Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy [Paperback]

Victor Perera (Author), Daniel Chauche (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 1995

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This engrossing combination of reportage, personal narrative, oral testimony and ethnographic investigation focuses on four Guatemalan towns which have been the object of an ethnic extermination campaign by the military. More than 65,000 Guatemalans of Mayan descent have died in this conflict since 1978. Perera ( The Last Lords of Palenque ), a native Guatemalan living in the U.S., examines the relationship between the campaign and the country's political leadership, the destruction of natural resources, and the Mayan-Christian religious practices of those under assault. Included is an analysis of the activities of radical Catholic priests and human-rights groups in a land of torture and killing, and observations on the growing Protestant evangelical movement which has already converted more than a third of the nominally Catholic indigenous population. Perera's layered narrative, set in a land of earthquakes, volcanoes and massacres, reads like a medieval morality tale. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Despite the slight flurry of interest inspired by the award of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize to Mayan Indian Rigobarta Menchu, the press is again ignoring the ongoing genocide of the Guatemalan people by state-sponsored terrorism. In an insightful historical analysis, Guatemalan writer Perera describes how the breathtakingly beautiful home of the Mayas has been torn apart by heinous abuses of human rights. The civil war, really a peasant agrarian movement against large interests aided by the United States and Israel in the guise of fighting communism, is destroying a culture so strong that it survived the brutality of the Spanish Conquest almost intact. Highly recommended for lay readers as well as scholars. --Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 297 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (November 14, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520203496
• ISBN-13: 978-0520203495
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #960,768 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best on this topic......., July 18, 2000

By 

Rolltide (Columbia, Tn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy (Paperback)

Victor Perera is a native guatemalan who took the better part of 6 years to write this book. This book is chock full of great information gathered from hundreds of interviews. Perera doesn't waste time trying to interpret the events he writes about, instead he let's the participants and witnesses speak for themselves. He interviews everybody for this book from wealthy landowners, government officials, military personel, catholic and evangelical clergy and mostly the mayan people who have suffered from 30 years of civil war. He then fills in the cracks with historical background. His writing is very precise and specific, his descriptions paint a very vivid picture of the oppression and genocide that continues to take place.

The book begins with his visits to the garbage dump slums of guatemala city and proceeds to other hot spots of violence. The core of the book is those chapters about the ixil triangle area where as many as one third of the local mayan population was killed, disappeared or forced to flee the country.

..............socks

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly, lyrical, captivating . . . a treasure!, February 23, 2006

By 

E. Simpson (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy (Paperback)

This wide-ranging book, written beautifully and knowledgeably, is a pleasure to read and a must for anyone interested in Guatemalan (or Central American) history and/or Mayan culture. Mr. Perera does not take particular pains to hide his sympathies (clearly pro-environmental protection, pro-indigenous people's rights) but the intelligence of his writing and the mastery and breadth of the subject matter make this the most articulate, beautiful, informative statement of those views I've read. What a disappointment to learn that this powerful voice was silenced not long after this book by a stroke and his subsequent death. Read this book!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Insight into a suffering country, April 16, 2007

By 

Jorge I. Villanueva (Phoenix,Az) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy (Paperback)

The terrible situation that happened to this Central America nation is very well documented in this book.The author, Mr Perera, writes with a lot of insight and first hand knowledge since he lived in Guatemala for several years.The book is full with interviews the author did with local people such as soldiers,politicians,ladinos,mayas and just the average person in the street.The author is not afraid to let the reader see what is the real situation in Guatemala and is not afraid to point fingers to the real culprits.This book is a very good work that identifies the problems of not only the mayans as a people but also the problems and corruption that politicians have brought on its own people.Great work!