Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village

by Victor Montejo, Victor Perera (Translator)

Overview

TESTIMONY: DEATH OF A GUATEMALAN VILLAGE is an eyewitness account by a Guatemalan primary school teacher detailing one instance of violent conflict between the indigenous Maya people and the army. An accidental clash between the village's "civil patrol" and a Guatemalan army troop leads to the execution or imprisonment of many villagers. Written in clear, direct prose, this account reads like an adventure story while conveying an historical reality. This vital and essential record captures how Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which reached its most violent peak in the 1980s, ripped the traditional fabric of Guatemalan society. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780915306657
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	07/01/1995
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	113
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	1020L (what's this?)

About the Author

Victor Montejo is a poet, folklorist, and anthropologist. A Jakaltek Maya born in rural Guatemala, he was forced into exile in 1981 after appearing on a death squad list. He is the current Chair of Native American Studies at UC Davis. 

Editorial Reviews

"Victor Montejo writes vividly, with a translator of distinction, about another Latin American reality." —The Guardian

"Montejo has first-hand involvement with the violence that Didion both mystifies and, in a morbid way, romanticizes. He conveys a rare sense of the lived reality in Central America, in a clear storytelling voice that makes it chillingly human." —San Francisco Sun

"...may even be the first [text] modeling what can become a key epistemological dynamic: Indigenous autobiographies." —Auto/Biography Studies

From the Publisher