Maya after War: Conflict, Power, and Politics in Guatemala

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments In the Mam language of Todos Santos, be’, the path, is a central metaphor for movement through the joys, obstacles, hardships, and digressions of life. Tuj be’ te ‘uj, the path of this book, has been a long and circuitous one, and I have traveled it only by accruing far more debts than I can acknowledge here. Ch’jonta tey tuj tnom. Todosanteros shared their lives, stories, histories, and experiences with me, and I can never adequately thank them for this. I deeply admire their struggles for identity and community, and their insistence on the centrality of these things. In lieu of thanking individuals, I thank the many people who are friends, family, colleagues, teachers, students, and advocates who have shared lives, dreams, visions, and much else with me. It is an honor to have developed such deeply rooted relationships with you and to now share these across generations. Thanks and gratitude to the participants of the mapmaking workshop (and to their parents for facilitating after-school participation); to the translation team and to those who attended the history workshops. And thanks to all the people I knew as children in Todos Santos, who are now graduating from high schools and universities in Guatemala and the United States, setting off on your own life adventures. It’s most delightful to be connected to you! Resident turistas and antropólogos of various generations shared local news, history, experiences, and chisme from various perspectives. Thanks to Laurel Bossen, Cory Lockhart (and Shannon, Bob, and Dottie), David Salomon, Stacia Shiffler, Summer Sands, Jim ‘el ti’j’ Robinson, Carolina Gallant, Jacqui Clark, Katinka Hoeg, Adriana Dingman, Emma Reuter, Peter Chase, Olivia Carrescia, Deborah Clearman, Becca Young, Annemieke Kroone, Gavin Weston, and Ellen Sharp. Frank Taylor’s friend- x Maya after War ship and generosity in sharing a vast wealth of knowledge based on long-standing ties to Todos Santos in particular and Guatemala in general offered distinctive historical perspectives. Visiting friends Rob Marlowe , Elyse Weiner, and Betsy Brody provided new perspectives, reading material, and pretzels. Special thanks to Rob for reading and editing Chapter 1. Among the many colleagues I crossed paths with in Guatemala, or around issues Guatemalan, I especially want to thank Carol Hendrickson and Gail Ament—then and now, you are inspiring! Thanks also to Abigail Adams, Diane Nelson, Liza Grandia, Linda Green, Tim Smith, Ted Fischer, Victoria Sanford, Gabriela Torres, Kay Warren, Richard Wilson , Deborah Levenson, Deborah Rodman, Patricia Foxen, and David Stoll. At the germination stage, I was inspired and challenged at The New School in New York by professors and fellow travelers. I especially thank Lindsay DuBois, Kim Clark, Liz Fitting, Chandana Mathur, Saloni Mathur, Laura Roush, and Steve Striffler for friendship and ideas. Kamari Clarke and Mihri Inal Cakir have been intellectual interlocutors and friends since this project was incipient. Deborah Poole, Rayna Rapp, and Linda Green, my steadfast committee members in times of departmental chaos, were instrumental in helping shape the dissertation that engaged my first years of fieldwork in Todos Santos. I owe a special debt, the magnitude of which only becomes clearer with time, to the late Bill Roseberry. I hope that his insistence on the blend of careful ethnography and rigorous theoretical political-economic analysis is reflected in this book. More recently, I thank Susana Narotzky for taking the time to think through some of Bill’s later work with me, and for extremely thoughtful advice on bridging theoretical and methodological divides. In and around Albany, Alethia Jones, Rachel Harris, Barbara Sutton, Elise Andaya, Jim Collins, Bob Jarvenpa, Walt Little, Bob Carmack, and Kendra Smith-Howard provided engaged commentary on earlier versions of a variety of chapters. My thanks to Louise Burkhart for close reading of the entire manuscript, and for especially illuminating comments on Chapter 3. The Department of Anthropology has provided much logistical and administrative support in the production of this book. A special thanks to Linda Goodwin for coordinating the various pieces involved in its production. I thank the many people who have invited me to participate in stimulating gatherings over the years. I especially want to thank the organizers Acknowledgments xi and participants of the Harvest of Violence workshop at Duke in 2004, the Global Vigilantes workshop in Brighton in 2005, and the participants of After the Handshakes, held at UAlbany in 2008, particularly Ellen Moodie, Jennifer Bickham Mendez, Florence Babb, and Marc Anderson. Thanks to...