It's not about you, it's about us

"So you have never used a condom during intercourse?" I asked my friend. I have to admit, I was rather shocked and about to scream, cry or faint. I seriously hoped she was joking. But I tried to pretend I was calm, so that she would continue to confide in me, and tell me the rest of her story.

She smiled and said that she knew it was crazy, but nothing has happened to her (she is an invincible teenager.) I don't think it's crazy. I think it's stupid, irresponsible, and impossible to understand, but it still happens. She is not the only one to believe that "those things happen to other people", instead of “those things can happen to anyone, including me.”

Noticing my contained reaction, she said that she was eventually going to get tested for Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and that pregnancy was not a problem; she would most likely get an abortion if she became pregnant. She also mentioned that after having been sexually active for a while, she hadn't noticed anything abnormal, nor had she missed any periods. Therefore, she believed that her chances of contracting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), or becoming pregnant, were slim to none.

I started looking at my life, my family, my teenage years, high school parties, my ex-boyfriends, my habits and realized that I was responsible in many ways. Still, that does not mean I am safe from any harm, from any surprises. I started to analyze in that very second all the messages an attitude like hers were sending to the world.

A few weeks before that, I was waiting for the results of a blood test in a public hospital in Guatemala City, when a woman sitting besides me started crying while holding her one year old baby. They were waiting for their number to be called, so that both could get tested for HIV. She couldn't help it, she had to tell me or anyone what she was feeling. And what was I doing there? Waiting calmly for the results of my normal check-up, pretending there was a barrier between her and I.

Tears began to run down my face and I said goodbye to the woman and began looking for my friend who was picking-up the results for me. I was overwhelmed, and I did not want to know the results of her tests. I wanted so badly to close my eyes and open them in a world where people did not suffer.

I felt a mix of compassion and rage towards this woman. Possibly her baby was just suffering from a serious ear infection, but then if she feared that she might be infected with HIV, she should have thought about it before having the baby, or during her pregnancy. Then, I remembered how privileged I am, and have always been. I had a good education and my parents have always spoken clearly to me about sex and protection.

I remembered all of this, and then returned to the conversation with my friend. She knew about protection, she was well educated yet she still felt invincible. She gave me more and more reasons to justify not wearing a condom, so I asked her if she had ever asked one of her multiple partners if they had been tested for HIV. She said that the topic would be awkward, and normal people don’t do that.

I asked her if she knew about their past, their habits. She said,"Yeah, kinda." How could she know if the last four girls her ex-boyfriend had sex with were clean? I was starting to get really annoyed. I tried to convince her to take better care of herself. She said she thought sex without a condom was a lot more pleasing and that it was a little uncomfortable to stop everything just to put a condom on, plus her partners did not like to wear condoms.

She's probably not looking to fall in love with any of these guys. I personally do not think there is something wrong with messing around, but then who sets the rules? I would say both partners. Having sex does not involve only one person, therefore if she doesn’t feel comfortable with condom-less sex, she should stop it.

And if she suddenly feels monogamous and in love, why is she making excuses? She has no idea who else has had sex with her boyfriend. Love does not protect us from unwanted pregnancies or STDs, or even both. And I see the lack of protection as a lack of love and respect. But not only between partners. Can you imagine having a baby and realizing you have infected him or her as well?

My mind flew back to Guatemala, to the poor public hospital where this woman was desperately looking for comfort and I sincerely hoped the results were negative for both the baby and her. But I also wanted, and still want some of her anguish and fear to be shown around colleges, around high schools where a lot of us feel invincible and forget that more than 33 million people around the world are currently living with HIV. Some may know it and practice safe sex, and some may not.

Printed in: "The Ebbtide" - The student newspaper of Shoreline Community College - Volume 44 Issue 3 - November 7 - November 20, 2008

Un símbolo de esperanza

El Senador Barak Obama trae con su elección a la presidencia estadounidense este pasado 4 de Noviembre una gran esperanza; no solo a los Estados Unidos sino al mundo entero. No solamente por su color de pie que nos demuestra que las barreras del racismo estan empezando a romperse en un país predominantemente blanco, sino también por sus políticas más abiertas e igualitarias para con otros paises.

Es muy importante para las minorias el verse reflejados en un líder, el tener un modelo a seguir en puestos públicos y más aún como presidente de uno de los paises más poderosos del mundo. Pero el logro de la presidencia no ha sido del todo una batalla racial ya que Obama en muchos aspectos crecio como blanco en una familia de clase media y recibio educación privada en un colegio donde la mayoría era blanca. Culturalmente no pertenece por completo a estas minorias y esto a ayudado a la asimilación del candidato por parte de un gran número de estadounidenses.

