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Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy
Spanning the years of civil war in Guatemala, Unfinished Conquest portrays an embattled country facing the third cycle of a conquest that began when the conquistadors arrived in the sixteenth century. As personal narrative weaves with reportage and oral testimony, we meet the victims, champions, and villains of a society torn apart by violence and injustice.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionWar
297 pages, Paperback
First published October 9, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 16, 2020
Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy, Victor Perera (1934–2003), 1993, 382pp., ISBN 0520079655, Dewey 972.8106, Library-of-Congress F1466.7
2% of population (latifundista) control over 65% of arable land. p. 8.
8 of 10 Guatemalan children are undernourished. pp. 25, 289. 84% of Guatemalans are landless and hungry. p. 351.
Agrarian reform act, 1952: uncultivated land of United Fruit (Chiquita) & other large landowners was forcibly purchased & let to peasants.
Allen Dulles' CIA armed & equipped Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas & his 300 irregular soldiers, to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in June 1954. Armas abolished labor unions, gave land back to United Fruit.
The author, Victor Perera, was out of Guatemala 1959–1971. pp. 40–. For this book he travels to each area of the country and tells of the horrors that have occurred, and are still occurring there, through mid-August 1993. p. 353.
Impoverished Guatemalans have been massacred by the army, to keep them from supporting insurgents. Most army officers were trained in the United States, or in Israel. pp. 127-128. Guatemalan government soldiers murdered leaders of communal organizations that led to campesinos' betterment. (He's referring specifically to the Carter-Reagan-Bush I-Clinton years. Was there /ever/ a time it was otherwise?) p. 279. The Guatemalan president was permitted to assume the office he was elected to only after signing an agreement with the military officer corps that was armed, trained, and advised by the U.S. military. p. 283. "If I don't keep the generals happy, I'll be overthrown." p. 293. Central-American presidents' unanimous vote to demobilize the Contras in August 1989 was a slap in the face to US hegemony dating from the Monroe Doctrine. The U.S. then sharply reduced military and economic aid. (Under Bush I.) p. 288.
The land is being clear-cut to enrich local elites. p. 154. Locals could've harvested xate, allspice, chicle from a standing rainforest, gaining more revenue than was earned from clearcutting--but big landowners and the army would've gone on a murder spree to stop any such grassroots movement. p. 248.
Remittances from emigrants to the US enable locals to get title to their land, displacing Ladino owners. Especially in Huehuetenango, from whence the largest number of migrants went north. p. 155.
Plantation owners advance pay to laborers, who spend it on drink in the plantation store. They have to come back next year to work off the debt. Real wages are lower now than 2 generations ago. p. 159. The huge tracts of land seized by the conquistadors were worthless without indiginous slaves to work them. p. 271.
"Disobedience [of parishoners, as in demanding a less-contemptuous priest] simply cannot be tolerated in the Catholic Church, as Pope John Paul II made eminently clear." --Bishop Eduardo Fuentes. Church sides with landowners & businesses that exploit the poor.
See "The Clamor for Land," a Feb. 1988 letter by dissenting bishops calling for social justice. Can't find an English translation; here's the original:
www.iglesiacatolica.org.gt/ptn/clamor... These bishops reiterate: [section 1, Guatemala's agrarian problem, pp. 2-8 of 18] 1.1.3.2: "the vast bulk of the arable land is in the hands of negligibly-few people, while most people have nothing." [Poverty is /because of/ wealth.] 1.2.3: As bad as colonialism was, the use of government to take from the have-nots and give to the haves worsened after independence (1821). 1.2.4 And worsened more as coffee for export replaced other crops around 1871. 1.2.5 The Árbenz land reforms of 1950-1954 were crushed by massive force [by the Eisenhower administration, crying antiCommunism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob... ].
1.4.2.1 Most Guatemalans have no school, no public sanitation, no economic nor physical security, no dignity. Any setback can threaten starvation.
[Religious section, pp. 8-12 of 18] If you have tens of thousands of acres, give your neighbor an acre. (Luke 3:11 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/... ) Especially if you're not using it. Section 2.2, p. 12 of 18. Mister, we could use a man like Jacobo Árbenz again. Without U.S. intervention. 3.1.4 The clamor for land has been met with military force. 3.1.5 Guatemalan law & enforcement aids the rich in taking from the poor. 3.2.4.3.11: Tax the rich. This letter was signed by Archbishop Próspero Penados del Barrio and a list of other bishops, including Bishop Eduardo Fuentes, who expressed the opposite view. (We, the elite, must maintain control of our peasants.)
pp. 200, 203.
