has approached the thoroughness and raw impact of Victoria Sandford's Buried Secrets.' - Christian Parenti, San Diego Union-Tribune

'...Sanford critically and eloquantly documents the U.S. sponsored violations of human rights in Guatemala.' - Lilliana Patricia Sandeman, San Antonio Express-News

'This landmark book reaches out to those who are trying to understand Guatemala...' - Jim Przepasniak, El Paso Times

'Victoria Sanford leads us into a powerful and heartbreaking history of testimonies. Her journey into this war zone ... is clear-eyed, haunting and, above all, close to the ground.' - Michael Ondaatje, Author of Anil's Ghost

'The genocide in Guatemala and how survivors have dealt with it constitutes, in Victora Sanford's gripping and compassionate tale, a crucial lesson in ways in which to keep memory and hope alive.' - Ariel Dorfman, Author of Death and the Maiden

From the Publisher