Journey to Xibalba: the subversion of human rights in Central
America, by W. E. Gutman
Litografia López (Tegucigalpa), 2000, 237 pages, $12 in paperback
It's bad manners to review your own book, and I won't do it in
this newspaper. And anyway, I am delighted to report that my "9°N"
collection isn't the only book featuring things previously published
in The Panama News. Willy Gutman's harrowing interview with a
School of the Americas grad graced our pages back in March of
1997, and it's one of the veteran investigative journalist's 31
articles in this collection. Like my book, Gutman's is also a
showcase for Latin America's English-language press, as most of
the works in "Journey to Xibalba" were first published in Honduras This Week, The Tico Times or
Guatemala's English-language press.
While much of "9°N" came from the editorial and opinion pages,
or the arts, review and sports sections, "Journey to Xibalba" is hard-nosed and fearless reporting on human rights situations
in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica between 1991
and 2000, with one selection about AIDS patients in Mexico, plus
a few analysis pieces, all punctuated with apt quotations from
such sources as the Mayan "Popol Vuh." Though a lot of books were
written about the Central American countries and their human rights
conditions during the Contra War and the civil conflicts in El
Salvador and Guatemala, this collection is an update, a valuable
primary source on the "post-war" isthmus.
All is not sweetness and light, Gutman reports. Herein you can
read about Bruce Harris and Casa Alianza, who have resisted Guatemalan
government harassment to defend street kids from pimps and business-financed
death squads; and about John Wetterer and Mi Casa, the beneficiaries
of American largesse and Guatemalan protection, who are accused
of pedophilia and fraud. You can learn the plight of Copan's surviving
Mayan community, whom tourism promoters would eliminate as a nuisance
in their search of profits from visitors to the famed Mayan ruins.
You can learn a lot about the Clinton-era US relations with the
Central American countries, and thus better understand the options
that George W. Bush faces.
"Journey to Xibalba" gets into racial discrimination, religious controversies, and
political skullduggery. It takes sympathetic looks at how the
forgotten ones, Central America's destitute majorities, live their
lives and view their worlds.
Oh, and Xibalba? That's a Mayan state of being that you don't
want to visit. Read Willy Gutman's book to find out why.
This worthy book can be ordered, for $12 post paid, from the author
at:
