Buried Secrets By Victoria Sanford

Victoria Sanford’s book, Buried Secrets helps readers to understand the violence that occurred during the genocide that took place in Guatemala. This destruction happened during the 1960’s until 1996. She reviles the tragedies that happened from the standpoint of more than 400 rural Maya survivors, former soldiers, archival research and formerly classified documents. There were 626 villages and 200,000 civilian victims that were affected by this genocide. The Guatemalan army were the ones who led this genocide. They would first enter the villages and accuse its people as sympathizers of the guerillas. The Guatemalan army would then massacres the villagers. They would first kill only the men, by the end of the reign of terror the children and women were also massacred. Buried Secrets can be somewhat of a difficult read because it will very much so bring back difficult memories for those who had to live through this tragic time because of the several stories that were told from the survivors. This book shows an honest perception into the experiences of the survivors as they fight to restore their lives and community.
Sanford observed the associates with the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation when they exposed exhumed graves. This allowed for her to fulfill what she called, “excavation of memories” (Pg. 17) by accumulating statements from the survivors. By collecting all of the testimonies it is clear that there is still a lot of anger that comes from the survivors. I think that her goal is to get what really happened known and she seeks to find the truth and justice, in hopes to heal the