Another letter by the Guatemalan Conference of Bishops, "500 years of Sowing the Gospel," Aug. 1992. Conciliatory, but stops short of calling for real reform. p. 350.
"The belief that Jesus converted the fish into loaves of bread is pure crap. The miracle was that he convinced the wealthy who had bread to share it with the poor."--Fr. Andrés Giron, Nueva Concepción, Guatemala, Aug. 1986. p. 301.
The Guatemalan Army draws up and publishes its own list of 200 prominent local people it has marked for death--and claims it's the revolutionaries' death list. November 1987, Santiago Atitlán. p. 201.
"We can import corn from Iowa cheaper than we can grow it. [U.S.-government-subsidized agribusiness-grown.] Thousands of farm laborers are dying of cancer, in my parish, the water they drink is contaminated by the cotton planters' pesticides. U.S. dumps lethal poisons on us that your own farmers are forbidden from using." p. 304. Communism feeds on hunger and discontent. "Stop sending us poisons and weapons!"
After the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency soaked their vegetable crops in glyphosphate, hundreds of peasants turned to poppy cultivation. p. 292.
2% of population (latifundista) control over 65% of arable land. p. 8.
8 of 10 Guatemalan children are undernourished. pp. 25, 289. 84% of Guatemalans are landless and hungry. p. 351.
Agrarian reform act, 1952: uncultivated land of United Fruit (Chiquita) & other large landowners was forcibly purchased & let to peasants.
Allen Dulles' CIA armed & equipped Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas & his 300 irregular soldiers, to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in June 1954. Armas abolished labor unions, gave land back to United Fruit.
The author, Victor Perera, was out of Guatemala 1959–1971. pp. 40–. For this book he travels to each area of the country and tells of the horrors that have occurred, and are still occurring there, through mid-August 1993. p. 353.
Impoverished Guatemalans have been massacred by the army, to keep them from supporting insurgents. Most army officers were trained in the United States, or in Israel. pp. 127-128. Guatemalan government soldiers murdered leaders of communal organizations that led to campesinos' betterment. (He's referring specifically to the Carter-Reagan-Bush I-Clinton years. Was there /ever/ a time it was otherwise?) p. 279. The Guatemalan president was permitted to assume the office he was elected to only after signing an agreement with the military officer corps that was armed, trained, and advised by the U.S. military. p. 283. "If I don't keep the generals happy, I'll be overthrown." p. 293. Central-American presidents' unanimous vote to demobilize the Contras in August 1989 was a slap in the face to US hegemony dating from the Monroe Doctrine. The U.S. then sharply reduced military and economic aid. (Under Bush I.) p. 288.
The land is being clear-cut to enrich local elites. p. 154. Locals could've harvested xate, allspice, chicle from a standing rainforest, gaining more revenue than was earned from clearcutting--but big landowners and the army would've gone on a murder spree to stop any such grassroots movement. p. 248.
Remittances from emigrants to the US enable locals to get title to their land, displacing Ladino owners. Especially in Huehuetenango, from whence the largest number of migrants went north. p. 155.
Plantation owners advance pay to laborers, who spend it on drink in the plantation store. They have to come back next year to work off the debt. Real wages are lower now than 2 generations ago. p. 159. The huge tracts of land seized by the conquistadors were worthless without indiginous slaves to work them. p. 271.
"Disobedience [of parishoners, as in demanding a less-contemptuous priest] simply cannot be tolerated in the Catholic Church, as Pope John Paul II made eminently clear." --Bishop Eduardo Fuentes. Church sides with landowners & businesses that exploit the poor.
See "The Clamor for Land," a Feb. 1988 letter by dissenting bishops calling for social justice. Can't find an English translation; here's the original:
www.iglesiacatolica.org.gt/ptn/clamor... These bishops reiterate: [section 1, Guatemala's agrarian problem, pp. 2-8 of 18] 1.1.3.2: "the vast bulk of the arable land is in the hands of negligibly-few people, while most people have nothing." [Poverty is /because of/ wealth.] 1.2.3: As bad as colonialism was, the use of government to take from the have-nots and give to the haves worsened after independence (1821). 1.2.4 And worsened more as coffee for export replaced other crops around 1871. 1.2.5 The Árbenz land reforms of 1950-1954 were crushed by massive force [by the Eisenhower administration, crying antiCommunism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob... ].