Se podría decir que simbólicamente ha roto las barreras del racismo, pero su logro es mas que todo una muestra de tokenismo. Ha logrado subir al puesto más importante del gobierno porque sus ideas no difieren con aquellas de la cultura dominante, sus valores se han desarrollado alrededor de los mismos principios de la mayoría de ciudadanos estadounidenses y su imagén nos hace soñar con un mundo con opotunidades iguales para todos.

Ahora solo es cuestión de asimilar este símbolo de lucha e igualdad para lograr un cambio de perspectiva, para que las minorías se incluyan en la vida política del país y del mundo y poco a poco se vaya logrando cambios en el marco institucional para que no solamente sea un Obama, sino muchos otros líderes de grupos oprimidos como mujeres, asiáticos, latinos y homosexuales.

YES WE DID IT!

Illustration by David Gillet - for 'The Ebbtide" (http://shoreline.edu/ebbtide/0809/article.asp?issue=4403&id=98)

Not all foreign policies are born equal: McCain or Obama

I am an international student and a citizen of two countries deeply affected by US foreign policy in the last century: Colombia that lost Panama with US intervention and Guatemala that suffered the bitter fruits of the United Fruit Co. and US Army first psychological operation in the 1950's. Thus, I know that electoral choices in US affect the lives of countless people around the world.

We belong to different countries, yet the dramatic increase in commerce and international communications makes it difficult to isolate countries and their interests. "If there are connections everywhere, why do we persist in turning dynamic, interconnected phenomena into static, disconnected things? Some of this is owing, perhaps, to the way we have learned our own history" (Eric Wolf).

Along this line of thought, McCain will keep on pushing forward trade agreements with Latin America, while proposing to physically build a wall between Latin America and the U.S. McCain wants to make sure no more illegal immigrants come into the country for they take away jobs, lower wages, etc.

He does not contemplate any measure to alleviate the conditions of violence and poverty that force people to leave their countries of origin in search of better opportunities in the US.

Off course, these issues are the responsibility of those countries and the United States has no obligation to do something about them. In fact the U.S. government has treated Latin America as its “backyard” and acted there for domestic policy reasons and the global strategy effect (potential future threats). In the case of Guatemala, it was evident that it acted to secure US corporate interests in that country. Today, the 45 US interventions in Latin America during the last century are subtly being transformed into trade agreements and candidates have important differences in this regard.

McCain vacillates between upholding the values of freedom for all and dismissing the effects of US foreign policy on other nations’ freedom or ignoring the impact that his foreign policy has in the US domestic scene where at least 41.3 million Hispanics reside and maintain close ties with their lands of origin.

McCain’s proposed aggressive military policies overseas will continue to afflict American families with the loss of their young and the economic burden of wars fought on false premises like the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

For his part, Obama is willing to engage others and talk, even to those that are overtly antogonistic to the US. This trait, evident during the Presidential debates, offers hope for people and goverments overseas and can well be an important way to lift the heavy burden that the war in Iraq places on the American people.

Published in "The Ebbtide" - Shoreline Community College student newspaper - http://shoreline.edu/ebbtide/0809/article.asp?issue=4402&id=57

Causa y efecto en Guatemala

Ya estoy cansada y no aguanto ni un segundo más esta situación. No puedo tolerar ni un instante más la impotencia ante la impunidad que nuestro nuevo gobierno ha descaradamente alimentado y nosotros hemos cultivado.

No puedo dejar pasar desapercibidas las noticias de tres de mis seres más queridos en esta última semana: mi papa y mi tío que acaban de escapar por lo menos seis balas en el camino de regreso del trabajo y una de mis amigas más queridas que no solamente fue asaltada sino fisícamente atacada y esta en este momento esta en el hospital.

Hace algunos años podría haber dicho que fue una coincidencia, pura mala suerte que tuvieron ellos dos de encontrarse ante delicuentes de este calibre en una misma semana; pero no puedo decir eso cuando los numeros han subido enloquecidamente desde la toma de poder de nuestro actual presidente y su esposa y los castigos e investigaciones son minímos, sino inexistentes.

Pareciera como que si el gobierno que se supondría que tiene que gobernar, ejercer autoridad para poder guiar el país y hacer que la ley se cumpla no ha hecho mas que aflojar el cumplimiento de la misma. Despreocuparse, dejar a los guatemaltecos a merced de "la ley del monte" mientras se enriquecen con nuestros impuestos, le depositan medio millón de quetzales a la sobrina de la primera dama y se tratan de hacer los locos con programas populistas que no tienen ninguna solución sustentable a largo plazo, más que probablemente clavarnos cuatro año más de corrupción e impunidad.

