A Very Special Event with Ricardo Falla Sánchez

“Accompaniment and solidarity in context of war: Experiences from Ixcan, Guatemala”

Ricardo Falla Sánchez is a Guatemalan Jesuit anthropologist who completed his PhD at the University of Texas in Austin after having studied theology in Innsbruck Austria with Karl Rahner, among others. He has dedicated his life to documenting the lives and cultures of the Quiché [K'iche'] Maya in Guatemala and other indigenous peoples in Central America. His writings have document multiple Mayan communities including their revitalization through, among other initiatives, their engagement with Catholic Action, attempts to destroy their communities through the brutal massacres of the 1980s, and their struggles for justice and human rights .He is perhaps most widely know n for his 1992 publication Masacres de la Selva – a volume that appeared in English, Massacres of the Jungle, in 1994. He has recently published three books on Maya youth, two focused on those from the Ixcán area of Guatemala: Alicia: Explorando la identidad de una joven maya [Exploring identity: The story of a Maya youth] (2005) and Juventud de una comunidad maya: Ixcán, Guatemala [Youth from a Maya Community, Ixcán, Guatemala] (2006) and a third volume, Migración transnacional retornada: Juventud indígena de Zacualpa, Guatemala [Transnational migration and return: Indigenous youth of Zacualpa, Guatemala] (2007) which focuses on youth who have immigrated to the United States and voluntarily returned to Guatemala. He is currently publishing the fifth volume of what will be seven volumes including much of his heretofore unpublished work, Al atardecer de la vida [At the sunset of life].

Classes are welcome. RSVP: Human.rights@lehman.cuny.edu

This special event is co-sponsored by the Lehman College Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies, the Leonard Lief Library, the Graduate Center Mesoamerican Studies Student Group, The GC Doctoral Students Council and the Graduate Center.