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Letters from the FieldSanta Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala Dear Friends, Each time I come to Guatemala I recognize how deeply my heart has been touched and formed by walking in solidarity with these courageous people. Several friends like Mingo of Utz and Carmen Garcia of the union movement, have died unexpectedly of cancer or serious illness. Other friends like Sr. Barbara Ford, SC, founder of Utz, have been assassinated. And still others have faced death threats for their commitment to justice and the poor. I have cried and laughed and loved here and have been compassionately held during my own times of pain and struggle. I am called friend, sister, counselor, mentor, madrina (godmother) and most important to me, compañera, one who walks in commitment and solidarity with the people. Guatemala, like Rwanda, is a country that suffered genocide. During 36 years of civil war over 200,000 people (mostly Mayan) were tortured, killed or disappeared in 669 documented massacres. Two million people were displaced as internal or external refugees and 450 villages destroyed through the scorched-earth policy. Over 100,000 alone were killed in the region of Quiché in 334 authenticated massacres. Each year I see many changes in Guatemala. Currently there is a construction boom everywhere-with expansion of the airport, new hotels, condos and commercial centers, to new second stories on poor homes in the villages. Some of this building is attributed to laundered drug money or to money earned in the U.S. and sent back to families. There is a very high rate of unemployment and underemployment, and today's newspaper said that 57% of the population of 12 million, live below the poverty level. A friend spoke of the growing emigration of Guatemalans, and that at one border post with Mexico over 200 people (mostly young men) exit daily in search of jobs hoping to make it to America. Each year a growing number of women and children are trafficked to other countries for sexual or economic trade. Cycles of political and street violence continue. As a result of recent drug raids by the military in the Ixcan and San Marcos people have fled to the mountains or gone into hiding, re-traumatized by memories of similar experiences from the times of the violence. Assaults and rapes are at an all time high. In the small rural village of Lemoa where I usually stay with the Maryknoll Sisters, four rapes and assaults were reported during August. This letter from the field will focus on two issues of import to many of the people with whom I work-the exhumation of clandestine graves and the alcohol/drug problem. For the last 6 years I have worked with Mayan psychosocial workers of Utz k'aslemal and Caritas Quiche, walking especially with them after the assassination of Sr. Barbara Ford, SC, of the Sisters of Charity of New York. In collaboration with Sr. Ginny Searing, SC, my focus has been on team and personal development supporting these young men and women in their challenging work of accompanying exhumations of clandestine cemeteries in Mayan communities, and of working with youth. When I was in Rwanda in June, people there were very interested in how Capacitar works with the healing process in another country that has also suffered genocide. Since the 1994 genocide when 1 million people were brutally massacred in 100 days, Rwanda has held exhumations of mass graves throughout the country. In many places officials enlisted local people to wash and clean the bones, re-traumatizing many in the process. Skulls and bones were then placed in special monuments throughout the country, or reburied with ceremonies in mass graves to remind people of their recent history and to bring healing to the overwhelming trauma there. Each year in April, the month when the genocide began, Rwanda comes to a standstill with memorial services and ceremonies throughout the country. Some Rwandans remarked that it is difficult to heal and transform the pain and memories because there is a constant reliving of the horrific events and most do not have sufficient access to mental health services. Often alcohol or drugs are the way that survivors or perpetrators cope with their traumatic stress and memories. Guatemala's exhumation process is quite different from that of Rwanda and is considered to be one of the most effective in the world. The focus of the process is to heal and transform the pain and trauma of the individual, the community and the society. For the Mayan people, proper burial of family and friends is integral to their culture and spirituality. A person is not at rest until Mayan ceremonies are performed and bones are laid to rest in the community. The exhumation process as developed by Guatemala and funded by several international agencies, involves three components: an anthropological/ archaeological and forensic team; a legal team and a mental health team. Legal and forensic groundwork is done first in villages where massacres occurred to determine whether or not the families and community want an exhumation. The overall process usually takes a year and psychosocial workers accompany the bereaved families throughout the process. Once the families and the community are in agreement, teams return to the community at a specified time for the exhumation process that can last for from 2 to 10 days. Teams are contracted each year with a calendar and a plan. The Utz psychosocial team this year is accompanying 23 and the Caritas team 34 exhumations. Usually 2 psychosocial workers (who can speak the local Mayan language) go to the community with legal and forensic/anthropology teams. The Utz and Caritas workers who have been trained in Capacitar practices use Fingerholds, Emotional Freedom (EFT) tapping, acupressure points and Tai Chi movements during the different phases of their work. They integrate and acculturate the practices with Mayan ceremonies, to empower the people to manage their grief and pain. During the most difficult moments, when families are called upon to identify remains, they are encouraged to hold their fingers and breathe deeply or tap their acupressure points to release and move their pain. Often bodies are identified by broken bones or missing teeth. And interestingly, Mayan clothing and belts made of natural fibers often endure long after the body's decomposition to help in identification. DNA testing is also now available in Guatemala. When identification is legally complete (usually after several months), another process begins. The person's remains are respectfully placed in a small wooden box and returned to the family, who drape their loved one in white or in the victim's best clothing. Families, supported by the community, celebrate a