Guatemala ya paso por mucho, no podemos seguir asi como si nada; aunque no tengamos muchas opciones y la realidad no sea alentadora.

Es cierto que los cuarenta años de guerra no los vivieron todos hasta el punto que muchos ladinos llegan a querer creer que nunca paso nada y todo fue una creación de personajes como Rigoberta Menchú. En otros casos pareciera que una amnesia colectiva nos hubiera dado, y duro y es esa misma actitud y esa falta de acciones que nos ha llevado a donde estamos hoy. No de balde estamos entre los más corruptos y violentos de América Latina, pero el problema no es estar en esa lista, sino vivir con eso, ser parte de los números y adaptarse a una realidad hostil en la que esto se vuelve comunmente aceptado y ya no sorprende.

Quisiera poder entender el mundo y la realidad de nuestro país, encontrar un punto en el que pudiera yo trabajar para empezar a curar la enfermedad que sufre Guatemala, tipo la acupuntura cultural que empezo Antanas Mockus en Bogotá hace algunos años y lograr que la gente se sensibilizara. Me tendría que meter profundamente en la vida de diversos sectores de la sociedad guatemalteca para entender el desarrollo moral de cada sector, de cada personaje e intentar hacerles ver valores como la vida y la justicia desde una perspectiva menos egoísta. Aunque no es simplemente justicia, sino una justicia conseguida respetando valores éticos universales como el respeto y la compasión.

Esto es pura causa y efecto. Parece comos si todo se estuviera viniendo encima de nosotros que no necesariamente hemos cultivado absolutamente todo lo que tenemos hoy. Tanto la impunidad como la violencia han sido continuamente alimetadas por todos y cada uno de nosotros guatemaltecos. Alimentadas con la enajenación de sectores enteros de la sociedad por discriminación racial, de clase ó genero, y con el silenciamientos de sucesos tan obvios como el genocidio. Hemos partido de un concepto de justicia bastante egoísta que no nos permite ver que no solo somos ladinos, pobres, ricos, indígenas, hombres ó mujeres sino que somos parte de algo más grande. Y lastimosamente tarde ó temprano todo lo que hacemos se nos regresa de alguna manera u otra.

Hemos permitido la desigualdas de oportunidades de educación y salud, la desigualdad antes la ley y poco a poco el crecimiento de la pobreza como es de esperar ha llevado a un desequilibrio social que trae consigo problemas como la violencia tanto doméstica como social. Pero es esa misma actitud que nos hace verlo como algo ajeno a nosotros, es la que ha permitido que estos problemas sigan creciendo y no se paren, además de permitir que dentro de nuestro propio gobierno se juegue con nosotros, con nuestro dinero y nuestra gente sin ninguna seriedad en lo absoluto.

Si tan solo tuvieramos unos valores más inclusivos y aprendieramos a descuartizar las culturas en las que crecemos para poder formular como individuos nuestros propios valores ético-morales, separandonos de aquellos que nos han llevado a donde estamos creo que podríamos generar un cambio.

Con esta última semana creo que puedo decir que he tenido un marcado cambio en mi mundo, mi manera de ver las cosas. No solamente me doy cuenta que lo que más quiero puede cambiar o desparecer de un momento para otro, sino que esta realidad condicionada es de todos los guatemaltecos. Ya no es el asalto en un barrio pobre y alejado de mi familia y de mi casa, sino que la violencia nos esta tocando las puertas a todos. Espero que al poderle poner caras y nombres a por lo menos uno ó dos de los miles de víctimas de asaltos, secuestros y asesinatos podamos ver lo que dice mi proverbio chino favorito "si seguimos por donde vamos, llegaremos a donde nos dirigimos" y espero que donde estemos ahorita no sea nuestro destino final porque tenemos el poder de causar distintos efectos.

