just journey to guatemala

Just Journey to Guatemala

July 2010Participants:

Charlie & Eric Clements; Bob, Dea & Eric Brayden; Peter, Phyllis & Marcela Morales; Chris & Steve Sealy; Nathan and George Woodliff-Stanley; Natalie Fedak; Judy Miller;

Gretchen May; Elizabeth Winslow; Kathy Glatz; Lindsey Reed

Led by: Charlie Clements & Kelley Ready (UUSC) Interpreter: Kelsey Alford-Jones (Guatemala Human Rights Commission)

Tuesday, June 19, 12

From Antigua to Guatemala City to Rabinal

Antigua and Rabinal

Colonial City of Antigua — ruins, volcanos, modern and traditional

Los Pasos Hotel, Antigua

After Charlie gives a talk on the history of Guatemala, we’re off on the bus to Rabinal.

Some sleep . . . while others work . . .

And work . . . Steve Sealy filming a funeral procession.

Funeral procession on the road to Rabinal.

Chris and Steve filming and interviewing throughout the trip.

We pass through beautiful mountain valleys. The road gets narrower and narrower with mud slides still evident from the recent hurricane.

Posada San Pablo in Rabinal has the basic necessities. Some rooms have hot water and a fan. Meals are delicious and timely.

Plastic covers the market stalls during the rainy season in the Rabinal plaza.

Plan de Sanchez

Annual Commemoration Mass

Then we climb into our truck for the ride to the town of Plan de Sanchez.

This is normal transportation — or you can walk.

Miraculously we are able to pass trucks coming the other way. Tuesday, June 19, 12

We had great admiration for both the truck and the truck driver.

We join community members at the chapel which was built on the site of the massacre of July 18, 1982.

Charlie is warmly welcomed as a friend who has championed their cause for decades.

Benjamin Jerónimo recounts what happened at that place when the military raped, tortured and burned all the women and children including his entire family.

Murals inside the chapel depict helicopters dropping bombs on the village.

The walls are covered with lists of names and photos with biographies of some of the victims.

This woman, Marcela Raxcacó Juárez was 28 years old when she was tortured, killed and burned along with her four daughters.

We joined Mayans from the mountain communities in a Mass to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre. Many had walked for hours to participate in this Mass.

We were capitvated by the beautiful children and gentle women. How could this happen?

Natalie coaxed a little guy into playing “give me five” while he kept a grip on Mama’s skirt.

Then she got a hug!

We were shown the site of the mass grave that was exhumed in the 90’s.

We stroll through the village of Plan de Sanchez and George takes time to scratch a kitty.

Then an exhilarating ride back down the mountain.

Indulging in a moment of total silliness.

ADIVIMA & Scholarship Students

The next day we met with ADIVIMA president, Juan de Dios, at the headquarters in Rabinal.ADIVIMA was formed in 1994 by survivors of the massacres in over 20 villages to support one another and seek restitution and justice from the government. This is an ongoing struggle.

All of this year’s scholarship students came to meet us. Many had to travel long distances since they go to a variety of schools in different communities and either walk or take public transportation.

They introduced themselves and talked about what career they wanted to follow. Many spoke of hoping to help their communities and families.

All scholarship students are members of families who were victims of the massacres. One requirement is that they assist adults in the community who need to write letters in Spanish for official or business reasons. Many adults and especially women are illiterate and don’t speak Spanish.

Juan de Dios spoke of his overwhelming pride in all his kids when he attends their graduations.

Community of Rio Negro

The Chixoy dam project was another reason for eliminating people who didn’t want to move off of their lands. The Chixoy dam along the Rio Negro provides half of Guatemala’s electricity and accounts for half its national debt to the World Bank. To this day survivors have not been compensated for the loss of their land.

After an hour’s bus ride, we make our way down a steep trail to the launch.

And board for the long ride up the Chixoy Dam reservoir to the community of Rio Negro.

Somehow we all fit without swamping the launch.

And Steve saw it all through a lens.

Five communities along the Rio Negro river valley were massacred and over thirty forcefully displaced to accommodate the reservoir. Due to heavy siltation, the reservoir is expected to produce electricity for only another 15 years.

In 2006 we talked to Rio Negro survivors in front of their community center.

And this man told us his story when, as a teenager, his mother urged him to flee as patrollers entered the village. He watched helplessly from afar, as his mother and siblings along with 107 women and children were massacred and dumped in a mass grave. The story of this tragedy was retold in the film Discovering Dominga. He was instrumental in establishing remnants of the Rio Negro community above the site of the original village.

Today a sign welcomes visitors to the the Historic and Educational Center of Rio Negro.

And a state-of-the-art community center built by the Germans graces a nearby ridge.

The community now hosts groups from all over the world interested in hearing their story. They raise funds by providing lodging, food, hand made artifacts and soliciting donations.

Many other villages all along this river valley are attempting to rebuild their communities through fishing and subsistance farming.

Others have been living in the resettlement community of Pacux outside Rabinal. Although promised water, electricity and arable land, this has not happened.

The little kids loved our attention.

While the older ones attended to their studies. Many of our scholarship students live in Pacux.

Then it’s back on the bus to Antigua . . . jiving . . .

. . . and crashing . . .

Anthropological Forensic Laboratory of Guatemala

The Forensic Lab was set up after the Peace Accords of 1996 to investigate human rights abuses. They have exhumed a number of mass graves and other sites such as former military installations.

This year they began exhuming ossuaries in city cemeteries in Guatemala City looking for people who were “disappeared” during the conflict. Normally unidentified dead and those whose families don’t pay the yearly rent are disposed of here.

Pictures of missing persons line the walls. These were students, teachers, union organizers, journalists who were suspected of siding with the guerrillas.

Bones are lifted out of the ossuary.

And sorted into buckets and bags.

Volunteers inspect bones for signs of trauma.

Bones are reassembled and identified by gender, age and cause of death. DNA samples are sent to the Forensic Lab.

The bones are stored at the Forensic Lab in small boxes awaiting DNA matching. Family members come to the lab to provide DNA samples and seek missing relatives.

The bones are eventually returned to the communities for a proper Mayan burial.

Human Rights Workers

The final two days we spent listening to the struggles and hopes of many human rights activists who have been supported by UUSC.

CALDH directors

STITCH director—rights of working women

Frank LaRue, founder of CALDH, now United Nations Rappateur for Human Rights and his wife, María

Patricia Ardón, women's human rights activist

Christina Lauer, CALDH

Iduvina Hernandez, investigative reporter

Manuela Alvarado, first Mayan Congresswoman

Charlie Clements guided us through every turn, made sure our basic needs were met, introduced us to the people whose lives he has shared for decades, and helped us make sense of everything we had experienced.

Stay tuned! Sealy’s video coming out after the first of the year.

just journey to guatemala

guatemala city

steve filming

rabinal plaza

charlie eric clements

history of guatemala

funeral procession

beautiful children

truck driver

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