1976 Guatemalan Earthquake Anniversary Activity

[Roberto Barrios]

The 1976 Earthquake in Guatemala has been used as an exemplary case of the social construction of vulnerability by European and U.S. scholars, yet little has been written about how Guatemala's nascent Anthropology program at the University of San Carlos engaged the disaster and its deeply rooted socio-political dimensions. In the aftermath of this historic disaster, Guatemalan Anthropologists did nor remain disinterested observers. Many became involved in an anti-colonial, anti-oligarchic, and anti-imperialist struggle for social change that claimed the lives of many students and sent others into exile. This conversation will feature the participation of Anthropologists who lived through the disaster and its brutal aftermath and we will review how disasters, state terror, and a commitment to social change impacted the development of the discipline in Guatemala.

Note: Presentation will be in Spanish