1.4.2.1 Most Guatemalans have no school, no public sanitation, no economic nor physical security, no dignity. Any setback can threaten starvation.
[Religious section, pp. 8-12 of 18] If you have tens of thousands of acres, give your neighbor an acre. (Luke 3:11 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/... ) Especially if you're not using it. Section 2.2, p. 12 of 18. Mister, we could use a man like Jacobo Árbenz again. Without U.S. intervention. 3.1.4 The clamor for land has been met with military force. 3.1.5 Guatemalan law & enforcement aids the rich in taking from the poor. 3.2.4.3.11: Tax the rich. This letter was signed by Archbishop Próspero Penados del Barrio and a list of other bishops, including Bishop Eduardo Fuentes, who expressed the opposite view. (We, the elite, must maintain control of our peasants.)
pp. 200, 203.
Another letter by the Guatemalan Conference of Bishops, "500 years of Sowing the Gospel," Aug. 1992. Conciliatory, but stops short of calling for real reform. p. 350.
"The belief that Jesus converted the fish into loaves of bread is pure crap. The miracle was that he convinced the wealthy who had bread to share it with the poor."--Fr. Andrés Giron, Nueva Concepción, Guatemala, Aug. 1986. p. 301.
The Guatemalan Army draws up and publishes its own list of 200 prominent local people it has marked for death--and claims it's the revolutionaries' death list. November 1987, Santiago Atitlán. p. 201.
"We can import corn from Iowa cheaper than we can grow it. [U.S.-government-subsidized agribusiness-grown.] Thousands of farm laborers are dying of cancer, in my parish, the water they drink is contaminated by the cotton planters' pesticides. U.S. dumps lethal poisons on us that your own farmers are forbidden from using." p. 304. Communism feeds on hunger and discontent. "Stop sending us poisons and weapons!"
After the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency soaked their vegetable crops in glyphosphate, hundreds of peasants turned to poppy cultivation. p. 292.
August 19, 2009
A really heartbreaking look at the history of Guatemala. Once lords of a vast and incredibly sophisticated empire, the Maya of Guatemala were subjected to repression, subjugation and slavery by the Spanish conquistadors. This initial torment has given way to centuries of marginalization and oppresion for the descendants of the Maya.
Closer to the present day, in the midst of a 30 year long civil war that ended in the mid- 90's, the descendants of the Maya suffered at the hands of the Guatemalan military, who accused many communities of harboring Communists and subversives. Countless indigenous people, among others, were brutally disappeared, tortured, and executed, in what the author calls a Mayan holocaust.
But still the Maya survived, and even now are planting the seeds of a revival.
Closer to the present day, in the midst of a 30 year long civil war that ended in the mid- 90's, the descendants of the Maya suffered at the hands of the Guatemalan military, who accused many communities of harboring Communists and subversives. Countless indigenous people, among others, were brutally disappeared, tortured, and executed, in what the author calls a Mayan holocaust.
But still the Maya survived, and even now are planting the seeds of a revival.
April 26, 2009
This was required reading for a school course, but I included it on my goodreads list because it is a history worth recommending to anyone who would like a deeper understanding of the Maya culture - past to present. The author is a journalist and part Mayan himself, and the interviews and insights are compelling. Loved the photos - they spoke 1,000 words in and of themselves. The big ah-ha to me was that the title wasn't about a Mayan conquest to regain what they lost, but about the Spanish/Ladino attempt to subdue the Mayans.
April 10, 2025
This book is a must read for all, and the need for understanding amongst indigenous civilizations in a country that has faced serious human rights violations over the course of decades. While this book was made much longer before this review, these topics remain relevant and a particularly essential part of history. With photos that give depictions of culture and life in turbulent times, it gives a visual I could only imagine
August 6, 2019
A heartbreaking and difficult history of Guatemala. Required reading for Americans visiting or doing work in this country.
July 23, 2009
Wow. Perera went everywhere in Guatemala to report on the violence that ravaged this country. I really enjoyed the history of the Jewish community in Guatemala City along with the Spanish conquistador history.
September 5, 2015
leant out to Stephanie
February 8, 2009
If you have a desire to read about Guatemalan history this is a accessible book. Very good actually.
June 17, 2009
Reads like a history book - very informational, but not an easy read. The possibility of my world merging with the Maya culture is making me seek out books about them.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews