A Beauty That Hurts: Life and Death in Guatemala, Second Revised Edition

Title, Copyright Page

A BeAuty thAt hurts We set out for San Mateo Ixtatán, a ride of about nine leagues. . . . We climbed the side of a long, high ridge, followed it and then . . . came into a shaggy, rugged country of fine, tall pines and uncanny live-oak groves, fog, cold, wheat, sheep, and very Indian-looking Indians. . . . The clouds wove in and out of huge firs. . . . We had a glimpse of Tibet-like houses, then the clouds shut down and the rain began. . . . A tall, black cross came out of nowhere, and we began to descend. On our right, close at hand, the other side of a new valley rose like a wall of emerald-green pastureland seen through a shifting film of cloud. . . . We climbed a hill, just enough to get back into the mist, and entered San Mateo, getting glimpses of roses and shingle-roofed houses. . . . The place was mournful with rain and the constant rush of water. . . . But we felt our health and spirits revive . . . and all that country was so beautiful it hurt. Oliver la Farge and dOuglas Byers, The Year Bearer’s PeoPle (1931) “The Angel,” used as a poster for the John Sayles film Men With Guns. Photograph by Luis González Palma. The Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies This series was made possible through the generosity of William C. Nowlin, Jr., and Bettye H. Nowlin, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and various individual donors. A BeAuty thAt hurts Life and Death in Guatemala w. geOrge lOvell university OF texas press Austin Copyright © 1995, 2000, 2010 by W. George Lovell All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Second revised edition, 2010 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713-7819 www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html Every reasonable effort has been made to identify copyright holders. The University of Texas Press would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to its attention. Permission to quote from the following works is acknowledged: Rigoberta Menchú, I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (London: Verso, 1984); Victor Montejo, Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village (Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 1987); and Jean-Marie Simon, Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1987). Royalties from the sale of this book help support educational opportunities in Guatemala. For further information contact the Maya Educational Foundation, P.O. Box 38, Route 106, South Woodstock, Vermont 05071–0038, www.mayaedufound.org. Cover photograph: Daniel Hernández-Salazar Map of Guatemala, p. 2: Jennifer Grek Martin ♾ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ansi/nisO Z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lovell, W. George (William George), 1951– A beauty that hurts : life and death in Guatemala / W. George Lovell. — 2nd rev. ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isBn 978-0-292-72183-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Guatemala—History—1945–1985. 2. Guatemala—History—1985– 3. Mayas— Guatemala—Government relations. 4. Indians of Central America—Guatemala— Government relations. 5. Human rights—Guatemala. I. Title. F1466.5.l68 2010 972.8105'2—dc22 2009033444 For my mother and my father, who are always with me, and in fond memory of María Vilanova de Arbenz (1915–2009) THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ...