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Samford University
GuatemalaMay 30, 2008
I am enjoying a moment of calm after a busy semester, with plans to make the most of the roughly three months of summer.
Most of the scholarly work I hope to accomplish in the near future is related to research I am doing on the general issue of genocide as it applies to the nation of Guatemala and the bloodletting it experienced during the 1980s. Allow me to get a bit more precise and theoretical for a moment. My central concern in this work is to assess the Guatemalan genocide from the perspective of what the government-which was indeed committed to a kind of destruction of the indigenous "Indian" majority's way of life-was able to accomplish in pursuing its genocidal project. The prototypical genocide, the Nazi-led destruction of Europe's Jews, and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda were led by potent states-states which were able to carry out their genocidal projects. My goal in this study is to examine the extent to which a far less formidable Guatemalan state was able to muster the resources, the political will, and the popular support to pursue genocide. Close examination of both the broader political and historical setting, and the specifics of the horrific years of the 1980s, reveals what I call an "incomplete' genocide: incomplete because of the weakness of the government.
All of this may seem a bit depressing-and it really is a tragic story. But I'm also pleased to note that I collected much of the raw material for the paper during a visit to Guatemala during Jan term. The country is struggling bravely with the legacy of civil war and genocide, and has become a beautiful place to work and visit. They've just elected a left-of-center president who strikes me as one of the more thoughtful leaders in all of the Americas. I did much of my work in the former colonial capital of Antigua, which is filled with cobble-stoned streets and church ruins from the 16th and 17th centuries. I also had a chance to visit Lake Atitlan, which was once described by Aldous Huxley as the most beautiful place in the world, a verdict with which I firmly agree.
One of my other main projects is to craft a syllabus for the new Human Rights course I will offer in the Fall. Human rights is a topic near to my heart, and I'm pleased to have the chance to focus on it this coming semester. I hope to examine the fascinating theoretical issues raised by the growing concern with a concept which implies that every single human being, upon his or her birth, is endowed with basic rights, regardless of the political, historical, cultural and religious groups to which they belong. Just as importantly, I hope that my students and I can explore the dramatic accounts of individuals and groups who are challenging, often with tremendous bravery, the still-potent forces that would deny human rights.
