Documentation

Guatemala and the rest of the world for the first time ever heard about the suffering in the voices of the Indian victims themselves on Para Nunca Olvidar. Lotte Holmen produced 16 testimonial accounts with Mayans who mostly never before told their story to anyone. Below you wíll find the full Spanish transcripts of all the testimonials in pdf.

(requires Acrobat reader)

     Since over 50% of the population is illiterate the testimonials were produced for radio being the most important media in the country. The aim was to use the Mayans favorite medium (the spoken word) to give them access to their own history and thus help in the psychosocial rehabilitation of the traumatized.  
 
     In the 16 moving and very personal accounts the Mayan-Indians recount the atrocities still being concealed by their own country. The essence of the project is a wish never to forget what happened in Guatemala. Since the victims are fearful of persecution all names, localities and faces are concealed.  
 
     In both form and content the radio programs are completely extraordinary for Guatemala. Under the slogan "democratizando la palabra" (democratization of the spoken word) they are intended for broadcast on FGER's (Federation of Educational Radio in Guatemala) local stations in both Spanish and in a number of Indian languages. 
 
      Eight of these testimonials you may hear in short versions on the testimonials page in an online illustrated multimedia presentation. All the photographs from the presentation may be found on the illustrations pages. To get the full audio version purchase a CD with mp3 files at cost.  
 
      The Documentation is published as pdf-files in full text and with a complete analysis of each persons vocabulary for linguistic analysis in a separate document. Finally all words used in the 16 testimonials are collected and published.