Out of the shadow : revisiting the revolution from post-peace Guatemala / edited by Julie Gibbings and Heather Vrana.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gibbings, Julie, editor.

Vrana, Heather A., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social change--Guatemala--History--20th century.

Social change.

Mayas--Guatemala--Social conditions.

Mayas.

Ethnic conflict--Guatemala.

Ethnic conflict.

Collective memory--Guatemala.

Collective memory.

Guatemala--Politics and government--1945-1985.

Guatemala.

Guatemala--History--Revolution, 1954--Influence.

Guatemala--History--1945-1985.

Genre:

History

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxii, 312 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Guatemala's "Ten Years of Spring" (1944-1954) began when citizens overthrew a military dictatorship and ushered in a remarkable period of social reform. This decade of progressive policies ended abruptly when a coup d'état, backed by the United States at the urging of the United Fruit Company, deposed a democratically elected president and set the stage for a period of systematic human rights abuses that endured for generations. Presenting the research of diverse anthropologists and historians, Out of the Shadow offers a new examination of this pivotal chapter in Latin American history. Marshaling information on regions that have been neglected by other scholars, such as coastlines dominated by people of African descent, the contributors describe an era when Guatemalan peasants, Maya and non-Maya alike, embraced change, became landowners themselves, diversified agricultural production, and fully engaged in electoral democracy. Yet this volume also sheds light on the period's atrocities, such as the US Public Health Service's medical experimentation on Guatemalans between 1946 and 1948. Rethinking institutional memories of the Cold War, the book concludes by considering the process of translating memory into possibility among present-day urban activists.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures

Foreword. The Path back to the Future

the Enduring Legacy of the Revolution

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Revisiting the Revolution in Contemporary Guatemala

Part I. New Regions

Chapter 1. "To Wrench Our Rights from La Frutera". Race, Labor, and Redefining National Belonging on the Caribbean Coast

Chapter 2. The Coastal Laboratory. Milpa, Conservation, and Agrarian Reform

Chapter 3. Arévalo's Tomorrowland. The Revolutionary Crusade to Build and Defend the New Guatemala on the Petén Frontier

Part II. New Frames

Chapter 4. The "Indigenous Problem," Cold War US Anthropology, and Revolutionary Nationalism. New Approaches to Racial Thinking and Indigeneity in Guatemala

Chapter 5. Youths and Juan José Arévalo's Democratic Government in Guatemala, 1945-1951

Chapter 6. Rethinking Representation and Periodization in Guatemala's Democratic Experiment

Part III. New Actors

Chapter 7. "A pack of cigarettes or some soap" "Race," Security, International Public Health, and Human Medical Experimentation during Guatemala's October Revolution

Chapter 8. "Una obra revolucionaria" Indigenismo and the Guatemalan Revolution, 1944-1954

Part IV. New Memories

Chapter 9. Water Power Promise Revisiting Revolutionary DIY

Chapter 10. Reclaiming a Revolution Memory as Possibility in Urban Guatemala

Selected Bibliography

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 280-286) and index.

ISBN:

1-4773-2087-3

1-4773-2086-5

OCLC:

1266228863