"Do Not Stop Praying for Us”

The following post was written by Kenny Dolbashian. Dolbashian writes from Guatemala, where he is participating in a UUSC JustJourney.

“Do not stop praying for us.”

Those were the words of Claudia Samayoa, a long-time human-rights activist and journalist speaking to a UUSC JustJourney group in Antigua, Guatemala. As she explained, Guatemala’s history is complex – as are the relationships among its people. The struggle between the indigenous Guatemalans and the country’s power elite (i.e., the army and the families of the oligarchy) is a long and tortured tale that continues on, even to this day.

Twelve of us are here in Antigua learning about and experiencing first-hand the human-rights struggle that has been ongoing in this small Central American country since the end of colonial rule in the early 1800s. We are getting a crash course on the history of Guatemala from a variety of sources in advance of our trip to Rabinal, the scene of the genocidal massacre in the early 1980s.

We have learned about the formation of the state in 1821, when descendants of the Spanish took control of the land, effectively disenfranchising the indigenous peoples. We learned how over time, in addition to the indigenous people and descendants of the Spanish, a new mixed group, “Ladinos,” emerged.

Over the next few days, our group will surely see how this history is playing out.