San Carlos U, Police Archives, and Sandra Moran / Cafe Artesana, Thursday, July 16

Justine reports:

Thursday morning, MIA went to San Carlos University where Lucia gave a presentation on MIA's Hombres Contra Feminicidio program at a gender equity conference.

We then went to the National Police Archives and got a tour from Alberto Fuentes. The archives contain approximately 80 million documents of accounts of human rights violations from the government that occurred during Guatemala’s 30-year civil war, including accounts of illegal detentions, illegal prisons, and tortures, among others. Though the Guatemalan government claimed that these documents did not exist, they were found only in July of 2005, when military officials inspected a munitions dump after an explosion occurred.

The documents, which were found in a decaying building and covered with mold, rats, and bugs, have since been moved into the National Police Archives Building.

There, they have established a system in which to clean, organize, and digitize the documents, of which we were able to witness the processes during our tour. Benetech, a nonprofit organization from Silicon Valley, California, has assisted the Guatemalan investigators through providing means by which to scan and analyze the documents. Thus far, they have found that at least 15% of these accounts showed evidence of human rights abuses. Though nothing can be done to reverse the anguish that the country suffered during the civil war, finding and

honoring the cases contained in the archives may help victims and families heal the wounds of injustice that were brought on by the war.

We then drove to Café Artesana, an activist, art, and learning center near the Palacio Nacional. It is directed by Sandra Moran, a well-known political and feminist activist in Guatemala, who was a member of the Sector de Mujeres (women’s sector) that pushed for the inclusion of gender equity in the 1996 peace accords. Though included in the accords, gender equity has yet to be implemented – that is where Moran, along with many others, comes into the picture.

The goal of Sandra Moran and Café Artesana is a world in which women and men are able to live without violence. The Café the project of a women’s collective comprised of feminists and feminist artists, and is a space for art, expression, and freedom for women and men, without any fear of racism, sexism, or discrimination.

One of Café Artesana’s current focuses is working with women in jail, helping women use art as a tool to reflect on and empower their lives.

We had a lengthy discussion with Moran about current Guatemalan and U.S. politics, the newly instituted but rarely implemented Femicide Law, and the overall situation of women in Guatemala. After days of what has seemed like a crash course in government corruption, impunity, and institutionalized violence against women, it was a much-needed breath of fresh air to hear an optimistic glimpse from Moran as our discussion ended. Reiterating that her goal for the state of women in Guatemala would probably never be reached in her lifetime, and acknowledging that despite the hardships she and other activists face, we must keep in mind that the small victories, such as the establishment of Café Artesana, are the base for the bigger, revolutionary changes. Justice and equality is a day-to-day struggle, Moran said, but with enough commitment and patience, eventually the moment will come when our work will lead to positive change.