Art for the Future: Artists Call and Central American Solidarities: Guatemala

"In Guatemala, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency orchestrated and financed the overthrow of the elected Arbenz government in 1954, leading to decades of military rule and authoritarian politics and revolts against the government by peasants and workers. Later, overt and covert support from the Unites States helped keep the military in power and supported its repressive and military efforts to put down the insurgency. Civil war in Guatemala (1964–1994) also involved popular struggles led by leftists against a long series of highly repressive, U.S.–supported military and authoritarian governments, resulting in large numbers of war refugees and economic migrants. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Guatemalan military pursued genocidal, scorched-earth policies, especially against Maya villages. Thousands of Maya and other refugees migrated across the border to Mexico and eventually to the United States, where they have become part of the cultural, racial, and linguistic mosaic of Latinas and Latinos, in this case adding Maya dialects to the more common Spanish of other immigrants from Latin America. As in El Salvador, the long-standing U.S. support for military regimes created the conditions for popular revolt and civil war. U.S. support for authoritarian regimes and its efforts to overthrow or keep revolutionary movements from coming to power resulted in large-scale flows of “new Latinas and Latinos” from this region."

Santiago, Aldo Lauria. "United States Interventions in Latin America." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. : Oxford University Press, 2005. https://ezproxy.depaul.edu/login?url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195156003.001.0001/acref-9780195156003-e-943#acref-9780195156003-div2-283

Additional Books in the Library

Guatemala -- Relations -- United States

Guatemala -- History -- 1945-1985

Guatemala -- History -- 1985 -