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Acknowledgments As I was researching and writing this book, my daughters, Ava and Kate, were born. I want to thank them first and foremost. Although they undoubtedly slowed my progress on this project by enriching my life with their antics, laughter, and questions, they constantly, if unwittingly, reminded me that the historical actors about whom I was writing had far fuller lives than the archival records betrayed. While I was conducting research in Guatemala, a number of Kaqchikel families in the highlands and Guatemala City generously opened their homes to me: Herlinda Roquel, Gregorio and Gregoria Simon, Edgar and Alberto Esquit Choy, and Teri Perén and Victor Apén. Mardoqueo de León and his extended family (especially Lisette and Ana) were always welcoming when I stayed in Antigua. Ixey and Ixk’at from Comalapa and Ixkawoq from Patzicía conducted invaluable interviews. The Kaqchikel elders from whom they and I learned gave generously of their time and knowledge . Guatemala’s endemic violence cautions against revealing their identities . Memories of the time, conversations, and life I shared with these friends (many of whom I have come to think of as family) often provided the inspiration I needed to keep writing when I was thousands of miles away from Guatemala. At the Archivo General de Centro América in Guatemala City, Anna Carla Ericastilla first pointed me in the direction of the judicial records that inform this book. Thereafter the AGCA staff was ever patient and kind as they located the materials I wished to consult. At a point when I was unable to return to Guatemala, Héctor Concohá took digital images of documents for me at the AGCA. At the Hemeroteca Nacional de Guatemala, Director María Eugenia Gordillo facilitated my research and permissions. Tomás Chitic did the same at the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Meso- xxiv I Ask for Justice américa (CIRMA). I especially want to thank Edgar Esquit Choy for introducing and orienting me to the Archivo Municipal de Patzicía and the municipal employees there who facilitated my use of it. Similarly, in San Juan Comalapa, the municipal secretary and his staff afforded me access to early twentieth-century municipal meeting minutes. In Sololá, I had all but given up hope of locating archival materials when Lesly Araceli Celada de León showed me the few surviving municipal records there. My research in the United States took me to the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas, Austin; the Latin American Library at Tulane University; Boston Athenaeum; and the Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine (USM). The staff members at these libraries were always friendly and helpful. At USM, I have been fortunate to work with many outstanding students, three of whom—Shaun Haines, Lucas Desmond, and Chriss Sutherland— made exceptional contributions to this project by helping to organize my copies of archival materials. The insights and reflections they shared in our conversations about these documents influenced my thinking about how crime shaped Guatemala’s past. Chriss also helped to create the appendix tables. Ron Levere, Sam Shupe, and David Neikirk sharpened and formatted the Gaceta images. USM librarian extraordinaire Crystal Wilder frequently tracked down obscure books and articles for me. Also at USM, Laura Nadeau lent her technical expertise by formatting the final manuscript and tables for submission. USM, the John Anson Kittridge Educational Fund, and the American Historical Association generously funded my research in Guatemala. A USM Trustee Professorship afforded me the funds to conduct research at the Bancroft and Benson Libraries and time to finish the first draft of the manuscript. A USM sabbatical thereafter allowed me the time to revise the manuscript and to prepare it for publication. The number of colleagues who so generously offered to read my work in its various stages humbles me. John Watanabe, Bill Taylor, and David McCreery all read the manuscript in its entirety and graciously offered critiques and suggestions that greatly improved it. I am also indebted to the following scholars whose comments on earlier versions of parts of the manuscript strengthened the book: Allen Wells, Avi Chomsky, Jim Handy, Ginny Garrard-Burnett, Ann Twinam, Matthew Restall, Pablo Piccato, Ann Blum, Jolie Olcott, Brianna Leavitt-Alcántara, Todd Little-Siebold, Judie Maxwell, Patti Harms, Wendy Chapkis, Adam Tuchinsky, Rayne Carroll, and Janice Jaffee. Feedback from audiences where I...

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