[Shadow_Group] Fw: GUATEMALAN MAYAN SPEAKER - COMING TO CANADA

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Rights Action -- SPEAKING TOUR in CANADA

GUATEMALA: Community and Mayan focused re-building and education in a
post-genocide context.

WHO: Guillermo Chen, a Mayan-Achi man from Rabinal, Baja Verapaz.  Guillermo
is director of the Foundation New Hope [Fundacion Nueva Esperanza] that
provides bi-lingual and multi-cultural primary and middle school education
to Mayan-Achi children of families who were victims and survivors of the
1980s massacres and genocide.  The Foundation and its students are now
protagonists in re-building their lives and communities.

WHEN: November-December 2004

WHERE: CANADA: Winnipeg, November 9-12;  Vancouver, November 12-19;
Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal, November 19-27; Maritimes, November 27-December 9.

INTERESTED IN HOSTING EVENTS: Vic Hill, 416-429-6578, guillermotour at yahoo.ca<mailto:guillermotour at yahoo.ca>

PLEASE RE-DISTRIBUTE THIS INFORMATION FAR AND WIDE

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BACKGROUND

Guillermo Chen Morales, a Guatemalan Indigenous Human Rights Activist and
Director of the Foundation New Hope will be coming to Canada for a speaking
tour this fall. Guillermo is from Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, a municipality that
the UN truth commission states lost approximately 20% of their population to
state and paramilitary violence during the civil war. It is now 20 years
after the height of the genocide and people are still trying to rebuild.

Rio Negro was the home village of several prominent human rights activists,
who currently reside in Pacux (a former 'model village' that was controlled
by the military) on the outskirts of Rabinal. The village of Rio Negro now
lies under the water - in the flood plain created by the World Bank and
Inter-American Development Bank funded Chixoy hydro-electric dam.

Over several months in the early 80's, over four hundred community members
of Rio Negro were killed to make room for this dam project. Survivors of
this and other massacres were left in horrendous poverty and are still
struggling twenty years later.

Since the massacres, without government assistance and within a context of
on-going death threats and structural barriers, a handful of Indigenous
massacre survivors in Rabinal created the infrastructure needed to help
impoverished and traumatized Indigenous communities rebuild after the
genocide. This infrastructure includes: a community Museum that celebrates
local Mayan artisanry within the context of genocide; a legal aid clinic
that provides free legal services to local Indigenous people; and a widow's
organization that plays a fundamental role in the organization of political
activity on both a local and national level.

Another piece of the infrastructure that is being created in Rabinal for
dignity and justice is the Foundation New Hope. The Foundation is an
organization that creates educational opportunities for descendants of
victims and survivors of the Guatemalan massacres. Guillermo, a university
educated Indigenous man from Rabinal, uses his education and experience to
help the Indigenous people of Rabinal overcome some of the barriers that
they were born into. A significant part of his work is public education and
fund-raising. This tour has both of these goals in mind.

This tour is a fantastic opportunity to hear a very personable, committed,
and articulate person talk about the state of his community and their
struggle for dignity and justice. It is also an opportunity to assist an
organization that is providing education to Indigenous youth who otherwise
could never afford it.

We hope you will host an educational event for Guillermo. As Rights Action
is paying for all of the tour costs, we will be asking event organizers to
provide us with a speaker's honorarium and a chance to 'pass the hat.' All
proceeds from the tour will go to paying for the tour and then to Foundation
Nueva Esperanza.

Please forward this information to anyone who may be interested in hosting
educational events as part of this tour.

Thank you for your assistance, and I look forward to working with you!

In solidarity,
Vic Hill (416) 429-6578
guillermotour at yahoo.ca<mailto:guillermotour at yahoo.ca>

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