For many of us in this country la vida cotidiana (everyday life) is taken for granted. We enjoy a roof over our heads, food on the table, being with family at the end of the day, and living in a peaceful community. For the last four generations of Guatemalans, that has not been the case, especially for the indigenous people residing throughout the coastal regions and the tropical highlands. Displacement, torture, threats, even massacres rooted in the oppressive military regime of the 1980’s – actions to disable entire communities – are now the purview of drug cartels and crime syndicates.
In Choices: Death, Life and Migration, author Patricia Rumer, PhD, introduces us through poetry and rich profiles to people compelled to make difficult decisions: to stay or to leave their homeland, find refuge, and to secure solace, peace, and well-being for their families. Among them are the courageous Ixil women, victorious plaintiffs in a genocide case against General Efraín Ríos Montt. There is Santiago, a community leader in Santa Maria Tzejá, wondering who will stay and rebuild the country as the exodus pa norte of teens grows daily. Young mothers, now housed in shelters on the U.S./Mexican border, refugees from the violence in their own homes and communities – hope for asylum but fear deportation. Approximately 25,000 Guatemalans now make Oregon their home.
Proceeds from the sale of the book are dedicated to the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice in Oregon (IMRG) and the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S.-based immigrant rights program.
About Pat: Dr. Rumer, a former professor at Portland State University, is a lifelong activist and educator, whose love and understanding for the Guatemalan people began in 1969 as a community development volunteer with the American Friends Service Committee working in a rural highland K’iche-speaking community. As a Witness for Peace observer in 1993, she accompanied Guatemalan refugees, displaced by the 1980’s internal armed conflict, on their return from Mexico to Guatemala. In 2013, Dr. Rumer was a member of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (USA) to investigate the impact of the genocide decision on Guatemalan human rights defenders. In 2016, she witnessed the Sepur Zarco trial in which a Guatemalan judge convicted two former military officers of crimes against humanity on counts of rape, murder, and slavery in 1982- 1988. Since then, she has continued to observe, investigate, and educate others about social justice, human rights, and ways to ensure a just U.S. immigration policy.