Resorting to the knife

I understand how feminism encourages women to do what they want, but I just don't agree with it being a cause of this dramatic increase of plastic surgeries on teens and young women. Feminism encourages women to analyze the system, question societal expectations and seek for gender equality and I believe the cause is a rather commercialized and wrong idea of feminism, that is nothing more but male ideals of women. This "perfect" thin, voluptuous & sweet body is nothing more than fragility and vulnerability; and that's not what feminism seeks or promotes. This body makes us objects that look for esthetic and sexual values, rather than thinking and intelligent beings.
Getting breast implants, a liposuction and a nose job might be somebody's greatest dream and desire, but would that really satisfy that person? It is so ingrained in people's minds that we are not even trying to satisfy others, but trying to deny us the chance to be ourselves, to have different natures and fit into what some minority has set as a "norm". Are there skinny women with breasts bigger than a 36C size? Probably, after getting their implants. People tend to ignore it, but the fact is breasts are mostly fat, and disappear when we loose weight, and they get bigger when we gain weight. So these patterns are not exactly real, but who says we're playing a real game?
We are modifying our natures and that is certainly not due to biological causes, but to a powerful drive to fit into created ideals of female attractiveness .
Women are not increasingly doing this to equal men in their ability to do what they want and take a stand for their beliefs, we are hardly thinking when we resort to the knife to feel we are somebody. It is not a bizarre happening; after all we have not been seen in a good way when we try to speak up our minds or do things with our lives and careers that clearly break societal expectations. Trying to match with the beauty canons in our culture is difficult, nevertheless rewarding as we get rid of the burden of being pointed at or sometimes ignored. Still, we are not challenging ourselves and giving us reasons to leave beyond acting for others as we have been conveniently educated to do.

Presidential Elections 2008 - Why should college students be concerned about the coming elections?

The November elections are less than a month away and many of us have not started to make up our minds about who we are going to vote for, what values we are going to uphold or even if we are going to make our voices heard on Election Day. But guess what? Time goes by fast and the Wall Street crisis will directly affect students in many way, not to mention the very future of this country.

Being in school does not make us immune to government policies and decisions. Even if some of us are not yet part of the work force, may pay limited or no taxes or may not be thinking of buying a house - which happen to be hot topics in the current elections - most of us will be affected by the decision to continue or end the war in Irak, to develop alternative energy sources and to insure health services to all Americans.

Even as full or part time students somewhat insulated from adult responsibilities, the candidates have different projects that affect our lives as students. Evidently education is not a key issue in this campaign yet the candidates have views and policies that can benefit us either through incentives for teachers and students, students who want to be teachers, or by fighting Iraq to save democracy.

So get your butt in gear, study the candidates proposals, watch the debates and get ready to vote!

Is this the Perfect World?

On September 10, 2007 I got an e-mail from the Humane Society, asking for support for a global demonstration against dolphin slaughter in Japan. I looked up the information and found that dolphins are being killed in horrible and cruel ways I could never have imagined. I could not stand watching the videos on the slaughters without doing something about it. I felt I had to make myself heard and do something to change that situation. I immediately picked up the phone and talked to several friends that I knew cared about animals and the environment. All of them said they would definitely support me but did nothing. Instead, I ended up doing everything by myself. I did not sleep for a week, wrote letters, made posters, called radio stations, prepared talks, sent e-mails and did all sort of things that I knew were going to get more people to participate.

Things went well at the end, from 700 people I talked or wrote to, about 50 actually showed up, and the rest of them either did not answer my letters or wrote me back asking me things like: Why are you doing this? Don’t you have better things to do? Why are you trying to interfere with the economic development of Japan? Some friends actually said that it was embarrassing for them to know me and receive those e-mails. With this, I realized something: I was not letting others think for myself, even less, letting the abstract and elusive market think and decide for myself. Why is it that some people my age do not seem interested in what is going on, and even less in doing something about it like past generations did? Why is it that most of them oppose the war and discrimination, are concerned with global warming, but are not willing to actually do something about it? How can we aspire to have a perfect world if we do not take a step to make it ourselves?

Mark Edmundson shows in his essay “On the uses of Liberal Education” that college students today lack the enthusiasm of their parents’ generation due to the consumerist society that creates an environment without any challenges for them. According to him, this generation seems unable to think outside the box and stand out for its convictions; in fact, they seem to completely accept the world they live in, and see education as a necessary step to “self-improvement, résumé building, and enrichment” (2). All they have to do is to keep up with the good work to be competitive and successful.

He identifies this “consumer Weltanschauung” (2) in the way students behave towards the authority and even the way they socialize outside an academic environment. In class, Edmundson claims, they always agree with the teacher, no matter what he thinks, and the only reason why they would not like a class, is because the teacher is boring. He believes that they are “more devoted to consumption and entertainment” than to the actual content of the class. I believe that it is not only a matter of boring and entertaining classes, but of awareness of a challenging world beyond their small comfortable group of friends and family. In my high school we had to take every year around eight core classes and one or two extra electives, my schoolmates would sign themselves in those classes where the teachers would not give them any homework or not even check if they were doing something. They did not even choose their classes for fun, I remember some of them falling asleep whenever the teacher was not around, skipping classes because they said it was not going to help them anyways, most of them only cared about going through homework as fast as possible to go out and party.

I say my generation is the “Party Generation”; I am also part of it. Going out and having fun with friends is not bad, but the problem comes as Edmundson mentions, when we care so much about having fun that we do not even seem aware of moral and ethical issues that need a voice and action.

