Picturing Calixta
My longtime friend Calixta Gabriel, a Kaqchikel Maya poet and spiritual guide had decided the time had come to unbury her past. As she revealed her history to me, I discovered
Read More
Author: Mary Jo McConahay
The Catholic Church and the Souls of the Amazon
From the Colombian Amazon town of Leticia, a visitor reaches Brazil or Peru in minutes by foot or canoe. Three outposts here – the towns of Leticia (pop: 48,000) and Tabatinga, Brazil (pop: 62,000), and the island of Santa Rosa, Peru (pop: 2,500) – and their surrounding…
Read More
Japanese Peruvians
Like many Americans, I knew that 120,000 ethnic Japanese had been held in U.S. concentration camps during World War II. But I had no idea about a secret program that had kidnapped…
Read More
Transitional Justice in El Salvador
On a warm morning in January 2016, in a small town far from the capital in El Salvador’s northern Morazan province, just off the shady central square, an extraordinary hearing is unfolding in a…
Read More
Discovering Dominga: Adoptions and Tangled Truths
In the open central market one morning in Rabinal, Guatemala, 28-year-old Denese Becker picked up a bolt of corte cloth, woven fabric used by Achi Maya women to make their skirts, and brought it to her face. She closed her eyes. “My mother,” she said. “This smells like my mother.” I knew which one she was talking about….
Read More- 1
- 2