Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This unusual work presents striking photographs and an almost poetic text on Guatemala, where a large percentage of Central American human rights abuses have been committed. Using quotations from victims, relatives, witnesses, and others, the author, a photographer and consultant to Americas Watch, details the "disappearances" and torture, the hypocrisy and collusion of Guatemalan government officials, and the insensitivity of U.S. officials. The sickening consequences of torture are well documented, but this timely work offers no solutions, and those implied are somewhat naive. Nevertheless, recommended. Roderic A. Camp, Central Coll., Pella, Iowa
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Guatemala is proof, in a powerful text and photographs of immense force, that Guatemalan governments over the past years have been waging savage war—genocide is no exaggeration—upon the Guatemalan people. That under the Reagan adminstration especially, that State Department has sought to mitigate and justify this savagery is a horror for an American citizen to contemplate. I pray this book will awaken the American conscience. (Arthur Miller )

Jean-Marie Simon's Guatemala is a country in which history, cultural diversity, exotic beauty and cruelty are reflected on the faces of its Indian peasants, its soliders, its politicians, its protesters and its mourners. She has recorded that Guatemala knowledgably, faithfuly and lovingly, and with the skill and eye of an artist behind her camera. (Aryeh Neier )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (January 17, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393305066
• ISBN-13: 978-0393305067
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #850,698 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A painful, colorful study........, July 12, 2000

By	Rolltide (Columbia, Tn) - See all my reviews

One has to understand the purpose of this amnesty international book. The sole intent is to demonstrate the deplorable human rights situation in guatemala. There is no intent to present a balanced picture. Basically it is a summarization of guatemala in the 1980s a terrible decade for that country. No punches are pulled here, just page after page of horror upon horror all presented in vivid color. The photograpahy is wonderful and i can't think of many books about guatemala with better photos. They capture the beauty of the land and people and the blatant tragedy at hand.

This book isn't for the squeamish. I first read it as i was preparing to travel there to study spanish. This book scared me to death but more than that it outraged me and i think that was the purpose. Secondly it does educate at a basic level what has been going on in guatemala.

A good primer about the human rights atrocities in guatemala.

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

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A powerful and disturbing view of a war-torn country, July 31, 1998

By	[e-mail] "timbarrett" (fairfax, california) - See all my reviews

I ran across a used copy of this book before my first trip to Guatemala, and it radicalized me, preparing me for the devastating effects of the country's 35-year-long civil war. While the war is officially over, this book still has relevance to the plight Guatemala's indigenous population -- 90% of its people. It is remarkable that the author -- a woman, a photographer, a human rights activist, and a foreigner -- was able to get as close to her subjects as she did. This extremely moving photo-and-text essay is not for the faint of heart, but if you want a taste of what present-day Guatemalans have lived through, this book delivers it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guatemala's atrocities are an unhealed wound, January 14, 2005

By	J. A. ROMO "Literatura y acción" (Los Angeles, Ca) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is a rare instance to use a book as a base for creating such a moving experience. This book presents in raw, guttural and palpable images the cruel reality that has affected so many so close to us. Guatemala is still a dychotomy of social classes, of race, religion, power. The eternal tyranny has not yet devoured the precious landscapes nor its people... as long as people who produce books like this give a voice to the victims and put an image of injustice, oppresion, abuse, to teach us that when a people suffer, we all suffer with them. Guatemala, so beautiful, is not yet healed from this wound. I cannot feel but worry for all those who continue strugglig for survival, identity, and a life free of oppresion. This book is but the tip of the iceberg... I have done many interviews (informal conversations) with former Kaibil and G-2 officials (brutes, killing machines) who have applied for political assylum here in the US, who surprisingly are living a pretty much normal life. They have retold (not acknowledging any guilt, of course) killings of innocents which took place time and time again...The pictures bring out the bloodshed so the people who died are not forgotten. The book will give you just enough. You will be amazed to find out how this book was realized. Please don't just look at it, share it with those who need to be touched with human suffering and people like you and I who want to make a difference...