After the NGO's departure: Changing memory strategies of young mayan refugees who returned to Guatemala as a community

Abstract

The collective return of refugees to their country of origin is a challenge for youths who have spent most of their lives in exile. In 1996, a research project concerning young Mayan refugees who returned from Mexico to Guatemala in 1993 suggested that international aid and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) influenced the memory strategies chosen by the young returnees, and shaped their narratives about the past. The aim of the present article is to examine the evolution of these youths’ memory strategies three years later, following the departure of most NGOs from the community, and to analyse the influence of this departure on their memory strategies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 returnee youths aged 18–25 to document the transformation of the representations and expectations of the homecoming. To complement these narratives the subjects’ imaginary world was explored through TAT plates. Results show how, as the dream of the return home falls apart, narratives of the past are also transformed, suggesting that the changes induced by an international presence may be relatively superficial, and that the reconstruction process is shaped by a plurality of voices which emerge in different moments as attempts to partially contain the multiple uncertainties of post-war life. These results suggest that massive international aid over a short span of time, by implicitly proposing a monolithic interpretation of the past and of the reconstruction process, might in some ways make vulnerable communities they aim to protect.