The first Guatemalan I really got to know was this guy that lived with me for a couple of years at Morris. He was first of more Guatemalans to come to meet in Morris (2 others within a year). I decided to make a website on this unique country they are all from.
To narrow down more on this, I will focus on adoptees from this country since all 3 I know from Morris have been adopted. From my perspective, it seem many get adopted from Guatemala because of the poor conditions there that would cause adoption agencies to start. My particular friend that I me awhile back told me he got adopted because his health was very poor. His parents couldn't afford to take care of him along with his 5+ siblings. They then gave him up for adoption in order for him to have a better chance to live.
It seem this is very common in this country based on the number of adoptees I met from Guatemala. Here are some resources on this issue (yahoo search):
Legal Issues
Resources
Stories
"Many, many orphaned children were sent into adoption by military officers. Originally this was a humanitarian activity but it became obvious that it had the potential for being a lucrative business. And then there is the higher demand in the West, where you have more birth control, more access to abortion - and so you have the problem of a huge demand and a supply must be created." -(more..."Guatemala's Baby Business,why so controversial and emotive)
The reason for writing this (10/17/03) is because I had another dream of this particular individual that God has layed in my heart to reach out to. Also, I just got a phone call from him last night. I've been meaning to do this website long ago, but now I felt I need to do this for future reference for me and others that come to this website.
Earlier, I tried to read some books on some generational background history to understand some past explanations on why my friend is the way he is. Knowing some historical facts-Mayans, which Guateamala is known to have rich history of this indian tribal group that built the only "Egyptian-like" pyramids in the Americas-Western Hemisphere overall:
Who? Ellen Moore�s (a former genocide case accompanier and now organizational accompanier for NISGUA)
When? Wednesday, April 18th of 2007 @6:30pm
Where? UMM Campus (exact location?)
Co-sponsored by the United Latinos and MPIRG
For more info: www.nisgua.org
Guatemala suffered a brutal 36-year civil war that began in 1954 with a CIA coup, ousting the democratically elected president. A long line of repressive military dictators spread violence throughout the countryside, a terror that officially ended just over 10 years ago, with the signing of the peace accords.
In the early 1980s, the Guatemalan military combined urban repression with a rural counter-insurgency campaign that uprooted more than a million people � many of whom fled to neighboring Mexico � and led to an estimated 200,000 dead and disappeared. According to the independent Historical Clarification Commission, these actions constituted a campaign of genocide against Guatemala�s indigenous population.
In 2000 and 2001, a courageous group of war survivors filed charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against former military dictators Efra�n R�os Montt and Romeo Lucas Garc�a and their military high commands in the Guatemalan court system. These men hold great wealth, power and influence in Guatemala, and still manage to incite terror among the affected population. The witnesses in these cases formed the Association for Justice and Reconciliation and requested international accompaniment.
I worked with a U.S. and Guatemala based organization called the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) as a long term volunteer, living side by side with witnesses in the national genocide cases. As an accompanier, I provided a physical dissuasive presence, which serves to deter the risk of intimidation, violence and repression against those fighting for justice and human rights. Witnesses contend that they would be unable to continue with the cases if it were not for the measure of security that international accompaniment provides.
After seven months as a genocide case accompanier, I began my work as an organizational accompanier with NISGUA. Since the beginning of 2000, threats and direct attacks have increased against Guatemalan labor unions, indigenous groups, exhumation teams, human rights lawyers and other organizations working for justice and human rights. Organizational accompaniers respond to short-term requests for international accompaniment providing a measure of security and political space for these organizations and individuals to carry out their important work.
I will talk about what is currently happening with the national genocide cases as well as the recent actions by the Spanish High Court to prosecute Montt for genocide (Lucas Garcia died in May). I will explain the theory behind accompaniment, why and how it works, and share my experiences living in the indigenous community of Plan de Sanchez, Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. I have a great slide show with music.
