By Deborah R. DuPey ‘85
I wear my scarf in solidarity to the women of Guatemala and all the women of the world who are suffering oppression, gender discrimination and violence. The Guatemalan woman was named Anna. She sat across from me, holding her hands nervously in her lap. Occasionally she bowed her chin down a bit and looked shyly toward me, but mostly she looked straight in front of her, at the pale blue wall of her house. She is talking about the “time of violence”- the 36-year long civil war that tore her country in two. As a child, she and the other residents of this peaceful community lived in ravines for months, enduring rainstorms and living only on dried tortillas. Like most indigenous Guatemalans, Anna has dressed today in her traditional outfit. Her colorful Guipil (blouse) is embroidered in an array of bright flowers; her waist is narrowed and accented with a woven belt. Her eyes are a soft chocolate and her black hair is tied back in a neat ponytail. With her hands resting on her lap, she recounts a grim, sad story about how one of her neighbors had to smoother a newborn baby whose cries would surely bring the soldiers to their hiding place. Better one be taken, than all. I silently sob as I write her words in my tablet, my tears falling on the white paper. I am sobbing for the strong but wounded woman before me,
16
eAStern
sobbing for the 8-year-old girl who, 20-plus years ago, had her childhood torn from her so brutally. I am sobbing for all of us – the women in the world who sometimes seem to be only pawns in larger games of power struggles and war. Listening to Anna, and other Guatemalan women, I learned many of them were not only survivors of the war, but also domestic violence, and gender and ethnic discrimination. Their stories, and a desire to return to my creativewriting roots, drove me to interview them and, hopefully, to help in some way. The highlands of Guatemala are a long way from Spokane, and not where I imagined myself when I was studying creative writing at EWU in the mid-80s. For nearly 15 years I had worked in the field of violence against women and children in Washington state.
Deborah DuPey