Requiem Guatemala: A Story of the People

Fleeing the horrors of civil war that have destroyed her family, Maria Xquic, a diminutive, traditional Mayan woman, seeks refuge in the United States, having suffered the humiliation and degradation common to the experiences of many who have sought relief through flight in hostile lands. Against a sweeping international canvas, novelist Marshall Bennett Connelly addresses the complex social, political, and religious sectarianism that coalesced in mid-twentieth century Guatemala, fomenting the longest-running civil war in the modern history of Central America. Ostensibly a check against alleged communist encroachment in the Western Hemisphere, the United States government invested billions of dollars in support of repressive military regimes that laid siege primarily against Mayan civilian communities, feared to be supporters of militant guerrilla factions operating throughout the country. In an orchestrated genocide between 1978 and 1985 that saw military massacres in more than 600 indigenous towns and villages, more than 200,000 Guatemalans died and more than 50,000 were rounded up, tortured, and disappeared. An estimated million Guatemalans found themselves internal refugees, fleeing the hostilities, and thousands, who could do so, left the country. This work is dedicated to the people of Guatemala, especially to those who gave their lives in a struggle for freedom and social justice, and it serves as a memorial to their sacrifices and to those in the international communities who chose to share their burdens.