He emphasizes that the problem is not that my generation lacks intelligence, but we just do not have the need to think, since we have had everything we have needed, and as Brook says on his essay “The Organization Kid”, all we have to do in life is climb the “meritocratic” (3) system we have been raised up in. “Consumption is the ultimate mechanism for co-optation. People will not risk their comfortable surroundings and life-styles for a cause that seems (is) far removed from their immediate reality.” (Rivera, Alberto. Personal interview. 1 February 2008.) Why would we need to think differently and question the professors’ lectures if what will make us succeed and be happy is getting good grades and being socially accepted? The answer Edmundson mentions several times “On The Uses of a Liberal Education” is that the thing we fear the most is “intellectual work” and “confrontation”.

Other than being cool with what we have, how are we not going to suppress ourselves when increasing scientific and technological advances are aimed to uniform and control behavior? Ritalin is telling an example. “[K]ids whose behavior subverts efficient learning are medicated so that they and their classmates can keep pace…” (Brooks, The Organization Kid, page 8). But what is the behavior we expect? “Methylphenidate is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, which means that it increases the level of the dopamine neurotransmitter in the brain by partially blocking the transporters that remove it from the synapses. Ritalin lowers the normal action and thinking process”. In common words, it inhibits the response time and the thinking process itself. What to think of a society that allows (encourages?) people to think less (do not question or adequately react to complex situations).

In the other hand, we have technological breakthroughs like The GemTrack GPS Child Locator that “enables parents learn (sic) the precise location of their children with a few Internet keystrokes or simply by placing a phone call. Great for Children 10 and older.” (http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/geminitracking-gps-child-locator.html) The device also alerts parents when their children are leaving their defined area, just like home rest criminals. Teenagers on probation for minor law violations are often required to wear such device, and they are tracked day and night by police and family for not following rules. What is going on? This kind of control does not promote communication among family members or members of a community, therefore it acts only on the symptom but not on the source of the social disease which likely lie precisely in lifestyles that reduce or eliminate interaction and communication among people. It is only another expression of consumerism in society but again, we do not need to care about the cause of problems not apparent in a world where everything is in order.

Questioning things not only requires effort on our part, but it also has a social cost: anybody with different ideas is seen as a threat, so people are petrified at letting others know what they think. It has even got to the point were people think that “liberal-arts education is in crisis because universities have been invaded by professors with peculiar ideas” (Edmundson 2) different from those of the mainstream culture. If individuals with challenging ideas do not exist, how are we going to change things that are not working? Holding on to the things we have been doing will keep us in an eternal cycle where things that do not work keep on working that way. As my favorite Chinese proverb says, “If we keep on going in the direction we are heading, we will get there”. So it is crucial for education and society to have people that actually stand up and question our common believes and the status quo.

Edmundson claims that exposing students to different ideas and situations will not bring up any questioning from them, in contrast with what other educators think. What students actually do, faced with these situations is simply to say how fun, interesting, good or bad these ideas are; instead of critically showing how this or that affects us, and proposing ways to change it. In contrast with my parents’ activist generation that protested against the Vietnam War and other world dilemmas, my generation is a rather passive, navel gazing generation hoping to retain their sheltered and comfortable lives.

An example of this can be seen in everyday English classes, as it happened to me a few days ago. We were given the papers of two or three classmates to comment on them, and criticize their arguments as well as correcting grammatical and spelling errors. I finished my paper and right after handing it in, I started to feel uneasy about it, because I thought that instead of criticizing, as it was a Critical Response assignment, I was only summarizing the author’s point of view. I corrected my classmates’ and got mine corrected as well. I was expecting to get some harsh comments on my lack of critical analysis, my spelling, grammar and structure, but instead I got two or three marks showing me spelling errors, and comments saying that my anecdotes were interesting and funny, the same that happened to Mark Edmundson, during the teacher evaluation day. Either we are too politically correct, because later on I found too many errors and problems with my writing, or we are not interested on thinking and questioning other people’s arguments.

I am stunned. I have always been aware of a certain lack of participation and superficiality, especially in my generation, but this vicious cycle Emundson portrays “On the uses of a Liberal Education” scares me. Education changes as it increasingly becomes part of the market, and the demand for entertainment augments, leading to schools investing more in sports and clubs, and becoming more flexible with course requirements, like the example Edmundson gives of eliminating Greek and Latin classes from the Classics Department, because of the lack of interest. What is this? I thought education was supposed to develop in us independent critical skills to become responsible citizens and prepare us for whichever career or occupation we may have in the future. If this continues like this, who will lead us in the important changes that will have to take place in the near future? How are we going to redefine the world we live in if all we know is more of the same?

