| PATHS
TO PEACE
In March, a group of 15 Haverford students, along
with Associate Professor of Political Science Anita Isaacs, Assistant
Professor of Anthropology and Center for Peace and Global Citizenship
Program Director Leslie Dwyer, and Associate Professor of Spanish
Roberto Castillo-Sandoval, had the opportunity to spend 10 days
in Guatemala. The students were members of Issacs’ course
“Peace Building: Reintegration, Reconciliation and Reconstruction,”
which focuses on peace building in the aftermath of civil war.
As part of their coursework, the students studied Guatemala’s
armed internal conflict between guerilla groups and the military.
Guatemala has a long history with violence, beginning with a coup
to overthrow the government in 1954. Although a peace accord was
adopted in 1996, it did not solve the country’s problems.
A second, long-standing conflict between the wealthy landowners
and the forced laborers continues to affect Guatemala. “We
were trying to understand the political and social situation before
we went,” says Jennifer Trowbridge ’04.
However, it was not until they arrived in Guatemala that the students
could fully grasp the situation. “Doing something like this
adds a personal experience to what we’ve learned,” says
Trowbridge. For her, the trip was another milestone in a social
justice career. Trowbridge, an anthropology major, has an interest
in Latin American studies, and participated in the college’s
trip to Cuba for the past two years. “This course is extremely
beneficial to students because it makes things come alive,”
she says.
Trowbridge and her classmates were able to experience various aspects
of the violence’s aftermath firsthand. They visited a refuge
community; Pargue de Paz, the site of a massacre; and the town of
Santiago Atitlan, a particularly hard-hit community. There they
“got to know the community and talked to people directly involved
with the conflict,” according to Trowbridge. They also went
to the Ministry of Defense, which put a different perspective on
the events. Trowbridge recalls the government workers denied their
involvement in the conflict, which contradicted accounts from the
victims. The students also visited a forensic anthropology lab and
attended an exhumation site, where bodies are removed from hidden
graves. These bodies showed evidence of torture, which was intended
more to scare the victims’ families than to cause physical
pain. Trowbridge calls the day spent at the site “fascinating
scientifically, yet very hard to deal with.” She is especially
proud of their final activity: They brought different communities
together to initiate collaboration. Actors portrayed a conflict
and each group gave a presentation. Their presence “forced
connections” between different groups of people, according
to Trowbridge.
The dialogue did not end when they returned to Haverford. For 10
days, the class sponsored Guatemalan students, who attended classes,
gave presentations at area schools, and spent a fun-filled day in
New York City. On April 16 and 17, the Center for Peace and Global
Citizenship sponsored a conference, “The Challenges of Reconciliation:
Truth, Justice, and Repair.” The conference provided an opportunity
to understand the conflicts better. Participants included members
of the military, guerillas, human rights activists, psychologists
and anthropologists. Panelists not only from Guatemala, but from
South Africa and Indonesia as well, held discussions on the questions
raised by the reconciliation process. Among the dilemmas addressed
were the steps to reconciliation, the meaning of justice, and the
need for reparations.
Trowbridge appreciates the opportunities Haverford gives its students
to engage in experiences such as this one. She recognizes that other
colleges don’t afford their students the same advantages.
Overall, she says, both Isaacs’ course and the trip to Guatemala
were “experiences I’ll never forget.” |
