Nosotros sufrimos mucho: trauma and bereavement after La Violencia, Guatemala

Abstract

The conflict of Guatemala between the government and the guerillas lasted for 36 years. The use of violence was at its peaks when the Guatemalan government started its counter insurgency against the civil population. This period of high violence is also called La Violencia in which over 400 villages were burned to the ground, more than 600 massacres were committed by the army and more than 200,000 people were either killed or have disappeared.

Statistics do not tell the stories of the people that lived, died or survived during La Violencia. It does not say anything about their sufferings and how people deal and have dealt with them. This thesis is about how victim survivors of La Violencia cope with their trauma and bereavement because of the war on a collective and individual level. Efforts are made to show the connection between collective and individual coping through the construction of memory.