Women and Genocide in Guatemala: The Politics of Memorialization

After the conclusion of the 36-year long civil war in Guatemala, a Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) was established in order to clarify human rights violations which took place. This organisation recommended a process of public memorialization of the victims in coordination with civil society organizations. Memorialization of this kind took both formal and informal froms: murals and graffiti as well as museums and public shrines. Based on extensive fieldwork this book deploys visual methodology and feminist theory in order to assess these efforts of memorialization in a gendered context. Multiple sites of memorialization are examined in relation to female representation as well as women’s political activism in the process of constructing public memory and performance. This study offers a landmark contribution to memorialization studies by examining such practices in the Guatemalan context.

JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz is Professor and Head of the Department of Liberal Studies at Texas A&M Galveston, USA, and Book Review Editor for Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal.
Martha C. Galvan-Mandujano is Assistant Professor of Spanish at California State Polytechnic University, USA.