Blossoms of war : community formation in post conflict Guatemala

• Main Author: Smith, Frank
• Published: University of Essex 2012
• Subjects: 303.69097281
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.559080

This study is about the relationship between violence, memory and identity. It focuses on a community of relocated internally displaced people in Guatemala and analyses the way they redefined their identity in the aftermath of the conflict. It argues that resistance to State sponsored violence during the period of internal displacement shaped the emergence of a new post conflict community identity, influenced by both national and global discourses of rights. The stories of violence and resistance established the basis for a collective notion of selfto emerge. The process of resistance to the State during the period of displacement cemented relationships of trust and provided people from the town of Prima vera with a sense of ontological security reinforced in people's narratives of the past. This study is based on sociological field work carried out between November 1998 and September 1999 in the town of Prima vera that was created in 1996 by formerly displaced people in the north eastern region of Guatemala known as the Ixcan.