SHAKEN EARTH
by Martin Mariano Barillas
At
times the best way to learn about another country is not from an academic history
book, but rather from historical fiction, principally written by an author
whose family lived that history which was handed down orally through
generations. Such is Shaken Earth, a dynamic
first novel by Martin Barillas whose father lived in the Guatemalan era of the
1930s and beyond. This novel should be required reading for anyone traveling to
Guatemala today.
Guatemala
is home to many volcanoes and earthquakes, hence the name Shaken Earth, however the earth shakes in other ways there with
dark politics, insurrections and the overthrow of Central American governments
in order to build banana republic dictatorships created to accommodate United
Fruit Company and vast international coffee plantations. Barillas describes
Guatemala in the 1930s as a country “where there was a scrim of European
culture overlying a Creole blending of Spanish conquistador ethics and Maya
traditions with the addition of Yankee business and diplomatic acumen.”
