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After the Coup

After the Coup

An Ethnographic Reframing of Guatemala 1954

Edited by Timothy J. Smith and Abigail E Adams

Contributions by Abigail E Adams, Richard N Adams, David Carey Jr, Christa Little-Siebold, Judith M. Maxwell, Victor D Montejo, June C Nash and Timothy J. Smith

Published by: University of Illinois Press

Imprint: University of Illinois Press

1 black and white photograph

Digital download
9780252094026
Published: August 2011

Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

This exceptional collection revisits the aftermath of the 1954 coup that ousted the democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz. Contributors frame the impact of 1954 not only in terms of the liberal reforms and coffee revolutions of the nineteenth century, but also in terms of post-1954 U.S. foreign policy and the genocide of the 1970s and 1980s. This volume is of particular interest in the current era of the United States' re-emerging foreign policy based on preemptive strikes and a presumed clash of civilizations.

Recent research and the release of newly declassified U.S. government documents underscore the importance of reading Guatemala's current history through the lens of 1954. Scholars and researchers who have worked in Guatemala from the 1940s to the present articulate how the coup fits into ethnographic representations of Guatemala. Highlighting the voices of individuals with whom they have lived and worked, the contributors also offer an unmatched understanding of how the events preceding and following the coup played out on the ground.

Contributors are Abigail E. Adams, Richard N. Adams, David Carey Jr., Christa Little-Siebold, Judith M. Maxwell, Victor D. Montejo, June C. Nash, and Timothy J. Smith.

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
Reflecting upon the Historical Impact of the Coup 1

Timothy J. Smith

1. Antonio Goubaud Carrera: Between the Contradictions of the Generacion de 1920 and U.S. Anthropology 17

Abigail E. Adams

2. Recovering the Truth of the 1954 Coup: Restoring Peace with Justice 49

June C. Nash

3. A Democracy Born in Violence: Maya Perceptions of the 1944 Patzicia Massacre and the 1954 Coup 73

David Carey Jr.

4. The Politics of Land, Identity, and Silencing: A Case Study from El Oriente of Guatemala, 1944-54 99

Christa Little-Siebold

5. The Path Back to Literacy: Maya Education through War and Beyond 115

Judith M. Maxwell

6. Democracy Delayed: The Evolution of Ethnicity in Guatemala Society, 1944-96 134

Richard N. Adams

Epilogue
The October Revolution and the Peace Accords     151
Victor D. Montejo, translated by Abigail E. Adams
List of Contributors     155
Index     159

Timothy J. Smith is an assistant professor of anthropology at Appalachian State University. Abigail E. Adams is a professor of anthropology at Central Connecticut State University.

"This collection by some of the leading figures in the field takes a nuanced view of anthropology and history in addressing the timely issue of what the 1954 Guatemalan coup and its aftermath can tell us today. An important contribution to Guatemalan studies, Maya studies, and anthropology and history in general. It is destined to become a standard reference on the subject."--Edward F. Fischer, Vanderbilt University, editor of Indigenous Peoples, Civil Society, and the Neo-liberal State in Latin America

"The chapters in this edited volume are uniformly good and interesting, making the book well worth reading."--Journal of Latin American Studies

"After the Coup offers a new perspective. . . . the volume presents a thorough analysis of the varied perspectives on the October Revolution and the Ten Years of Spring."--Latin American Research Review