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Death of an Anthropologist

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An unusual cartoon appeared recently in a Guatemalan newspaper. It showed the small figure of Helen Mack swinging a hammer, chipping away at a towering brick wall that symbolized more than thirty-seven years of military impunity.

Helen Mack is leading her family’s investigation of the September 1990 assassination of her sister, Myrna Elizabeth Mack Chang.

An ethnic Chinese Guatemalan, Myrna Mack was one of Latin America’s most eminent anthropologists. Her work earned the support of the Ford Foundation, Georgetown University, and the University of California at Berkeley, among others.

To continue reading the article, please go to a PDF file of the original here.

Our Guys in Guatemala

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The women wore white gúipils embroidered with pastel flowers and a thin brown trim. The men’s pants were of a matching design, cut off below the knee. The people of Santiago de Atitlán –more than 5,000 of them– marched the half mile out of town to the site of the former army garrison. “Here,” said one, “we are planting the peace.”

A year before, on December 2, 1990, Guatemalan soldiers opened fire on an unarmed crowd of about the same size. Thirteen villagers, including two children, eventually died; twenty-three others were wounded. But rather than retreat into fear, more villagers came forward. Within three days, the windows of the town hall were covered with hundreds of photographs, many cheap dime-store portraits, of men and women, young and old.

Please finish reading the article at a PDF file of the original here.