You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
DIVA study of the political and cultural formation of one of Guatemala's indigenous communities that explores the nationalization of ethnicity, the preservation of Mayan identity, and the formation of a brutally repressive state./div
Recounts the American backed overthrow of the Castillo Armas government of Guatemala in 1954
"In a century of horrors, Guatemala from 1954 to the present has been a bloody scene of some of the worst horrors—and the United States has been deeply involved. Drawing upon 30 years of experience in Central America, hundreds of interviews, and analyses of the vast documentary materials, Susanne Jonas masterfully explains not only how the Guatemalan tragedies, the U.S. involvement, and the stumbling 1990s peace process developed. She also raises fundamental questions about the badly misunderstood and much over-hyped 'democratic transition' supposedly occurring in Guatemala and elsewhere in the region." —Walter LaFeber Cornell University, author of Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America
The invasions of Guatemala -- Pedro de Alvarado's letters to Hernando Cortes, 1524 -- Other Spanish accounts -- Nahua accounts -- Maya accounts
Bitter Fruit is a comprehensive and insightful account of the CIA operation to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954. First published in 1982, this book has become a classic, a textbook case of the relationship between the United States and the Third World. The authors make extensive use of U.S. government documents and interviews with former CIA and other officials. It is a warning of what happens when the United States abuses its power.
Labor and Love in Guatemala re-envisions the histories of labor and ethnic formation in Spanish America. Taking cues from gender studies and the "new" cultural history, the book transforms perspectives on the major social trends that emerged across Spain's American colonies: populations from three continents mingled; native people and Africans became increasingly hispanized; slavery and other forms of labor coercion receded. Komisaruk's analysis shows how these developments were rooted in gendered structures of work, migration, family, and reproduction. The engrossing narrative reconstructs Afro-Guatemalan family histories through slavery and freedom, and tells stories of native working women and men based on their own words. The book takes us into the heart of sweeping historical processes as it depicts the migrations that linked countryside to city, the sweat and filth of domestic labor, the rise of female-headed households, and love as it was actually practiced—amidst remarkable permissiveness by both individuals and the state.
Between 1960 and 1996, Guatemala's civil war claimed 250,000 lives and displaced one million people. Since the peace accords, Guatemala has struggled to address the legacy of war, genocidal violence against the Maya, and the dismantling of alternative projects for the future. War by Other Means brings together new essays by leading scholars of Guatemala from a range of geographical backgrounds and disciplinary perspectives. Contributors consider a wide range of issues confronting present-day Guatemala: returning refugees, land reform, gang violence, neoliberal economic restructuring, indigenous and women's rights, complex race relations, the politics of memory, and the challenges of sustaini...
What is land? A resource to be exploited? A commodity to be traded? A home to cherish? In Guatemala, a country still reeling from thirty-six years of US-backed state repression and genocides, dominant Canadian mining interests cash in on the transformation of land into “property,” while those responsible act with near-total impunity. Editors Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell draw on over thirty years of community-based research and direct community support work in Guatemala to expose the ruthless state machinery that benefits the Canadian mining industry—a staggeringly profitable juggernaut of exploitation, sanctioned and supported every step of the way by the Canadian government. Th...
The essential reference book for anyone working with trees in Guatemala, including foresters, ecologists, botanists, wildlife biolgists, students, tree enthusiasts, and backyard gardeners. This work describes over 2,300 species and varieties of trees found in Guatemala, both native and introduced, aided by more than 930 detailed drawings. A glossary of botanical terms, with illustrations, are included to clarify the terms used.Trees of Guatemala is the most useful book any plant scientist or ecologist in Guatemala can own, covering both native and introduced species. The volume includes comprehensive botanical information for the expert, and a wealth of information on the ecology, distribution and uses of Guatemalan trees for the non-botanist. A unified summary for each species is designed to help the plant enthusiast, whether identifying trees in gardens, parks, along roadsides or in native forests.Tracey Parker, PhD, forest ecologist, environmental consultant, professor and photographer, holds a bachelor's degree in forestry from Colorado State University, and masters and doctorate from the University of Idaho.