An interdisciplinary anthology on the largest, most populous nation in Central America, covering Guatemalan history, culture, literature and politics and containing many primary sources not previously published in English.

Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction Part I: The Maya: Before the Europeans Popol Vul / Unknown K'iche' Authors; Breaking the Maya Code / Michael D. Coe; Bonampak Mural / Unknown Artists; Gendered Nobility / Rosemary A. Joyce; Rabinal Achi / Anonymous; Apocalypto / Bruce Waterfield Part II: Invasion and Colonialism Invading Guatemala / Various Authors; Tecun Uman and the Conquest Dance / Irma Otzoy; Great Was the Stench of the Dead / W. George Lovell; Good Government / Bishop Francisco Marroquin; For the Eyes of Our King / Various Authors; Colonial Cartographies / Various Authors; All Sorts and Colors / Thomas Gage; A Creole Landscape / Francisco Antonio Fuentes y Guzman; Chocolate, Sex and Disorderly Women / Martha Few; Fugitive Indians / Archbishop Pedro Cortes y Larraz; An Indian King on the Eve of Independence / Aaron Pollack Part III: A Caffeinated Modernism Travels Amongst Indians / Lindesay Brine; Land, Labor, and Community / David McCreery; The Saddest Day in Cantel / Anonymous; The Ladino / Severo Martinez Pelaez; Accustomed to Be Obedient / Richard N. Adams; Guatemala Facing the Lens / Images from CIRMA's photographic archive; Conquest of the Tropics / Frederick U. Adams; Marimba / Arturo Taracena Arriola; ?Vos Sos Guatemalteco? / Proyecto Linguistico Quezalteco de Espanol; A Taste of History / Popular Guatemalan Recipes; Magical Modernism / Catherine Rendon; El Senor Presidente / Miguel Angel Asturias; La Chalana / Miguel Angel Asturias, Alfredo Valle Claro, David Vela, Jose Luis Barcarcel; Indigenismo and 'The Generation of the 1920s' / Image by Carlos Merida; A Mexican Bolshevik in Central America / Jorge Fernandez Anaya, interviewed by Carlos Figueroa Ibarra; Anthropology Discovers the Maya / Carol A. Smith; Hymn to the Sun / Jesus Castillo Part IV: Ten Years of Spring and Beyond The Best Time of My Life / Luis Cardoza y Aragon; A New Guatemala / Juan Jose Arevalo; Pablo Neruda in Guatemala / Pablo Neruda; If That is Communism, Then We Are Communists / Miguel Marmol, as recorded by Robert Alexander; Most Precious Fruit of the Revolution / Government of Guatemala; Arevalista to Counterrevolutionary / Luis Tarano, interviewed by Elizabeth Oglesby and Simone Remijnse; Enemies of Christ / Archbishop Mariano Rossell y Arellano; Operation PBSUCCESS / Central Intelligence Agency; Sabotage for Liberty / Absolutely Secret; A Plan for Assassination / Central Intelligence Agency; Military Dream / Cesar Branas; We Are Officers of the Guatemalan Army / November 13 Rebel Movement; Long Live the Students! / Miguel Angel Sandoval and Maria del Rosario Ramirez; Denied in Full / Central Intelligence Agency; Maybe, Just Maybe / Rene Leiva; Guatemala and Vietnam / James S. Corum; Second Thoughts / Viron Vaky; The Sweetest Songs Remain to Be Sung / Huberto Alvarado Part V: Roads to Revolution A Clandestine Life / Greg Grandin; Whose Heaven, Whose Earth? / Thomas Melville; Life on the Edge / Deborah Levenson; Christ, Worker / Voz y Accion; Campesinos In Search of a Different Future / Jose Manuel Fernandez y Fernandez; Execution of a Chicken / Manuel Jose Arce; Blood in Our Throats / Betsy Konefal; Guerrilla Armies of the Poor / Fuerzas Armada Rebeldes, Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres, and Organizacion Revolucionaria del Pueblo en Armas; We Rose Up / Juan Tuyuc, Yolanda Colom, and Lucia; Communique / Otto Rene Castillo; Declaration of Iximche / Various Authors; An Indian Dawn / Carlota McAllister Part VI Intent to Destroy Thunder in the City / Mario Payeras; The San Francisco Massacre, July 1982 / Ricardo Falla; We Cannot Confirm Nor Deny / United States Embassy; Acts of Genocide / Commission for Historical Clarification; Exodus / Victor Montejo; The Oil Lamp / Antonio L. Cota Garcia; Arbitrary Power and Sexual Violence / Matilde Gonzalez Izas; Surviving / Recovery of Historical Memory Project; Inverting Clauswitz / Guatemalan Army High Command; Assistance and Control / Myrna Mack; We Are Civilians / Communities of the Population in Resistance of the Sierra; Time to Get Up / Francisco Goldman Part VII: An Unsettled Peace Right to Return / Maria Garcia Hernandez, Mama Maquin; What is Reconciliation? / Helen Mack; Promised the Earth / Gustavo Palma Murga; Disagreement / Ana Maria Rodas; The Atrocity Files / Kate Doyle; Memory of an Angel / Daniel Hernandez-Salazar; A Good Place to Commit Murder / Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur; The Untouchable Narco-State / Frank Smyth; Filochofo / Jose Manuel Chacon; Art and the Postwar Generation / Anabella Acevedo; I Walk Backwards / Humberto Ak'abal Part VIII: Maya Movements The K'iche' Language / Adrian Ines Chavez; Our History is a Living History / Rigoberta Menchu Tum; The Pan-Maya Movement / Demetrio Cojti Cuxil; The Authorized Indian / Charles R. Hale; Transnationalism and Maya Dress / Irma Alicia Velasquez Nimatuj; Mayanization and Everyday Life / Santiago Bastos, Aura Cumes and Leslie Lemus; Solidarity is a Characteristic of the Maya People / Dominga Vasquez; Back to Iximche / III Continental Summit of Indigenous Nations and Pueblos of Abya Yala Part IX: The Sixth Century A Modern Faith / Julio Zadik; Spiritual Warfare / Harold Caballeros; God's Pristine Sound / Meyer Sound Laboratories; The New Face of Labor and Capital / Corey Mattson and Marie Ayer; Pollo Campero Takes Wing / Nation's Restaurant News; The New Men of Maize / James Klepek; For Sale / Real Estate Advertisement; Death by Deportation / Greg Campbell; I Feel Enraged / Robin Christine Reineke; Prayer for a Migrant / Petrona; Architecture of Remittances; Visits to Chacash / as told to Yolanda Edelmira Figueroa Granados, Cecilia Lilian Alonso Granados, and Antonio Ariel Herrera Alvarado; Maya of Morganton / Leon Fink; Full Moon / Jessica Masaya; Keep on Keeping On / Yolanda Colom, interviewed by Isabel Recinos Arenas; Orgullo Gay / Jose Manuel Mayorga; Word Play / Isabel de los Angeles Ruano, with photographs by Fotokids/Fundacion de Ninos Artistas Suggestions for Further Reading; Acknowledgments of Copyright and Sources; Index