Femicide; Guatemala

Violence in Guatemala is part of the daily facts. It would seem like nothing surprises Guatemalans, not kidnappings, assaults, rapes or even murders. According to the United Nations Development Program Statistical Report on Violence the homicide rate in Guatemala in 2006 stood at 47 per each 10,000 population; what we do not see in these numbers is that more than 80% of the victims are women. Often TV news displays the corpses of women who have been tortured, raped and marked. The amount and frequency by which theses types of crimes happen, has led them to be named femicides, but just the way it appears on the news each morning, the crimes are forgotten that same evening. Homicides and femicides are both murders and should be given the same attention, but it is important to recognize that femicides in Guatemalan society are violent gender-based crimes against women that send a message to them that they are of no value and that they better keep to their traditional roles.

The word femicide means the murder of women, but it is not used for just any kind of murder. This type of crime refers to “killings characterized by extreme viciousness often involving rape, torture, mutilation and dismemberment” (UNPF 1). It is a especially vicious and gender based crime; women are not only murdered but also tortured, marked and sexually abused before dying, “by contrast to male murder victims, who are almost always killed by firearm” (Saver). The crime is not only a violent murder, but the way it is perpetuated sends a strong message about the value of women in the particular society where it happens.

In June 12, 2004, the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre had an article on the murder of the 17-year-old woman Andrea Fabiola Contreras Bacaro; for which the description of the crime included sexual abuse and torture.

She was found with her hands tied in a plastic bag which had been thrown into a ditch used as a rubbish dump. Her throat had been cut, she had wounds and cuts on her face and chest and she had been shot at close range in the head. She had been raped; her plastic sandals, white blouse and underclothes were found next to her body (Parliament 3).

The crime had not been perpetrated with the sole purpose of getting rid of the victim, but also sexually abuse and torture her, then dump her like a piece of garbage. “Femicide is said to be a result from a climate of generalized violence and discrimination against women and leading to the attitude that ‘women’ are expendable and can be routinely used abused and discarded” (Parliament 4).

The feminist activist, specialized in the topic of femicide Marcela Lagarde explains it as “a hate crime against women, a misogynous crime forged by the enormous social and state tolerance of gender violence” (Parliament 6). The reason why it is classified as a gender-based crime is because the sex of the victim seems to be an important factor in the crime, influencing the reasons and motives, the context in which it is perpetrated, as well as the type of violence that women suffer.

Another important characteristic of femicide is the impunity of the crimes, the lack of punishment to the perpetrators. In Guatemala the impunity comes on one hand from the common people, their values and traditions, and on the other hand, from the State that has an inefficient and corrupt judicial system, and the Government’s lack of attention to this issue. There is a common “perception that violence against women and especially domestic violence is not a serious crime” (Parliament 5). The Guatemalan Ex Vice President Eduardo Stein said to the press that the government was having problems gathering statistics and that after all “the same level of violence exists in other Latin American countries” (Saver). The country’s administration plays a major role in the impunity of the crimes. There is no interest on researching and investigating crimes, and there is no sex-disaggregated data in official documents according to the European Parliament Report on femicide in Guatemala and Mexico.

The numbers presented by the police for 2004 attribute 175 deaths to gunshot, 27 to knife wounds and 323 to “other causes”. The categories, however, conceal the gender-based brutality and sexual nature of many of the killings in which victims present evidence of rape, mutilation and dismemberment. Other categories such as death from multiple trauma, head trauma or abdominal trauma do not distinguish whether the deaths were accidental or the results of intentional harm, for example, being beaten to death. (Parliament 5)

The Guatemalan constitution nowadays continues to have major flaws that also allow perpetrators to stay unpunished, the most noticeable is the article 200, Chapter VII of the Código Penal, which exonerates perpetrators of rape if he marries the victim and the victim is over 12 years old. The only way the perpetrator would be punished would be if there was proof that the victim did not provoke him, which leads to a direct blaming of the victim.

The other major factor that contributes to the impunity of this crimes in Guatemala, is the machismo culture of manliness, male virility and pride that imposes the submission of women in all social, emotional and sexual levels, and ends up supporting misogyny or hatred towards women. “Violence is positive within machista culture: it is a central component of the masculine identity’s attributes of toughness, force and aggression” (Parliament) and violence against women happens as a reaction against the changes that have allowed women to be politically involved and conscious about their freedom to decide for their life’s and bodies.

