thomas elsteds blog

One of the last things I did in Guatemala was to go on a trip to this place, which until 12 years ago functioned as home to guerilla forces, among these the PLQ guide Amaro. On this mountain, soldiers of ORPA held their stand against the military, fighting, training and bringing food to the local communities. Amaro held a conference on his experiences here during the war. Earlier on, he took us to a community called Nuevo Amanecer (New Dawn) near the Mexican border. Refugees from the civil war, among others Amaro’s family, escaped from the prosecution of the military in Guatemala into Mexico in the early 1980’s. Since their return in 1998 they have lived here, in the district of San Marcos.

My friend Jen Angel writes about the trip to Nuevo Amanecer here, and I put a quote from her blog here, see below.

En af de sidste ting jeg gjorde i Guatemala var at tage paa en udflugt til dette sted, El Casco, som indtil for 12 aar siden fungerede som tilholdssted for guerillaerne, heriblandt Amaro, PLQs guide. Rundt omkring paa dette bjerg holdt soldater fra oproersgruppen ORPA til under borgerkrigen, og Amaro holdt en konference om sine oplevelser under krigen her. Paa et tidligere tidspunkt tog han os til et fattigt comunidad ved navn Nuevo Amanecer (Ny Daggry/Solopgang), cirka en times koersel fra Mexicos graense. Samfundet bestaar af flygtninge fra militaerstyrets forfoelgelse og undertrykkelse, bl.a. Amaros familie, som flygtede til Mexico i de tidlige 80′ere. Siden deres hjemkomst til Guatemala i 1998 har de boet her, i distriktet San Marcos.

Min ven Jen har skrevet mere om turen til Nuevo Amanecer her.

Here’s an excerpt of it, I took the liberty of quoting from Jen’s blog (jenangel.wordpress.com) without asking:

I also found the visit difficult because when you learn about the people who were disappeared, they were just people who were trying to make a better life for themselves and their community, like writers and trade unionists and such. It´s difficult for me to think about how if that kind of repression happened in the U.S., my friends would be targeted. It makes me wonder about the privilege I have because I was born in a place where you can say what you want without thinking you might get killed, and it makes me fear for the future.

These photos are from El Casco: