The returnees: Poverty caused by the war

Chapter One: La Violencia and Its Effects

5. The poverty of the returnees caused by the war

They are quite affected by everything that has happened in their lives. When they were telling us this very sad story, they started recalling everything that happened during la violencia. They are overcome with great sadness because they lost all their possessions. While they were telling us their story, I, the interviewer, felt so sad for them, because they had to survive in the mountains. If they hadn’t fled, perhaps they wouldn’t be alive today, but it meant they had to put up with all kinds of suffering.

Because of the armed conflict, the soldiers threatened them with death and that is why they had to take refuge in the mountains, and there they were threatened and massacred. The villages were bombed everyday and the people experienced hunger and had to survive without clothes, without food, without even a roof over their heads.

They are happy because now they are back in their villages, back in their homes -- although very poor -- they are now at peace. Before la violencia they weren’t sick, but now they are quite sick. They are thinking of cultivating their lands and sowing their corn. They don’t want to suffer anymore and they don’t want what happened before ever to happen to them again.

We women are doing the interviews in the villages so we can know the reality of Chajul and, through the stories about the photos that we are taking, one sees the effects of la violencia. They are asking us for help in addressing their basic needs. We hope that they will rebuild a better life for themselves. The people shouldn’t suffer anymore, because they have already suffered too much.