The ideal role of women in most societies around the world is limited to having children, childrearing and housekeeping, sometimes accompanied by agricultural and animal husbandry tasks. Often these tasks involve long hours of tedious drudgery or endless task fetching water, wood, tusking, etc, where they are also exposed to high risks of gender violence. Any intent to change or violate these roles represents a threat to men’s supremacy, so the control of the women’s body becomes and important device to maintain their power status, which is beginning to be questioned. Violence against women can be seen as the result of historic unequal power relations between genders that have led to male domination, which wants to be preserved by stopping women’s full advancement according to the report on femicide to the European Parliament.

Most of the serious violence perpetuated against women is done in the name of preserving virginity and marriage vows or punishing women for violating those vows… Female genital mutilation, honor killings, public beatings, lashing, and stoning are all carried out primarily in the interest of preventing sexual behavior outside marriage. (Forsaken 12)

Another factor for impunity and increasing violence is female education. Education for women has not been of major interest for Guatemalans until the mis-1990’s, and this is something that creates a major gap between men and women making women question less and make less use of their rights. “The ability to read is one of the most fundamental skills to social order. Furthermore education provides new perspectives and open dialogues about ideas an concepts that may challenge traditional authority.” (Forsaken 35) In the case of education it can be also seen as a cause of the increasing amount of femicides as it threatens male supremacy as mentioned before, if there is not enough protection from the authorities for women pursuing their education.

Even if women are educated the lack of trust in the authorities lead to intimidation from husbands and men, that may avoid their taking of steps to denounce any type of sexual or domestic violence. According to the Femicide Report for the European Parliament “a third of all cases of murder take place within the family after the victims have suffered violent incidents and attacks, often in silence, for many years” before being murdered, some of them have been murdered for complaining about ill treatment by a partner or sometimes because they refused to join a gang or wanted to leave one.

In the case of Guatemala the political and social changes that have taken place during the last half of the twentieth century have affected women’s life’s creating a precedent of violence against them at the same time as giving them more rights and opportunities, but nevertheless this has increased their vulnerability in the workplace, family, community and society.

This dates back as much as fifty years ago, when the democratic elected President Jacobo Arbenz expropriated lands of the United Fruit Company. With this happening the CIA directed a military coup that led to the sprouting of guerrillas, and later on the creation of paramilitary groups supported by the United States to get rid of insurgent groups. This led to one of the worst and most violent civil repressions in Latin America.

During the Cold War the United States government continued to support the Guatemalan military and paramilitary groups to protect their interest in the country. These groups gained control of large portions of land killing many people, mostly Mayans. This series of massacres are now recognized as one of the worse genocides in the world. Political opponents were killed and women raped, mutilated and murdered; pregnant women had their wombs opened and fetus hung from trees.

Upon closer examination, women are disproportionately, victimized when war civil unrest, and poverty exist… Not only are they directly affected by war-induced violence, but the social violence that results from civil unrest also puts women at great risk… And of course women are particularly at risk within cultures where unchallenged patriarchy and misogyny are embedded in political, religious, or social systems. (Forsaken 13)

After 36 years of armed conflict and horrendous massacres and tortures, were more than 200,000 had been killed, 40,000 disappeared and 1,3 million Guatemalans had become refugees (Toomey), the United Nations started the negotiation for a Peace Treaty, between the Military, the Paramilitary and the Guerrillas.

After all this happened the Catholic Church that had been keeping record of the dead and disappeared, publicly denounced the fact that 93% of the deaths and disappearances had been on the hands of the military, the police and paramilitary groups. Right after this was published Monseñor Juan Gerardi, the bishop who had published this work, was killed in front of his house and years later three officers were condemned for the homicide.

Recognizing that the United States government had supported the armed groups, the UN Peace Treaty demanded the reform and reduction of the Armed Forces and the Police. Nevertheless while they were re organizing these institutions, the members kept on being the same and the people responsible for the worse massacres remains unpunished, to the point that General Efraín Ríos Montt became President of the Guatemalan Congress. So impunity for crimes in Guatemalans is not something new, and as Christine Toomey mentions in the article “Feminicidio en Guatemala”, in a country that has witnessed so many atrocities and law violations it is not surprising that life is worth nothing. And in a land with such a marked machismo culture, it is expected that men will be already used to think that they can kill, torture and rape women and remain unpunished.

During the Peace Treaty negotiations, women were given more rights that afforded them to be political and active in public life, this caused a culture shock that men have not yet accepted. The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights says that the point of these crimes is to “send a message of terror and intimidation” (Sauer) that women should leave the public space and end their role in the development of their country. Once again we encounter the obstacle of a machista and misogynous culture with this response from men to this changes.