I can also talk about other movements and organizations working for human rights that are suffering threats and intimidation that I accompanied. Depending on time constraints and interest, I can talk about various aspects of impunity in Guatemala that characterized my time as a short-term accompanier. This includes femicide, a serious situation in Guatemala that I also have a great video about. And, of course, I will give people the resources and information about what they can do to help.
Related Sites:
Eye Witness: Reparations to Plan de Sanchez Massacre Survivors
by Stuart on Sat 04 Mar 2006 01:25 PM GMT | Permanent Link | Cosmos
"The 300-plus beneficiaries of the Inter-American Court case have gathered at the chapel in Plan de S�nchez, the site of the massacre that occurred there twenty-four years ago. As the former director of CALDH (the Center for Legal Action on Human Rights), the legal organisation responsible for bringing the Plan de S�nchez case before the Inter-American system, La Rue played a key role in the birth of the Plan de S�nchez case before leaving his position to work for the Guatemalan government. Despite this change in affiliation, community members know and continue to respect La Rue. He claims that he has been with the community from the start, and now he has come to finish the job. Today La Rue stands before the survivors and tells them what they have been waiting to hear. This is their victory. Today they will receive the first fruit of their fourteen year battle. Unfortunately, the words that La Rue proceeds to voice reflect a strategy of deception and manipulation that has consistently characterized the work of COPREDEH regarding the Government of Guatemala�s compliance with the Inter-American Court sentence. "
Churches
Guatemala on Fire
"The percentage of Christians is so large in Guatemala that it's transforming their culture"
Missions
-Conference
2004 Central America Mission Tour
"MCA Missions sponsored this short term mission tour by Christians from the L.A. Church. Participants went to Guatemala City and joined the church there for the Central American Missions Conference."
-Jose Anleu, pastor of a latino church in Minneapolis from Guatemala
Iglesia Monte Sinai (Church of God)
2917 15th Ave. S
Minneapolis
Pastor Jose Anleu
612-743-6481
Sunday Services: 11a.m. & 6 p.m.
Other: Kingdom Oil
Book
Government
Movies
Related Sites:
Wikipedia
"...is a 2006 epic film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Rudy Youngblood. Set in an ancient Central American civilization, during the declining period of the Maya civilization, Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and destruction of his village.
The film features a cast of Native American descent, and its Yucatec Maya dialogue is accompanied by subtitles...
Productions-Screenplay
"Striving for a degree of historical accuracy, the filmmakers employed a consultant, Richard D. Hansen, a specialist in the Maya, assistant professor of archaeology at Idaho State University, and director of the Mirador Basin Project, an effort to preserve a large swath of the Guatemalan rain forest and its Maya ruins. Gibson has said of Hansen's involvement:..."
Themes
GoodnewsEverybody: Science-Enviormental
"Coe lists "environmental collapse" as one of the leading causes of the fall of the great empire, alongside "endemic warfare", "overpopulation", and "drought". "There is mounting evidence for massive deforestation and erosion throughout the Central Area. The Maya apocalypse, for such it was, surely had ecological roots," explains Coe.[27] The corrosive forces of corruption are illustrated in specific scenes throughout the movie. Excessive consumption can be seen in the extravagant lifestyle of the upper-class Maya, their vast wealth contrasted with the sickly, the extremely poor, and the enslaved. Environmental degradation is portrayed both in the exploitation of natural resources such as the over-mining and farming of the land, but also through the treatment of people, families and entire tribes as resources to be harvested and sold to slavery. Political corruption is seen in the leaders' manipulation, the human sacrifice on a large scale, and the slave trade. The film shows slaves being forced to create the lime stucco cement that covered their temples, an act that some historians consider a major factor in the Maya decline. One calculation estimates that it would take five tons of jungle forestry to make one ton of quick lime. Historical consultant Richard D. Hansen explains, "I found one pyramid in El Mirador that would have required nearly 650 hectares (1,600 acres) of every single available tree just to cover one building with lime stucco... Epic construction was happening... creating devastation on a huge scale.
