The Plunge - visit to Nebaj

At the end of our time in language school, it is a CASP tradition to do something called The Plunge. On Saturday morning we all showed up in the Central Park in Xela with all of our things and were put into teams of 3 or 4. Each group was given the name of a city to find their way to.

I was on a team with Andrew and Seth and the city that we had to find is called Nebaj. Each group was given 400 quetzales per person (a little more than $50 dollars).

We took a mini bus to the main bus station in Xela and from there found a bus to take us to Quiché (3 hours) and then from Quiché to Nebaj (2ish hours). Once we got to Nebaj we had to figure out food/lodging.

One goal of the Plunge is for you to get to know the history of your city. On Sunday morning we woke up and accidentally only went to the last 20 minutes of mass. One of our goals was to talk to the priest. We ended up getting to talk to him for 45ish minutes and I am still a little mind blown about everything he shared with us. Padre Walter is probably in his 30s and became the priest in 2018. He is currently also studying psychology. He is extremely knowledgeable about the history of Nebaj as well as the current issues/realities. He also shared such a beautiful perspective of how he views his role/the role of the church in the community. Here are some of my notes/takeaways from the convo:

• Nebaj, being a mostly indigenous community, was the epicenter of the genocide in Guatemala in the 80s

• the killing of people was violent and extremely brutal. Bombings in the highlands were frequent.

• In the army’s eyes, being a Catholic = being a guerilla which meant you had a big target on your back. Since majority of indigenous people were devoutly catholic and since the church spoke out against the injustice, many were killed - martyrs of the faith

• there is a lot of hydroelectric power on indigenous land but none of it benefits the community in Nebaj - it has actually harmed the environment and the communities that are dependent upon these natural resources

• Nebaj is 1/3 places in Guatemala that speaks Ixil

• Nebaj has the highest suicide rate in Guatemala amongst young people

• After the war ended, many NGOs entered the scene - many have been unhelpful in the long term well being of Nebaj because they have created systems of dependency

• There are high rates of narco trafficking

• there are high rates of migration to the US: people looking to “sobresalir” - transcend the current realities in their town and succeed (many have hopes to attain the American dream)

Hearing about Walter’s perspective on bien común (common good) was remarkable. He emphasized holistic justice - a kind of living that is not only concerned about spiritual needs, but physical needs too. He talked a lot about the need for education, especially because there is a lot of corruption in the Guatemalan government. He has a radio program that he broadcasts with other leaders of the church that address spiritual, political, and socioeconomic issues. He said that voting bribery is common and that people continue to vote for leaders that continue to take advantage of the people. He has a vision and hope for education of the community, especially young people. Bien común is a vision centered on collaboration amongst community members (not centered around outside influence/perspective), working towards the well being of all. It was interesting because he was definitely critical of the indifference of the evangelical church, both today and during the genocide. I’ll come back to this in a later blog.

Andrew, Seth, and me with Padre Walter.

After our talk with Walter, he introduced us to a 23 year old guy named Eddy who works specifically with a youth program in the community. Eddy was kind enough to walk us around the city and share some more knowledge with us about Nebaj. One of the most interesting things he shared about was a mural that is painted on one of the outside walls of the church. The man in the black robe is Juan Gerardi. He was a priest in the community during the civil war. When the war was over he wrote a book citing over 50,000 war crimes. 2 days later he was assassinated. When we had walked into mass late, we sat at the back of the church next to all of these crosses with names and dates on them. Pretty much all of these people were killed during the war in ‘83 or ‘84. Monseñor Gerardi’s name was there too. Truth is costly.

Some of the crosses with names of people who were killed in Nebaj during the armed conflict.

A mural outside the Catholic Church with Monseñor Gerardi depicted in the black robe.

Eddy took us to a little textile/weaving shop. We met a woman named Maria and she offered to let me try on the traditional clothing of Ixil women in Nebaj. The women wear red skirts and the men wear red jackets that represent the blood shed during the war. It was quite surreal to see the sea of red as we walked around the town and through the markets. Seeing this practice of collective memory is still hard to put into words. Maria shared part of her story with us. During the war, she had to flee to the highlands with her family. They didn’t have any food to eat for a week, only the plants in the mountains. They couldn’t burn fires to keep warm because the smoke would give away their hiding place. They ate peppers to keep warm. To hear about a history from a book or a lecture is and important thing, but it’s so different when you are sitting face to face with something who is so courageously recounting their story.

Me and Maria.

Everywhere we walked was a sea of red. A powerful symbol of collective memory in a city that has suffered so much.(Eddy is also on the left side of the picture since we forgot to take a picture with him).

There’s more stories I want to share from this time, but I’ll leave it here for now, since I feel like I'm still trying to process!

One amazing thing was that as we were on the bus heading to Nebaj, I realized that my dad has actually been to Nebaj too. When we got there, I texted him and he was able to share some pictures with me of his time there - 10 years earlier exactly. I'm constantly amazed at the stories God writes in our lives.

We left Antigua, Guatemala early yesterday morning and flew to San José, Costa Rica. We are at the Whitworth University Costa Rica Center for the next week doing a worldview/policy course intensive. Costa Rica is having their first round of elections tomorrow so we will get to go out, ask questions, and engage with the community of San Rafael to learn more about the political parties/big political issues in CR right now.

Bendiciones,

Elena