Guatemala Art and The Resistance

Steamboat student Bailey Peth leaves for Guatemala this week to study abroad on CMC’s “Art and Resistance in Guatemala” international trip.  She shares some thoughts on what she learned, pre-trip, about Guatemala’s painful history below. We’ll be reposting several of Bailey’s blog posts from Guatemala in the coming weeks.

This article was first published in Steamboat CMC student Bailey Peth’s blog, Bluebird Sky.

Every year Colorado Mountain College, the fine institution I find myself a student at, offers international trips. This year there’s a trip to Guatemala to experience the local art and learn about the previously resolved bloody conflict that ravaged the people there. I never had any particular interest in that part of the world; however I do have an insatiable thirst for traveling. So naturally, when such a trip was offered I jumped on the opportunity.

After I registered for the trip it slipped to the back of my mind.

That is until this past week, when I received an e-mail from my instructors. In it were the time and place of our first meeting along with the first set of pre-trip reading materials. These included an over view of the conflict in Guatemala as well as a book with testimonials from women who lived through the war.  Both of these reading struck a chord deep within my heart.

For those of you who don’t know, this is what happened in Guatemala. In 1960, the American CIA funded a military coup in Guatemala to over throw the democratically elected government. Under the guise of protecting the world from communism, the Guatemala military backed by the US government proceeded to kill over 200,000 of the local population, most of them indigenous Mayan people. It is now obvious that the entire military takeover was an effort of American big business to protect their foreign lands, as much of it was being threatened under the policies of Guatemala’s democratic government. The War ended in 1996 when all the guerilla groups had formed one party known as the URNG, and signed a peace agreement with the newly restored democratic government.

It is events like this that make me ashamed of the American government, and I hope a deeper understanding of the conflict will help to ease my second hand guilt over the acts of my government.

Our trip will take place March first through the eleventh, with meetings every Friday until then, and I will be posting updates here until the conclusion of the trip.