The filmmakers intended this depiction of the Maya collapse to have relevance for contemporary society. The problems "faced by the Maya are extraordinarily similar to those faced today by our own civilization" co-writer Safinia stated during production, "especially when it comes to widespread environmental degradation, excessive consumption and political corruption."[5] Gibson himself has stated that the movie is an attempt at illustrating the parallels between a great fallen empire of the past and the great empires of today, saying "People think that modern man is so enlightened, but we're susceptible to the same forces – and we are also capable of the same heroism and transcendence."[5][29] The film serves as a cultural critique – in Hansen's words, a "social statement" – sending the message that it is never a mistake to question our own assumptions about morality."
*see GoodnewsEverybody: Liberal Arts-History for more on Rise & Fall of World Empires
Culture
TVC Guatemala Trip: Culture
"A snapshot of Guatemala's culture as experienced on The Village Chapel's July 2007 missions trip. Song by Judson Spence. Photography by Christiev Alphin, Gregory Byerline, and David Perry.
In response to several comments and inquiries, please note that this is only a snapshot of the Guatemalan culture that we experienced while there. This is not intended to be a complete illustration of all of Guatemala. We visited only a small part of southwestern Guatemala and spent our time in two villages and one city. Finally, the "Guatemala Facts" were compiled through several encyclopedia sources with documented the validity of that information."
Government
History
-Nation
-People
Ancient Guatemala, from authenticmaya.com
"... In Monte Alto near La Democracia, Escuintla some giant stone heads and Potbellies or "Fat Boys" (Barrigones) have been found, Dated at 2000 BC (Ian Graham 1979). The so named Monte Alto Culture, that is classified as Pre-Olmec, (Why not Pre-Maya?), letting the door open to the opinion of some scholars, that the Olmec Culture was born in that area of the Pacific Lowlands, although the size is the only@ÚHhe posterior dated Olmec heads, it is more accurate to say that the Monte Alto Culture was the first Complex Culture of Mesoamerica and the Predecessors of all the other cultures. In Guatemala, there are some sites with unmistaken Olmec style, such as Chocolá in Suchitepéquez, La Corona, in Cotzumalguapa, and Tak'alik' Ab'aj, in Retalhuleu, that is the only ancient City in Mesoamerica with Olmec and Mayan features...
The city of El Mirador was the largest city in ancient America, and also, has the largest pyramid in the WORLD, with a mass of 2,800,000 Mt2, some 200,000 more that the Giza pyramid in Egypt, and was by far the most populated city in the Pre Columbine America, in fact, Mirador was the first Politically organized State in America, named the Kan Kingdom in ancient texts. The first aerial surveys of this area in the 1930' by North American Archeologist does not give any results, because they interpreted the huge Pyramids as Volcanoes. There are 26 cities, some bigger than Tikal, the Jewel of the Classic period, all connected by huge Sacbeob (Plural for highways ), or Sacbé (Singular), meaning "White road", up to 40 Km. long (Tintal-El Mirador, the largest in Mesoamerica) and up to 44 m. wide and 2 to 6 m. above the ground, paved with stucco, that are clearly distinguishable from the air in the most extensive virgin Tropical Rain Forest left in Mesoamerica, thus, these were Kingdoms equal in Power and Culture to those in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, etc..."
-Rigoberta Menchu (activist for right of the poor-learned in Anthropology)
Interview: Rigoberta Menchu, from Global Vision
Ribogerta Menchu Foundation
Biography-Nobel Peace Prize Museum
Humanitarian
Maps of Guatamela
Miracles/Signs & Wonders
Hurricane Stan-October 2005
Miscellaneous
Missions
Religious
Travel Info
Guatemala - Maya Spirit
"Guatemala, soul of the earth, divided in 7 marvelous regions. Take a look at what this beautiful country has to offer. "
-Attractions