Analysis Of Giselle Portenier 's ' Guatemal Killer 's Paradise '

In, “Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village,” Victor Montejo describes events surrounding the military régimes occurring throughout Guatemala. The book itself is an eyewitness account detailing one instance of violence between the indigenous peoples village's "civil patrol" and the army. This occurrence leads to the execution and imprisonment of many villagers. Even though the book is mainly a testimony by one person, in which he discusses the personal conflicts and struggle between himself and the army, the account is structured around the Guatemalan civil war and the conflict between the government and civilians. The Guatemalan Civil War occurred between the years 1960 to 1996. It was a battle between the government of Guatemala and

In several cultures, women are seen as archetypes more than men. The proposition of women are instantly idealized and glorified and instantaneously ignore the true complexity of a woman. Countless of these superficial images can be seen across various cultures where the societies within these cultures define what it means to be a female and what type of behavior is and isn’t acceptable within those parameters. The persistent restatement of these stories throughout these generations reinforces the gender system. Women who step out of the norm in these societies are then held punishable for their actions. Alicia Gaspar de Alba pinpoints the three archetypal roles that are given to the women in the Mexican and Chicana cultures. These are,

In Honduras, like a majority of Latin American countries, the social context of women is relegated to the home and being a housewife. Gender relations are seen as paramount to how people interact, how business is done, political development and the general view of society as a whole. (CITE) The situation for women in Honduras, and their position juxtaposed to men, is dominated by an economically hierarchal and patriarchal society. A large part of how women are viewed or treated is based upon whether they are impoverished and live in rural outskirts of cities, or wealthier and within the city context. (CITE)

In Edwidge Danticat’s article “We are Ugly, but We Are Here”, she describes the injustices of how women are treated in Haiti. She uses her grandmother, Haiti’s former queen, and examples of other women as reasons as to how and why she realizes the seriousness and realness of the topic. Women are treated as if they were nothing. Their souls cry out. Danticat’s argument is that even though women are treated the way that they are, they will not back down. A know saying is “We are ugly, but we are here,” (Danticat). Even though women have died, they will never be forgotten because of the strength they displayed while suffering.

Throughout history, women have continuously found themselves as the subjects of oppression. Although the treatment of women has drastically changed over time, women are still exposed to much of the violence that exists today. Per the National Organization for Women, “young women, low-income women and some minorities are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and rape” (National Organization for Women, 2016). Women-centered violence is highly prevalent and reoccurring all over the world, even in our local communities. Individuals may be hesitant to consider just how much violence against women affects their communities.

Globalization: a process of interaction between the social, economic and political systems of different nations, a process powered by international trade and investment. Some assert that globalization encourages the spread of more “enlightened and egalitarian” Western values and international tolerance, while others believe that this phenomenon harms more than it helps and fosters an uncontrolled and abusive economic environment. There is no shortage of opinions on the matter, though one sure point of fact is that globalization affects all aspects of modern life, including the murky world of gendered violence. Between the signing of NAFTA in 1992 and the middle of 2002, just shy of three hundred blue-collar female factory workers were murdered in the border town of Juarez, Mexico. However, these numbers are simply the tip of the iceberg when compared to the four-hundred-and-fifty additional disappearances during that decade, a grand total that is only increasing with each passing year. In short, these murders eventually sparked international intrigue and distress, forcing the world to take a closer look at some of the uglier consequences of globalization. Essentially, the femicides of Juarez are simply a symptom of a patriarchal society unconcerned with the lives of its workforce, a culture that values products more than the people who produce them: the overlapping timelines of the Juarez

In almost every culture, machismo (or patriarchy) exists. Women are considered to be inferior and are treated as if they were objects. It is fair to assume that all women have or will face abuse or oppression for the mere fact that they are women. In Honduras, machismo is the backbone of society. In the book Don 't Be Afraid Gringo, Elvia Alvarado tells the story of the life of the Honduran campesinos (peasants) in the context of the military government of Osvaldo López Arellano and the installation of counterrevolutionary military bases between 1972 and 1975. The campesina women are expected to be servants for the men and provide for all of their children. If women dare to break away from these norms, they are denounced as a whore and

