MACMILLAN The Power of Memory and Violence in Central America

This book explores the power of words in post-Peace El Salvador and Guatemala―their violent and equally liberating power. The volume explores the entire post-Peace Accords era in both Central American countries. In “post-conflict” settings, denying or forgetting the repressive past and its many victims does violence to those victims, while remembering and giving testimony about the past can be cathartic for survivors, relatives, and even for perpetrators. This project will appeal to readers interested in development, societies in transition, global peace studies, and Central American studies. Review “An original contribution to scholarship on political contests over memory and forgetting in post-conflict sites. Hatcher has written a deeply informed comparison of El Salvador and Guatemala, with their surprisingly different approaches to the recognition and commemoration of human rights violations.” (Ellen Moodie, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA) “Hatcher’s thoughtful exegesis of memory politics in Guatemala and El Salvador highlights language’s power to shape how violent pasts are remembered or forgotten. By reconstructing the charged debates over concepts like “truth,” “amnesty," and “reconciliation” in the aftermath of the two countries’ civil wars, her book makes a valuable contribution to the scholarly literature on how societies grapple with the legacies of state violence.” (Kirsten Weld, Associate Professor, Harvard University, USA) “Rachel Hatcher’s comparative analysis of sites and methods of remembering in Guatemala and El Salvador is both sensitive and engrossing. The richly detailed and aesthetic documentation of popular memory, palabras, and the people who wield them makes this volume an invaluable contribution to post-war memory studies.” (Mneesha Gellman, Assistant Professor, Emerson College, USA) “This book...shows the complicity or the deep silences of sectors that seek with multiple strategies to undermine the memory of those who faced genocide, massacres, sexual violence, forced disappearances or torture.” (Irma A. Velásquez Nimatuj, Maya K'ichee' Anthropologist, Guatemala) From the Back Cover This book explores the power of words in post-Peace El Salvador and Guatemala―their violent and equally liberating power. The volume explores the entire post-Peace Accords era in both Central American countries. In “post-conflict” settings, denying or forgetting the repressive past and its many victims does violence to those victims, while remembering and giving testimony about the past can be cathartic for survivors, relatives, and even for perpetrators. This project will appeal to readers interested in development, societies in transition, global peace studies, and Central American studies. Rachel Hatcher is an independent researcher. She held fellowships at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State, South Africa, and Concordia University, Québec. About the Author Rachel Hatcher is an independent researcher. She held fellowships at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State, South Africa, and Concordia University, Québec.