The Peace Treaties are an important factor, but there has been a “dramatic rise in violent crime in recent years often linked to organized crime, including drugs, arms and people trafficking, pornographic rings and prostitution, or the activities of street youth gangs known as ‘maras’ ” (Parliament 5); from 184 women murdered in 2002, to 250 in 2003 and 300 in 2004 for these records. (Sauer) Nevertheless most of the victims of gangs and organized crimes are not marked and their bodies moved to other places after being killed. “To do so would require a degree of logistical organization that the gangs simply do not have, ‘but the government uses the maras as an excuse to divert attention away from the fact that it is not living up to its responsibilities.” (Garza) According to Manuela Garza the marking and moving of the bodies are characteristics of military victims, as it happened during the genocide.

In Guatemala another contributor to the large numbers of victims is domestic femicide, which “refers to the murder of women by current or ex partners – marital, dating, cohabitating, and so forth.” (Sheryl 422) According to various sources 33% of the victims are related to their murderers, which can be interpreted as victims of domestic femicide. As explained in Forsaken Females “Political and social upheaval, changing environmental conditions, and exposure to change in family roles may affect women’s safety in the home, aside from any culturally sanctioned forms of violence that may coexist” as social bonds are broken and men undergo more pressure from the community and society.

Nowadays feminist groups are working hard to put an end to this impunity and atrocious acts. “They want the government to make violence against women a public issue by funding research and investigation.” One step they have taken independently from the government is to let people know what is happening. With a lack of detailed reports on the news about the sex violence behind these murders, the feminist newspaper “La Cuerda” has been constantly presenting cases and sex disaggregated data, letting more people know what is going on in the country and putting more pressure on the government to act, “but they’re dismissed as ‘man-hating lesbians’ ” (Sauer).

The Presidential Secretariat on Women has created a Specific Commission to address Femicide that is helping the state develop strategies to eliminate this trend of crimes, but the changes are too slow and the victim’s relatives and Human Rights organizations are looking outside the country for help and support.

This is the case of Rosa Franco who has been working hard for the last six years to start a proper investigation of the murder of her teenage daughter María Isabel. One night in the news she recognized the corpse of her daughter lying down in a field. Rosa started pressuring the Police, for them to find the murderer, she showed evidence to the police that he daughter’s cellular phone had been used after her death and study the testimony of some people that witnessed the dropping of the body from a car. The Police accused her of messing around with them and publicly declared that her daughter was a prostitute (Toomey). This stigmatization and blaming of victims is blocking the investigation and proper functioning of the law.

Just as Rosa Franco, Cervelia Roldán has been encountering many obstacles; her daughter Manuela Sachaz was 19 years old and took care of a 10-month-old baby. Her body was found over a pool of blood. She was raped, mutilated, her breasts and lips had been amputated; her legs had holes. The baby was sitting on its sit, with her breakfast in front of him. Both had been decapitated. Crying and holding a picture of her grandson, Cervelia Roldán points out that her neighbor who happens to be a policeman used to flirt with Manuela and disappeared right after the double murder. The authorities have not shown any interest in investigating this crime (Toomey). This lack of interest might be due to the fact that the authorities, the military and the police are not only involved in the crimes, but tacitly agree with these acts, because they are all part of the misogynous and machista culture.

Just as these two cases, the authorities ignore many more every week in Guatemala. Strong and perseverant women inside and outside the country are accomplishing slow changes. It is hard to change a whole country’s mindset to create awareness of this crimes happening and make both men and women recognize women’s rights, but the constant work and pressure for the government will be able to make a change for these women.

Works Cited
Benítez, Inés. “Guatemala: Homicide Rate From Bad to Worse.” Inter Press Service. 12 Dec. 2007. Inter Press Service. 2007. Inter Press Service. 28 May. 2008.
European Union. European Parliament. Feminicide The Case of Mexico and Guatemala. Brussels: EU Parliament, 2006.
Garza Ascencio, Manuela. “Guatemala – Violence Against Women Unchecked and Unpunished.” Alterinfos 30 Nov 2005. Alterinfos América Latina. 2005, Alterinfos América Latina. 28 May. 2008.
Grama, Sheryl. “Sociocultural Considerations of Domestic Femicide.” Journal of Family Violence (2001): 421-435. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Shoreline Community College Lib. 26 April 2008
Guatemala. Congress. Código Penal. Art. 200 Ch. VII. Ciudad de Guatemala: 1973.
Parrot, Andrea, and Nina Cummings. Forsaken Females. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Little Field, 2006.
Sauer, Jen. “Fighting Femicide In Guatemala.” Off Our Backs. March 2005: 36-38. Proquest. Shoreline Community College Lib. 26 April 2008
Toomey, Christine. “Feminicidio en Guatemala.” Mujeres Iberoamericanas 02 Jan. 2006. Mujeres en red. 2006. Mujeres en red. 28 May. 2008.

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