Requiem Guatemala Summary

Tragedy and the Ethic of Responsibility Requiem Guatemala reflects the Guatemalan civil war and the attempt to stop the communist. This war was between the civilians and the government, leading to multiple massacres including, the massacre of cuarto pueblo, and the massacre of Puente alto. Five young men of Santa Cruz gave up their lives for the people, all this recorded by a priest named Father Fernando Bermudez, who had to flee to Mexico after receiving several death treats for his recordings on this situation. Despite the fact of nothing but evil happening during this time the pueblos always stayed united as one in the fight towards the governments bad deeds. I felt that the theme could be defined as staying strong as a union against the
As the mayor Don Lazaro explains to the families the situation, the families tie back memories to the massacre of Puente alto. This massacre occurred on December 4 of 1996, the guerrillas assassinated anyone who apposed them but the Guatemalan army decided to stop them. The soldiers would put all women, girls, and babies into the protestant chapel and burn them alive, in addition they tortured and killed all men and the little boys where thrown around a school and the chapel to rot. The families also mention the massacre of Cuarto Pueblo that took place in from 1975 to 1982. During this time the Guatemalan military escalated violence against the campesino. This created a lot of abductions that quickly escalated into massacres, the military destroyed the people’s villages one by one, resulting in the huge number of assassinations that the Guatemalan military committed, not to mention disappearances as