This project is a memorial to those named and unnamed that died during the Guatemalan Civil War. More broadly, however, it is dedicated to anyone that has died trying to escape violence or government corruption in search of a better life. You will never be forgotten.
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In Memory of the Fallen, So That It May Never Happen Again
“ In my generation, at the beginning of the 80s, Guatemalans lived through the cruelest and bloodiest years of a war between brothers. We were manipulated by foreign governments and corporations who sought to protect their own interests in the Panama canal. The war was an opportunity to seize control over the lucrative canal but we were the collateral.” In the end it was a war that was facilitated by powerful men, but was fought by boys.
This was the height of the Cold War, America and Russia would do anything to protect its assets. These two powers flooded Guatemala with weapons and fear, taking hold of an already brewing racial conflict and escalating it. These nations with so much economic power invested illicit resources to finance the war in Central America. In this vacuum, powerful people saw this brewing war as an opportunity to seize more control and influence over the country and its people by means of violence, manipulation and propaganda.
Post-war, there has been no clarity. Efraín Ríos Montt has posthumously been scape-goated for many of the crimes of this war. However, the accounts provided by the officials leave us with more questions than answers. If you were to look up information about the Guatemalan Civil War, you would most likely be met with false information.
As a result of this, today no one knows the whole truth of the effects of the conflict, the destruction, the sadness, the tears, or the hero soldiers who fought for that freedom. Many of them left without a goodbye, or a recognition. Hopefully this generation recognizes that this effort was not in vain.
My dad and I are part of all that remains of a legacy that was paid for in blood and in memory of those who have fallen we have a responsibility to make sure their story doesn’t go untold. My dad ensures the survival of a truth that a violent regime tried its hardest to suppress and as his daughter, it is therefore my responsibility to speak out against the violent oppressors of Guatemala and insure that all their crimes come to light no matter what. You can also be part of the closure. With this knowledge we have the ability to continue to tell this story so that we may never let their deaths be in vain.