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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula November 5, 2001 Text and Photos © 2001 Michele Anderson

Guatemalan visitors offer Copper Country cultural exchange

HANCOCK -- With war memories of her childhood as a refugee in Mexico when early 1980s massacres of indigenous people in Guatemala drove her parents from their home, Aurelia hesitated leaving her village, Fronterizo 10 de Mayo, to visit the United States during a "War on Terrorism." Once convinced that the bombing war was being fought overseas, however, she recently made her first trip ever to the capital of her country, Guatemala City, in order to board a plane for the Copper Country with her husband, Remigio, and her youngest child, two-year-old Jorge (Jorgito).

Aurelia and Remigio of Fronterizo 10 de Mayo, Guatemala, pose with their youngest son, Jorgito (in his new car) during their Oct. 29 presentation at the First United Methodist Church in Hancock.

The Copper Country Guatemalan Accompaniment Project (CCGAP) has sponsored this young Guatemalan family's two-week visit here from Fronterizo, a village of former refugees adopted by this local chapter of a national accompaniment project that sends human rights observers to Guatemala.

"In my wildest dreams, I never thought I'd come to a place this far away," Aurelia told an audience gathered at the First United Methodist Church in Hancock on October 29. Sue Ellen Kingsley, a former CCGAP accompanier to Fronterizo, translated Aurelia's comments from the Spanish.

Not even five feet tall, Aurelia hardly gives the impression of the community leader that she is in Fronterizo -- until she begins to speak about women's rights and about the Fronterizo women's group, the Mama Maquín, who nominated her for this cultural exchange. The group is proud of their Day Care Center, built in 1998 and funded in part by Copper Country contributions.

Sue Ellen Kingsley showed this slide of the Fronterizo Day Care Center, funded in part by contributions from the Copper Country Guatemala Accompaniment Project (CCGAP).

Aurelia's and Remigio's families were among many indigenous Mayan people who lived under cover of the jungle for eight years and in Mexican refugee camps for three years after the war.

In the past, violence was often directed against women, Aurelia said. They didn't have the right to talk or ask for anything. But they learned to organize while living in Mexico.

"They really became aware of their rights," Kingsley explained, "and became stronger."

Aurelia said her country and her people suffered much during the war years. Both she and Remigio said their parents suffered more than they did, but they felt the deprivations as children. For example, Aurelia's parents couldn't get enough food for the children. During the war, for example, they lacked salt and sugar.

"That's why I like a lot of sugar in my coffee (now)," Aurelia said with a big smile.

During the pot-luck dinner at the First United Methodist Church in Hancock, Aurelia jokes with former CCGAP accompanier Amy Vozel, left, about her need for lots of sugar in her coffee, since her family had no sugar during the war. Pictured next to Aurelia’s husband, Remigio, is Terry Kinzel, far right, husband of Sue Ellen Kingsley. Kinzel and Kingsley hosted the family’s visit at their home in Hancock.

Aurelia and Remigio were happy when a telephone was recently installed in the village across the river from Fronterizo. They were able to verify by phone from Hancock that their other children -- Jaime, 10; Lorenzo, 7; and Sandra, 4 -- left in the care of Aurelia's sister-in-law, were safe and well.

Kingsley noted Aurelia has often expressed how worried she is about the women and children in Afghanistan as well.

Jorgito, 2, at the wheel of his new car, smiles with delight.

Although the women of Fronterizo are somewhat empowered by their organization, the life of a "madre de familia," as Aurelia described herself, is not easy. She said she gets up at 4 a.m. every morning to make tortillas and pound rice by hand before fixing breakfast. Women may also have to cut firewood with a machete, be sure it's dry and build a fire before they begin to make the tortillas.

Sue Ellen Kingsley noted Copper Country school children were impressed with this slide of Fronterizo children carrying firewood, an everyday necessity.

Remigio noted the men and boys help in carrying firewood but the men must also get up early and spend most of the day in the fields, where they grow several crops -- including corn, beans, coffee, citrus fruit trees, bananas, pineapple and cardamom. After the farm work, Remigio attends frequent afternoon meetings, since he is secretary of the Comité por la Tierra, or Land Committee. A major concern of the people of Fronterizo is the issue of owning their own land.

Aurelia explained that most of the land in Guatemala is owned by about 20 wealthy families. The former owners of the land at Fronterizo apparently have never been there and have abandoned the land. Still, the government has not yet allowed the people living there to own it. Many of the present residents lost their own land in the war and came together when they returned to Guatemala to cultivate this abandoned property. Fronterizo 10 de Mayo was named for the date it was founded -- May 10, 1995.

"Their fondest dream would be to own the land," Kingsley said.

This slide shows Aurelia and Remigio, with their four children, in front of their house in Fronterizo.

Remigio noted the local Catholic archdiocese has made efforts to help the people of Fronterizo with legal matters in their pursuit of land ownership.

Most of the farming is subsistence for the people themselves, Remigio said, but they are planning projects to produce more in order to improve the local economy.

Unlike Aurelia, whose first language is Spanish, Remigio spoke only a Mayan language, Jacalteco, until he went to school. He explained that while the people were in hiding in the jungle, schooling for children was limited and difficult. He said much of his own education was hard work -- studying on his own and mastering a foreign language. Thanks to his parents' sacrifices, he said, he was able to earn a secondary diploma. Remigio said he thanks God that his family and Aurelia's survived the war years and that his parents, older brother and two sisters are still living.

During their presentation at the First United Methodist Church in Hancock, Aurelia and Remigio sing “Flor de las Flores” (“Flower of the Flowers”), a song about leaving Guatemala during the war of the 1980s.

Also present at the pot-luck dinner and slide presentation at the First United Methodist Church was Amy Vozel, who recently spent six months as an accompanier in three different Guatemalan communities, including Fronterizo. She described the accompanier's position as monitoring the human rights situation.

"It was building solidarity," Vozel explained, "providing an internal presence for people who still remember the fear they experienced during the war and still don't trust their government."

Vozel noted the experience was quite different from her 1996-98 service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in western Russia, where she taught English and helped start a privatized language school.

Continued Page 2: Family visits Powwow, community groups