liturgy and Mayan ceremonies, and then walk in procession carrying the casket through the streets of the village with signs and pictures asking for peace and justice. An all night vigil follows, and family members, remaining by their loved one, are consoled by the community. The following day the person is laid to rest in the local cemetery. Remains not identified are also respectfully placed in a mass grave in the community with appropriate ceremonies. Families whose loved ones have been disappeared and never found are encouraged to be part of the healing process to let go of the past. Sometimes they plant seeds and trees as symbols of their loved ones to bring closure to their grief, so they can move on with their lives. In the Mayan cosmology we are all part of Mother Earth and Father Sun intimately interconnected with all beings in the cycles of life and death. Before picking a flower or cutting the branch of a tree, the Mayan respectfully asks permission and pardon of the great Spirit. So in the development of the exhumation process great care has been taken to honor the profound spirituality and cosmology of the people. As in the case of Rwanda, many Guatemalans use alcohol and drugs to cope with their traumatic memories as well as to bear the grinding poverty and violence of their lives. I have always known this, but several experiences on this trip opened me more to this reality. One afternoon Ginny Searing and I were driving along the road to Santa Cruz del Quiche when suddenly we passed what looked like a big bag of garbage tossed into the traffic lane. Ginny screeched to a halt and quickly said that we had to go back and pull the old woman out of the road before she got killed. As we lifted her body to a safe place I realized that she was a poor Mayan woman younger than myself, dead drunk, who probably had a very hard life. Ginny said that many more poor women were now drinking in contrast to former times when only men drank. Drinking was considered a macho thing to do among males. From counseling Guatemalans I realized that there is a lot of peer pressure to drink among young Mayan men. Each year besides facilitating trainings I usually counsel 30 to 40 people from the local communities who don't have access to individual therapy or don't have someone outside the situation with whom they can talk. This year in particular I became very aware of the number of family problems and situations of domestic violence related to alcohol. One young Mayan shared that he was often beaten by his drunk father, and that he had to watch his mother being regularly abused. Another woman was a victim of incest from a drunk relative and had never spoken to anyone about her pain and guilt. One person described how a perpetrator who had killed, tortured and raped many during the times of the violence lived in his village and was continuously drunk, probably just to live with the blood on his hands. During most workshops I am asked if the Capacitar practices will heal drug or alcohol addiction. My usual response is that the Capacitar program helps to heal addictive behaviors and promotes health and wellbeing in the body, but without some kind of detox program and support group, it's not enough. There are a few alcohol recovery programs in the larger cities available to those who have wealth. But there are practically no recovery programs available for the poor in Guatemala. One such program, Casa Nueva Vida (House of New Life), has been developed in Santa Cruz del Quiche as a project of Caritas, with support of the Sisters of Charity of New York. Sr. Mary Meyler, SC, has inspired the development of this project with a fine team of Guatemalans. I have offered staff workshops there on two occasions and was delighted to hear of the growth of the project during this visit. In the past the center could serve only 40 persons a year, and now with a new building up to 180 men and women per year can benefit. The recovery program of Casa Nueva Vida is based on a Mexican model of the therapeutic community and is considered one of the best centers in the region. Mary Meyler described the program as an integral process that includes the person desiring recovery along with the family and community. Depending on circumstances the person can participate in a residential program of nine months to a year, or an ambulatory program that meets once a week for group therapy. Although the program costs over $600 for a person per month, families are asked to contribute a nominal amount (around $60) or some bartered food like corn or bean, as their commitment. A social worker and a psychologist work regularly with the family recognizing the importance of their support. During group therapy, participants deal with confrontation to surface conflicts and to resolve issues with each other as a way of learning skills for when they return to their own communities. Participants also learn new job skills in carpentry, craft, bakery, gardening, and other workshops. Mary said there is a ceremony to celebrate each stage of recovery-from entrance, to the rite of passage and rehabilitation, to the stage of separation and reconnection with family and community. Anniversaries of sobriety are also celebrated. Each part of the way the recovering men and women are challenged and supported by a caring community who affirms them in the difficult steps of their journey. Besides work in Quiche, I also facilitated a two-day trauma healing training for 30 psychologists from five universities and many different agencies hosted by CEDEPCA, an organization sponsored by the Presbyterian Church in Guatemala City. In spite of (or perhaps because of) all the violence and trauma, over the years the people of Guatemala have taught me and Capacitar so much about solidarity, community and the sacredness of life. This year the 30 young men and women of Utz k'aslemal and Caritas daily led the ceremony of Mayan prayer to start our workshops. They decorated the Mayan circle of the four directions with colorful flowers, candles and copal incense. Red flowers and candles for the East and the sunrise, source of life. Black for the West, the color of night, planting and gestation of life. White for the North, ice, wind, destruction, death, ancestors and transformation. Yellow for the South, abundance, growth, new life and fruitfulness. And in the center the point of union of Mother/Father God and the human family they used two colors: green for the earth, and blue for the heavens. And each day they prayed to Mother Earth and Father Sun for peace and blessings for our world and for the growing circle of Capacitar. You were part of our circle. Thank you for your support. Peace and blessings, Capacitar International
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