Guatemalan Journey
Guatemalan Journey

Author: Stephen Connely Benz

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-05-28

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0292782993

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Guatemala draws some half million tourists each year, whose brief visits to the ruins of ancient Maya cities and contemporary highland Maya villages may give them only a partial and folkloric understanding of Guatemalan society. In this vividly written travel narrative, Stephen Connely Benz explores the Guatemala that casual travelers miss, using his encounters with ordinary Guatemalans at the mall, on the streets, at soccer games, and even at the funeral of massacre victims to illuminate the social reality of Guatemala today. The book opens with an extended section on the capital, Guatemala City, and then moves out to the more remote parts of the country where the Guatemalan Indians predominate. Benz offers us a series of intelligent and sometimes humorous perspectives on Guatemala's political history and the role of the military, the country's environmental degradation, the influence of foreign missionaries, and especially the impact of the United States on Guatemala, from governmental programs to fast food franchises.

Paradise in Ashes
Paradise in Ashes

Author: Beatriz Manz

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9780520246751

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An account of the violence and repression that defined the murderous Guatemalan civil war of the 1980s. Manz, an anthropologist, spent over two decades studying the Mayan highlands and remote rain forests of Guatemala. In a political portrait of Santa María Tzejá, where highland Maya peasants seeking land settled in the 1970s, Manz describes these villagers' plight as their isolated, lush, but deceptive paradise became one of the centers of the war convulsing the entire country. After their village was viciously sacked in 1982, desperate survivors fled into the surrounding rain forest and eventually to Mexico, and some even further, to the United States, while others stayed behind and fell into the military's hands. Manz follows their flight and eventual return to Santa María Tzejá, where they sought to rebuild their village and their lives. From publisher description.

Guatemala Journey Among the Ixil Maya
Guatemala Journey Among the Ixil Maya

Author: Susanna Badgley Place

Publisher:

Published: 2013-05-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9780988487604

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For over two millennia, the Ixil Maya communities of northwestern Guatemala have fought to preserve their unique language and cultural identity. The ancient homelands of these mountain Maya encompass 2,324 square kilometers of magnificent cloud forests, gushing waterfalls, secluded valleys and the townships of Nebaj, Chajul, and Cotzal in the rugged Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. This unconventional guide invites Guatemalan and international travelers to discover the extraordinary beauty and rich culture of the Ixil Region through its history of struggle and resilience, local knowledge, heartfelt conversations, and hands-on experience of ancestral cultural traditions, economic innovations, and social transitions.

Maguey Journey
Maguey Journey

Author: Kathryn Rousso

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2010-12-15

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 0816502277

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The name "maguey" refers to various forms of the agave and furcraea genus, also sometimes called the century plant. The fibers extracted from the leaves of these plants are spun into fine cordage and worked with a variety of tools and techniques to create textiles, from net bags and hammocks to equestrian gear. In this fascinating book, Kathryn Rousso, an accomplished textile artist, takes a detailed look at the state of maguey culture, use, and trade in Guatemala. She has spent years traveling in Guatemala, highlighting maguey workers’ interactions in many locations and blending historical and current facts to describe their environments. Along the way, Rousso has learned the process of turning a raw leaf into beautiful and useful textile products and how globalization and modernization are transforming the maguey trade in Guatemala. Featuring a section of full-color illustrations that follow the process from plant to weaving to product, Maguey Journey presents the story of this fiber over recent decades through the travels of an impassioned artist. Useful to cultural anthropologists, ethnobotanists, fiber artists, and interested travelers alike, this book offers a snapshot of how the industry stands now and seeks to honor those who keep the art alive in Guatemala.

Knitting the Fog
Knitting the Fog

Author: Claudia D. Hernández

Publisher: Feminist Press at CUNY

Published: 2019-07-09

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1936932555

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Weaving together narrative essay and bilingual poetry, Claudia D. Hernández’s lyrical debut follows her tumultuous adolescence as she crisscrosses the American continent: a book "both timely and aesthetically exciting in its hybridity" (The Millions). Seven-year-old Claudia wakes up one day to find her mother gone, having left for the United States to flee domestic abuse and pursue economic prosperity. Claudia and her two older sisters are taken in by their great aunt and their grandmother, their father no longer in the picture. Three years later, her mother returns for her daughters, and the family begins the month-long journey to El Norte. But in Los Angeles, Claudia has trouble assimilating: she doesn’t speak English, and her Spanish sticks out as “weird” in their primarily Mexican neighborhood. When her family returns to Guatemala years later, she is startled to find she no longer belongs there either. A harrowing story told with the candid innocence of childhood, Hernández’s memoir depicts a complex self-portrait of the struggle and resilience inherent to immigration today.

Between Light and Shadow
Between Light and Shadow

Author: Jacob R. Wheeler

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 0803235399

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An investigation into the Guatemalan adoption industry and its relationship to the United States examining the experience and politics of a new industry shrouded in secrecy.

Journey of Dreams
Journey of Dreams

Author: Marge Pellegrino

Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Published: 2014-05-13

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781845079642

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This is the story of how one family survives the Guatemalan army's 'scorched earth' campaign in the 1980s and how, in the midst of tragedy, suspicion and fear, their resilient love and loyalty - and Papa's storytelling - keeps them going. On their harrowing journey as refugees to the United States, the dramatic ebb and flow of events are mirrored in the tapestries of one daughter's dreams. "A story of family love, loyalty, bravery and dreams - a fast-moving book that I couldn't put down." Wendy Cooling

The Blindfold's Eyes
The Blindfold's Eyes

Author: Dianna Ortiz

Publisher: Orbis Books

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13: 1608331792

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This searing memoir of an American nun who was abducted and tortured in Guatemala--and continues to search for healing and justice--shows that the human spirit is a force stronger than violence and fear.

Enrique's Journey
Enrique's Journey

Author: Sonia Nazario

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0385743270

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The true story of a boy who sets out with absolutely nothing to find his mother who went to the US from Honduras to look for work.

The Only Road
The Only Road

Author: Alexandra Diaz

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-10-04

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1481457527

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PURA BELPRÉ HONOR BOOK ALA NOTABLE BOOK “An important, must-have addition to the growing body of literature with immigrant themes.” —School Library Journal (starred review) Twelve-year-old Jaime makes the treacherous and life-changing journey from his home in Guatemala to live with his older brother in the United States in this “powerful and timely” (Booklist, starred review) middle grade novel. Jaime is sitting on his bed drawing when he hears a scream. Instantly, he knows: Miguel, his cousin and best friend, is dead. Everyone in Jaime’s small town in Guatemala knows someone who has been killed by the Alphas, a powerful gang that’s known for violence and drug trafficking. Anyone who refuses to work for them is hurt or killed—like Miguel. With Miguel gone, Jaime fears that he is next. There’s only one choice: accompanied by his cousin Ángela, Jaime must flee his home to live with his older brother in New Mexico. Inspired by true events, The Only Road is an individual story of a boy who feels that leaving his home and risking everything is his only chance for a better life. The story is “told with heartbreaking honesty,” Booklist raved, and “will bring readers face to face with the harsh realities immigrants go through in the hope of finding a better, safer life, and it will likely cause them to reflect on what it means to be human.”