History of the hanged woman
Voices and images: Mayan Ixil women of Chajul
Chapter One: La Violencia and Its Effects
1. History of the hanged woman
The woman recounts that her husband and her son had already been assassinated by the time she and her daughter had gone to live in the town. Since their belongings remained behind in their village, they had nothing to live on and suffered a great deal. She and her daughter decided the daughter would go to their village to get some food. Even if it was just greens, it would still be something. The daughter saw an opportunity to go when the civil patrol (PAC) was going out to patrol. She asked if she could go with them since she trusted them to protect her and keep her safe. When she went up to the side of a road just near her village to cut chanac (a soap plant), the patrol fell into a guerrilla ambush. But, what was the reaction of the patrol towards the woman? They seized her and blamed her for luring them into the ambush and they took her as a prisoner to the Chajul military base.
When they got to the town, they sent word to her mother, informing her that her daughter had been captured by the patrol. So her mother went running to help her daughter and she said, “This is my daughter. She’s not a guerrilla.” The daughter had already been handed over to the army base, and it was already really late, maybe around five in the afternoon. Even so, her mother tried to get her daughter out, but no one would listen to her at all. Later in the night she took the baby with her to ask the commander of the civil patrol (PAC) for help. She said to him, “Please, let my daughter go free.” With tears she was pleading with the man, saying to the commander, “Look how much the baby is crying. Please free his mother.” Well, the woman fought incredibly hard to save her daughter, but the commander did not do her the favor of freeing her daughter. The commander - it didn’t bother him even to kill her. He was just fine, stretched out on his bed, while the woman was crying, pleading for her daughter. But the commander wouldn’t help her and he didn’t want to listen to her. Rather, he told the woman to leave. “Get out of my house and if you don’t do what I say then you’ll stay here too because here is your father whom you must obey.” He threatened the woman with his weapon, which was right beside him. This really frightened the woman so she left. She could say nothing more because if she did they were going to kill her. She couldn’t help her daughter because now she couldn’t do anything at all.
She went home that night, but on the next day she heard the sound of the bell being rung. That sounding of the bell signifies death according to army tradition. If they sound the bell it’s to gather the people of the town. Just at that moment, they came to inform the woman that they were going to execute her daughter by hanging. She was filled with sadness for her daughter’s fate because the hour of her death had arrived and there was no reason for it. The woman hoisted the baby on her back and left to see her daughter, but she couldn’t endure watching her daughter’s death. She was very frightened for herself and also for her grandson whom she carried on her back. Nevertheless, she saw that her daughter was still hanging and she asked them if they could take her daughter down. She told them that her baby needed to nurse because he was dying of hunger from so much crying. But the soldiers wouldn’t allow it. They said, “We don’t need children here, so get out,” and so the woman left. She hid because she didn’t want to see what they were going to do to her daughter. And that’s how her daughter died. She died even though she was innocent.
Interviewer: The story of this event was recorded in 1998 and, all the while she recounted the history of la violencia in 1982, the woman cried and cried. She felt sadness, pain, worry, and anguish. The daughter was hung in front of the municipal building with all the people looking on because they were forced to watch the soldiers carry out their justice. But this was not justice, because they killed honorable people, people who were without blame.
We hope that the war will never return, that what we suffered will never happen again, because this history is so terrible, so horrifying.
[Foto T3-N12: ENTREVISTA CON LA MAMA DE LA MUJER COLGADA]
