[Imc] Greetings from Xaman (fwd)

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From: "Jessica Rose Pupovac" <jpupovac at hotmail.com>
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Subject: Greetings from Xaman
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 18:27:23 -0700
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<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
August 3, 2001
Dear People in my Life,
I hope this letter finds you all happy and healthy and enjoying your summertime up there in the good ol US of A. It has been quite a while since I have written most of you, and so much has happened I’m not quite sure where to begin. However, much more important to me than the experiences I have had, has been the perspective I have gained on the struggle that has taken place here and the people that it has affected.
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY
Almost 500 years ago in Guatemala, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado met Quiche prince Tecun Uman´s band of warriors in a historical battle. According to legend, as it became apparent that the Quiches were to meet a tragic defeat, a magnificent quetzal bird, with it's large, swooping tail, was struck in the chest by Spanish gunfire and fell to the earth, forever becoming a symbol of a beautiful creature unable, or unwilling, to live in captivity. Indeed, it's role as the national bird of Guatemala is particularly poignant in it's correlation to the people who inhabit the "land of eternal spring" and their enduring resistance to domination.
During the past couple months I have been living in Aurora 8 de Octubre, or ‘Xaman’, a village of returned refugees who fled Guatemala during the early 1980s, a particularly dark era of Guatemalan history. Increased US military aid and Cold War fears led to the heightened repression of liberation theologists, labor leaders and students in the cities, while in the countryside, a "scorched earth" campaign aimed at eliminating armed resistance to the military dictatorship led to, according the UN Commission for Historical Clarification, 626 massacres of predominantly unarmed peasants in indigenous villages. An estimated one million people – more than a tenth of the population at that time – left their homes, some fleeing to the larger cities seeking anonymity, some hiding in the surrounding jungle for many years, some eventually making it to the other side of the border. 
On October 8, 1992, a commission of representatives of these displaced persons based in Mexico, after years of negotiations, became the first group of refugees in recorded history to negotiate the terms of their return directly with their own government. Their triumphant and emotional journey began the following year. The newly formed community of Xaman was settled in October of 1994. One year later, just as peace negotiations were coming to a close, this village became the sight of one final massacre, as the community prepared to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their homecoming. Eleven people, including two small children, were killed and another 27 injured. The trial for the massacre, which lasted an exhausting nine months, marked not only the first time in Guatemalan history that Army soldiers were made to stand trial for actions committed during the perpetration of a massacre, but also the first time they had ever been convicted of such crimes. However, the twel!
 ve soldiers sentenced were only given four to five year commutable sentences (meaning they could pay them off and walk away), leaving the community feeling that the death and suffering of their families and neighbors was going unnoticed, their tragedy disregarded. The appeal that was supposed to begin a month ago has now met with challenges from the defendants regarding the constitutionality of the case that could feasibly delay the trial for another year.
LIFE AMONG THE QUETZALES
Listening to the stories these people have to tell (and every one of them has a story), I constantly struggle between a Calvinistic acceptance of the most diabolical tendencies in human nature and sheer amazement in the relentless hope and strength human beings are capable of. After listening to one man tell me of his experiences during the 1995 massacre, of the haunting images of his neighbors lying, bleeding to death, I couldn’t help but say to him, "I can’t believe you are still trying to make a life for yourself and your family here in Guatemala." "This is my home," he answered, "and the home of my ancestors. All we can do is hope that one day we will have a just government who cares about the poor and cares about the rights of the indigenous. All we are looking for is justice." "Aren’t we all," I cynically replied. Then it dawned on me that I, born and raised with every privilege a white, middle class, suburban existence has to offer, am somehow more pessimistic than!
 this humble man who has witnessed numerous attacks on his village, grown up a victim of institutionalized poverty and racism, and suffered hardships I could never even begin to comprehend. 
No one from the United States can possibly imagine the terror and adversity that has provided one of the only constants in these people’s lives. "Did you read about the massacre back in the States?" one person asked me. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that some of the people I know back home couldn’t locate Guatemala on a map. "Does everyone in the United States have electricity?" "Yes, they do," I answer, "but you have a lot of things they don’t." 
I have spent the past two months eating simple and monotonous meals, reading at night by candlelight and killing scorpions and tarantulas that creep into my house. I have eaten some of the tastiest and juiciest fresh pineapple a girl could dream of, bathed and done my laundry every morning in a cool river, sucked the sweet juice out of a fresh piece of sugar cane and made some fantastic friends, from whom I have only begun to learn all they have to teach me. The life out here is anything but simple, anything but easy, but it is authentic. The people of Xaman and the lives they lead seem light-years away from all of the interests we call American and the standard of living we so vehemently protect. It is hard to imagine that their history is so interrelated with the privileges I was raised with. 
A military poster in the Petén declares, "The enemy is not destroyed in battle. You win him over by destroying his mind, his intelligence and his will." The past of these people has been sullied, indeed, it has been decimated, but their hope has only been amplified in the face of this adversity while their minds, intelligence and will have somehow transcended the attempts to extinguish them. I am cynical, it is true. But I have seen that there are people whose spirits cannot be broken – who, no matter how many times they are beaten, no matter how many times they are forced to watch their loved ones suffer and die at the hand of the oppressor, no matter how many times they have to keep their mouths shut about it and no matter how long it takes the rest of the world to wake up to these realities, they will continue fighting for justice and believing that some day it will come, and long as people like this exist, the rest of us can never say never. May we be inspired by thei!
 r enduring hope when confronting the injustices of our own nation.
AND ONE LAST THING (or three
)
I would like to thank everyone who has helped and supported me in my work in Xaman. If you would like more information on this and other issues facing Guatemala, what is currently happening in Columbia, the past and continuing work of the School of the Americas, recent acts of intimidation against Liz Claiborne unions here in Guatemala city, and other marvels of our modern neo-colonialist world, the NISGUA web page (<A href="http://www.nisgua.org/">www.nisgua.org</A>) is a great place to start. In addition, if you would like to see photos of Xaman, please check out the upcoming August 10 issue of the Octopus at <A href="http://www.cuoctopus.com/">www.cuoctopus.com</A>. I will be traveling back to the states in late August for a family wedding and would love to talk your ear off about any part of this, or simply enjoy a refrigerated beverage with a good old friend, so please feel free to contac!
 t me if you are so inspired at <A href="mailto:jpupovac at hotmail.com">jpupovac at hotmail.com</A>. Take care and don’t let the monkeys piss on your parade.
Sincerely,
Jessica Pupovac </DIV></DIV></DIV></div> <hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href='http://go.msn.com/bql/hmtag_itl_EN.asp'>http://explorer.msn.com</a> </html>