In The Kingdom of Mescal: An Adult Fairy-Tale for Adults A Book Review by Mark D. Walker September 2017  Hardcover: 38 pages  Publisher: Galeria Panajachel, Guatemala; 1st edition (1977)  Language: English  ASIN: B000KNLN4Y  Package Dimensions: 12 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches  Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces Although this book begins with the typical “Once upon a time” and is based on a legend from the Mayan Indians of Guatemala, it is far from traditional. In true Joseph Campbell fashion, this myth describes the different stages of an epic journey of an Indian boy named Blackhair […]

Voices From Exile By Victor Montejo Reviewed by Mark D. Walker As a lifelong learner of Guatemala and its history, I came across this author through an earlier book I’d read in Spanish, “The Adventures of Mister Puttison and the Mayas.” Then, just this year I came across this book while researching a documentary on migration entitled “Guatemala: Trouble in the Highlands.” While the earlier book was satirical, and related to cross-cultural norms and conflicts, this book tells the tragic story of Mayans being forced from their land during the “Civil War” of the 1980s. After copious research and interviews […]

The White Rose” by B. Traven Reviewed by Mark D. Walker B. Traven is a masterful storyteller who injects his worldview and philosophy, which focuses on the plight of the poor, especially the indigenous, rural population in Latin America, Asia and Africa into his novels. He’s written twelve novels, one non-fiction publication and several short stories, in which the sensational and adventurous subjects combine with a critical attitude towards capitalism. Although I’d heard of his best-known work, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, I had no idea who the author was, and after some investigation learned of a good deal […]

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux Reviewed by Mark D. Walker I recently came across an interview of Paul Theroux in “New York Times’” “By the Book” in which he reveals that ”The Mosquito Coast” was his favorite most personally meaningful book. He goes on to say, “…Over a period of two years, knowing it was a great idea and plot, I wrote confidently in rainy cold sedate London , and it is of course a book set in sunny warm anarchic Honduras,” at which point I realized that although I’d seen the movie, I’d never read the book! I’d […]

The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics Edited by Greg Grandin, Deborah Levenson & Elizabeth Oglesby Reviewed by Mark D. Walker The Guatemala Reader is an impressive compilation of 200 texts in a broad, comprehensive introduction to Guatemala’s history, culture, and politics. I wish I had this when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the early 70s, or when studying for my Masters at the Institute of Latin America at the University of Texas later in the decade, not to mention over eight years working with different organizations, as these materials provide a wealth of insights into the beauty and […]

Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala By Daniel Wilkinson Reviewed by Mark D. Walker While researching for a documentary on the immigration crisis in Guatemala, I came across the reference of this book being one of the best books on the Guatemalan civil war, which lasted thirty-six-years and claimed some 200,000 people, the vast majority of whom died (or “disappeared”) at the hands of a U.S.-backed military government. The title sounded familiar, so I checked out my bookshelves and, low-and-behold, it surfaced and I’m so glad it did. The author was a young human […]

The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers by Moritz Thomsen Reviewed by Mark D. Walker After being thrown off his small farm on the Rioverde located in northern Ecuador after years of service as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then as a local farmer by his local partner Ramon, the 63-year-old author, embarks on a desperate journey on a second river—this one is in Brazil. The trek proves to be a time of reckoning, assessing and reflecting on his life, which he perceived was coming to an end. This book would be the third of the author’s four literary […]

The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy, Arturo Arias, Editor Reviewed by Mark D. Walker I learned of this book while helping produce a documentary on immigration problems in Guatemala, “Guatemala: Trouble in the Highlands,” when I announced that I was planning to recruit anthropologist David Stoll to work with us. I’d read his excellent studies, “Between Two Armies” and “Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans,” which he researched with extensive interviews in the Ixil Triangle region of Guatemala. But when I announced his involvement, a number of our advisors said they’d abandon the project if we included Stoll. Evidently, […]