During the 1970’s more and more protests and uprisings in the capital and the southwest part of the nation became very frequent, and overtime, very violent. The Peace Pledge Union expressed a dramatic and detailed example of the violent acts that the military of Guatemala practiced on Indian natives in search of subversives,

Hardbine’s corpse” (134). In Guatemala City, it is evident the police will do anything to

In Guatemala, whose population is 60% indigenous, schools teach that the Spanish colonialists, when they arrived in Mayan territory, found the native peoples ‘naked and soulless.’ And it was only thanks to the civilizing force of these white men that led to the current way of dress of the Mayan people. Yet, the Mayan textiles reproduced and worn today date back to around 1000 B.C.E., and as before, the textiles continue being the fabric of Mayan cosmology. This rhetoric embodies Guatemala’s colonial past and present, where racism, discrimination, and systematic erasure abound. As indigenous women are the rightful creators and artists, the state in particular oppresses and hinders their knowledge and livelihoods. These women, to counteract this

In every country in Latin America and the Caribbean, women suffer acute discrimination. Often, the discrimination women face is related to social prejudices regarding appropriate patterns of conduct for men and women. This entrenched sex inequality provides the backdrop for the pervasive and widespread human rights violations women face in the region, with little chance of justice. The most pernicious types of women's human rights abuses in the Americas occur in the areas of women's reproductive and sexual health and rights, discrimination and violence against women in the workplace, and violence against women in the home. After decades of dictatorships in some countries, democracy has not meant an end to impunity for violations of women

In Mexico, men and women are equal in the eyes of the law. However, the man is head of the family. Mexicans use two types of cultural representations to separate the male and female gender roles. The male role is defined by machismo, which is described as violence, power, aggressiveness, and assertive behaviors in sexual situations. For the female role, Mexicans use the Virgin of Guadalupe as an icon. This virgin represents the suffering and sacrifice that women have to make daily for their families. She also represents the submissive, but virtuous woman that Mexican women strive to be. While some still follows these gender roles, the cultural is transforming with urbanization and the roles are shifting (“Mexico”, n.d.)

Violence takes many forms: it can be physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and even within families, or combinations of one or more of these. In most cases, the violence has been “acceptable” because of the cultural traditions that are largely respected. However, with the increasing emergence of the women’s movement internationally and even within Mexico itself, many Mexican males regard their roles as belittled. There has been a subtle and sometimes obvious backlash against the women’s movement, especially if women have independent living or income possibilities. In a culture in which violence is the norm, beatings, rape, torture, mutilation, and even murder are frequently overlooked. This has been painfully evident in the cases of mass murders of young women in Ciudad Juarez.

The author’s understanding of violence is extended beyond the text and into the political history of Latin America, full of neo-colonial repression, racial discrimination and struggles.

Gabriel Garcia Marques provides a unique platform in his novella, Chronicle of a Death Foretold (COADF) to analyze facets of traditional Colombian values. The characters provide context regarding particular sectors of religion, cultural values and social norms throughout the novel. Marquez highlights a multitude of cultural juxtapositions throughout all of his novels, however, COADF in particular comments on the social hypocrisy of religion and the double standards due to gender norms throughout the novel. In the novella, Angela Vicario’s character highlights misguided principles and helps to understand how women and other groups of people in the country are maltreated. Common themes throughout the novel often victimize Angela Vicario, such as sexual identity, alcohol abuse and religious scrutiny. Marquez conveys these themes through imagery, symbolism, allegory and most especially periphrasis. This paper will effectively highlight how these factors demonstrate the cultural discrepancy in allowance of freedoms and the roles of women in the novel, and broader country.