Every time my school has a conference or movie showing we learn new super depressing facts about the civil war, which is actually amazing because everwhere else no one will talk about it at all, its like they don't want to scare you away with the past, but its their past and I think travelors should know the people not just the places they visit.
The movie we watched was written produced and acted entirely by indigenous Guatemalans and it started with a man running for days to tell the closest village that everyone he knew had been slaughtered and his entire town burnt to the ground and that they were next and the town had to decide what to do, with little hope of survival. They have connections with the rebels but know they will still be drastically outnumbered, they tell the rebels and even though they were told not to act they come, but the leader is being drawn as a bit jaded, and hungry to make a point.eventually the people are faced with the choice to stay and fight or run to the hills and leave behind everyone that is not able along with everything they have ever known.they choose to stay but one msn who had already lost his wife and daughter to the war wants to leave but by this time the rebel leader won't let him and threatens him at gunpoint.when the other rebels hear one rebel confronts him and the leader calls them cowards that need to be forced to do the right thing.here was the most impactful thing I have heard in a while: the other rebel responds by asking what do you want them to do where were they meant to learn courage, they are a conquered people they survived by running one group after another has taken their liberty, their homes, their families, what do you expect of them, when that is all they know. How can you force them to be the casualties, even for a good cause, you are atoll forcing them to be your weapon. I was shell shocked and thought how can we ask why would these people elect a man that knowingly killed thousands of his own people to president? How can I expect these people to think like me,i have no idea what history has taught them or formed in them, and not ancient history but current history; middle aged adults were young adults during the last war, they have lived through genocide.
The film finishes with the questioning rebel letting the questioning villager leave and him immediately being captured and tortured by the army, and with the rebels realizing he would give away their cover and deciding to try and hide all the villages in a nearby cave, but when the army arrived they found and killed absolutely everyone, and only a couple of the rebels survived to tell the story.
Not only was I really impacted by the statement, and tragic true story but the really impressive telling of humanity.there was no one right side like I want there to be. the rebels obviously were better than the army, but they were still run by people that are suseptable to both good and evil and change in the face of really tough circumstances, like we all do. Its much less drastic but relevant to people today,i wrote earlier how amazed I was by these people, their ingenuity, and since then I have tried to see another side to the story. There is no right side, we are all human. My teacher keeps retooling me stories of herlife as I tell hermine and each time a think how can I possibly try to excision the greed in america our what not she reasons with a story exactly like mine or tells me of the drastic problems with alcoholism here, or I go hang out with freddy who taught me how he mcgivered a lighter into a drill, and he walks away for a min to go do a line. Even though I have always known it I have wanted to believe their is one right way, one good people, somewhere where they have it figured out, but I think we just have to work everyday to be the people we want to be.
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