Travel Diary Guatemala

Author : Ignacio Bizarro Ujpán
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780812231137
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Download or read book Ignacio written by Ignacio Bizarro Ujpán and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The news says that guerillas captured two members of a patrol during the night. . . . [B]ut they didn't kill them. They only punished them by cutting off both of their ears. When they were found the following day, they were taken to the hospital. They are living now, but they don't hear because they don't have ears to collect the sounds of words. It is strange but true that in this town there are two men without ears." This is the story of Ignacio Bizarro Ujpan, a Maya Indian who resides on the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. The story describes Ignacio's life, town, and country from 1983 to 1987, a period during which there had been declining civil instability (but increased military surveillance) and a return to civilian governance both locally and nationally. James D. Sexton provides a background to Ignacio's story and an epilogue summarizing local and national events from the end of the diary to 1991. This is the third volume in the trilogy that began with Son of Tecun Uman, which documented Ignacio's life from his birth in 1941 until 1977, and Campesino, which covered the years from 1977 to 1983. This final volume completes the story that covers three periods in Ignacio's life as well as three eras of dynamic social history in Guatemala. Nothing else in the literature is comparable in cultural richness, depth, and scope. Viewing Central America from the eyes of a peasant illuminates the complex problems of the region: the nature of the social, personal, economic, medical, and religious matters as well as the political issues related to the great masses of Latin America's poor. Ignacio's perspective, "from the bottom up," from a person occupying a position in two worlds - indigenous and Ladino - makes him uniquely qualified to describe life in rural Guatemala. The episodes in this volume include information not found in the first two volumes, such as Tzutuhil Maya customs and beliefs, the spirit world, shamanism, dreams and their interpretation, curing, destiny, celebrations, proverbs, and local and national conflict resolution. New dominant themes also emerge in Ignacio: the threat to religious beliefs and practices posed by outside interests, such as reformed Catholicism and Protestantism; the impact of a new secondary school; intercultural and intracultural conflict in the form of rivalry between the people of San Jose and San Martin; an attempt to return to democratization at both the local and national levels after three decades of military presidents and five years of mayors appointed by military governors; the problems associated with the civil defense patrols and military control of the countryside; and the attempts to hold accountable offenders against human rights. Ignacio: The Diary of a Maya Indian of Guatemala will be of particular value to students and scholars in anthropology and Latin American studies, and to all readers interested in Central America.