The Guatemalan Genocide Through Indigenous Mayan Literature Twenty Years After the Peace Accords: Rigoberta Menchú, Humberto Ak´Abal and Victor Montejo

David Caballero Mariscal

doi:10.26417/ejls.v7i1.p31-39

Abstract

Guatemala experienced a cruel genocide in the early eighties, in the context of a repressive Conflict. Due to the different governments´ repressive policies, this terrible social situation was little known abroad, and even in the own country. Just after the Peace Accords, several organisms worked to uncover the historical truth. In any case, we cannot forget that testimonial literature is a privileged mean to know this dark period of the contemporary history of Guatemala. This genre is particularly relevant, because the main writers are originally Mayans, and have directly suffered both repression and social exclusion due to ethnic reasons. Rigoberta Menchú, Unmberto Ak´abal and Víctor Montejo represent a new and original point of view in the measure in which they describe feelings and situations from the perspective of those who experience them personally. Testimonial literature or the Testimonio becomes an ethnographic document that allows us to know not just a period but a people who have suffered from repression and exclusion for centuries.

Highlights

Testimonial literature or the Testimonio emerged in Latin America in the wake of the Cuban revolution, of the need to face the societys most urgent problems and the serious violations against human rights which took place in several countries in that region (Figueroa, 2004)
In several countries as Guatemala or Colombia, in the eighties decade, this literary gender becomes a means of rewriting national history, in order to avoid the government censorship or the official interpretation or the national historiography
We cannot call into question that testimonial literature, in special, from an indigenous perspective, turns into a key instrument in promoting knowledge and understanding of the Guatemalan genocide

Summary

Introduction

Testimonial literature or the Testimonio emerged in Latin America in the wake of the Cuban revolution, of the need to face the societys most urgent problems and the serious violations against human rights which took place in several countries in that region (Figueroa, 2004). Despite we must underscore that Rigobertas perspective is crucial in order to understand the social context she lived in, and the events those took place in the Spanish Embassy, we cannot forget there are another different reads of this fact that puts into question the veracity of this narration. In this sense, David Stoll (1999) differs considerably from Menchús testimony as far as the causes of the occupation are concerned. They are described as innocents, fragile, and carriers of hope as well

El patojito lloraba Y entre lágrimas pedía

Findings

Conclusions