Fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Christian Nill has written an engaging story about the impact and consequences of his experience as a volunteer in the highlands of Guatemala. He’s also made a timely contribution to our understanding of the devastating ten-year period of violence there.
Although I was a volunteer five years before Nill, the similarities were amazing. I worked on a study for CARE identifying some of the management and conservation practices used for the Food-for-Work program implemented in conjunction with the group Nill worked with, INAFOR (National Forestry Institute).
My second site was also in Baja Verapaz, where I found my bride. I raised money for the program in the late 80s and led a donor trip there as Regional Director for CARE in Denver. I was in Guatemala setting up a Guatemalan development agency when Nill volunteered, which is why his story resonated personally and professionally.
What I didn’t realize was that Rabinal, a small Mayan village in the highlands, had been an epicenter for the violence and massacres of the 1980s. Nill does a masterful job weaving together the stories of the local reality as he immerses himself in the culture.
Throughout the book’s first part, Nill alludes to some of the underlying injustices and unrest in and around Rabinal. After three years, he was aware that a battle was brewing. He also refers to several excellent books that provide the backdrop of the violence, like Thomas and Marjorie Melville’s Guatemala: The Politics of Land Ownership.
Nill was uncomfortable with the “sheer ubiquity” of international chemical companies like Bayer, which introduced hazardous chemicals at every stage of farming in Central America. And expressed regret with, “We had, in a sense, become hypocrites before we even began our tour of service in Guatemala.”
Nill recognized that the Peace Corps training provided a “scant, cursory knowledge of Guatemala’s troubled history.” With this book, he fills that gap for his readers, including the 1954 coup, which introduced an era of violent suppression of any voices for justice or equality.
He also describes his transformation from a “naïve, modern altruist, over the course of three years living in the community where I was assigned, I became increasingly committed to Guatemalan self-determination.”
Nill describes the work of groups like CÚC (Community of Peasant Unity), how their influence grew in the area, and the government’s response, which was the formation of Auto Defense Civil Patrols. Local men were organized by the regular army in 1982 and hiked over the Rio Negro and slaughtered 177 villagers who were considered “insurgents.”
I knew some of this history, since this was the same strategy the government used in the Ixil area of neighboring Quiché. But I didn’t know the story behind the formation of these groups and their “scorched earth” policy, which Nill reports was developed between Guatemalan “General Benny” and U.S. Lieutenant Colonel George Maynes, with advisors from Israel and Argentina and 15,000 troops.
Nill reveals the role of Benedicto Lucas Garcia, the Army Chief-of-staff and the brother of the Guatemalan President who deployed troops on a broad sweep through Mayan villages, accounting for many of the 200,000 killed and 40,000 “disappeared,” as well as many more forced into exile.
In the author’s extensive notes at the end of the book, he reveals the production of a documentary played on “Point of View” on the escape of one Denese Becker from the Río Negro slaughter, which is now available on YouTube.
I knew nothing about the Achí Maya group although they are close to my site in the Peace Corps. According to Nill,
The guttural sounds of Achí, supported by an alphabet comprising twenty-two consonants and ten vowels, are closely related to other native Mayan Languages such as Kaqchikel, Tsu’utijil, and K’iché. Achí is spoken by over 160,000 Mayans living primarily in the Baja Verapaz department.
The cultural gap and mistrust were aptly reflected in one scene where Nill tries to help a Mayan girl who cut her hand on barbwire,
As I kneeled to examine her hand, the girl took a step backward. When I looked up at her, I saw her face contorted into a grimace of horror. And yet she said nothing, she just stood there. What wisdom lay behind those black, squinting eyes? What secret knowledge lay dormant in a deep recess of her afflicted brain? I could only imagine the torment and hardship she must have suffered in her short life. Yet, I felt a connection, almost electric or deeply organic like symbiosis, between myself and the poor bedraggled girls with wild black hair… They stared at one another for a “long minute,” then she turned away and ran.
Throughout the book, Nill deals with what he calls “baggage.” “Self-doubt that was never in short supply, lost loves that would take a separate book to write about, recurring bouts of depression, religious questions…”
I was bogged down by the extensive quotes from Euripides, bringing some Greek tragedy to the story. But Nill considered these quotes from classical civilization central to the whole story and elaborates why in the Afterword
Nill was also contrite for waiting over 40 years to tell his story although I think its important that we tell our stories when the time is suitable for the writer. Many secrets still exist about the wonders and violence hidden throughout history in Guatemala, and people still need to be reminded what it was about and what our country’s role was—for good and evil. I agree with fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer writer Paul Theroux when he said, “Writing is not a job; it’s a process.”
This book makes a worthwhile contribution to our understanding of this dark period in history, and we should be grateful to Nill for having had the courage to write it.” Gavin O’Toole, Latin American Review of Books.
About the Author
Christian Nill is an environmental professional who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1978 to 1982. After his Peace Corps service, Nill continued working in Guatemala for another five years as a project manager for CARE. A native of upstate New York, he holds a master’s degree in natural resources from Cornell University and resides with his wife, Mireya, in El Paso, Texas.
Product details
- Publisher : Peace Corps Writers (May 1, 2024)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 382 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1950444686
- ISBN-13 : 978-1950444687
- Item Weight : 1.43 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.96 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #369,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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- #1,132 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)
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- #88,423 in Religion & Spirituality (Books)
About the Reviewer
Mark Walker was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala (1971-1973) and spent over forty years helping disadvantaged people in the developing world with agencies like Food for the Hungry, Make A Wish International, and Hagar USA. His book, Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond, was recognized by the Arizona Literary Association. His second book, My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road, won the 2023 Peace Corps Writers’ Award for Best Travel Book. His latest book, The Guatemala Reader, is a Best Seller. His wife and three children were born in Guatemala.