Reckoning: The Ends of War in Guatemala

Diane Nelson’s previous book, Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in Quincentennial Gua-temala, was a masterpiece: an evocative and frighteningly insightful discussion of the multiplicity and fluidity of identity in Guatemala. In that book, her propensity to explore the difficulty of fixing a meaning to words was an essential aspect of her exploration of the slipperiness of identity in Guatemala as the country struggled away from war.Given the brilliance of the first book, any subsequent work would almost certainly disappoint in comparison. Reckoning treads similar ground. This book, too, explores complexity and duplicity in contemporary Guatemala since the peace accords signed in 1996. This work also employs Nelson’s keen eye, empathetic ear, wonderful informants, and deep knowledge of contemporary Guatemala to offer us images of a society that is never quite what it seems. In this book as well, language and its tricks are never far from the surface. Horror movies and sci-fi literature also make appearances here, as they did in Finger in the Wound. Often all of this contributes to startling insights; sometimes it is annoying.Nelson explores the “slipperiness” or lack of solidity in postwar Guatemala by focusing on duplicity: the contrived, assumed, split, and fractured identities which are a necessary part of survival and discourse in contemporary Guatemala. Along the way, she also makes it clear that these levels of duplicity are not uniquely Guatemalan but are part of all identities in contemporary society. Her keen eye for the multiple and often contradictory meanings in words and her deep engagement with theory all help in the exploration.She begins the book with a description of the Baile de la Culebra (Dance of the Snake) in Joyabaj, in which K’iché participants take on the identity of a ladino labor contractor and various characters in his life in order to rebel against the oppression he symbolizes. From there the book explores in ever deepening and complex ways the complicated and convoluted nature of meaning and identity. The book is constructed through nine chapters and seven shorter “intertexts.” The intertexts are where Nelson plays most with words and their meaning. Occasionally these are interesting; I found them often to be frustrating. Like her research assistant, I “didn’t buy at all . . . the horror film stuff” that finds its way into the story throughout the book.However, when she takes a break from playing tricks with words and talking about slasher films, Nelson provides us with the most insightful and evocative explorations of contemporary Guatemala available. Her discussion of David Stoll and Rigoberta Menchu and the way she links this to ladino perceptions that indigenous people are always hiding something, some other identity, is well done, as is her appropriate dismissal of Stoll’s exposé in a footnote. The exploration of our conflictual relationship with the multiple identities of the state and the state’s imposition and adoption of bio-power through a discussion of the malaria campaign in Guatemala in the 1950s and 1960s is excellent.The discussion of the multiple sides to the state, explored in chapter 6, is also excellent. This is a natural fit for Nelson’s approach; with the constant talk of “hidden powers,” conspiracy theories, and the continual shifting of positions that accompany politics in contemporary Guatemala. She captures in insightful ways the dilemmas of modern citizenship by exploring the state viewed as both too weak and too strong, the United Nations Mission in Guatemala that both helped provide space for the development of civil society and curtailed its growth, and those who see working with the state as the only way to strengthen civil society while recognizing that such work involves legitimizing the state and its control over citizens. Her exploration of the military’s deep involvement in both the apparatus of the state and capital in Guatemala is brief but well done.When she recounts with respect and sympathy people’s attempts in Joyabaj to deal with life, recovery, and identity and links these personal stories to the complexity of postwar Guatemala in particular and to life in a neoliberal world in general, as she does in chapter 5, this work is superb. Her discussion of the labor contractor who is also a dedicated organizer for the peasant association, CONIC, captures wonderfully the complexity of postwar Guatemala.While occasionally frustrating, this is both an interesting reflection on the dilemmas of contemporary society and our place in it and an essential exploration of the endless complications of Guatemala.

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