Meet the Summer Interns: Healing the wounds of war
Jesse Mattleman's project, summer 2008
 Jesse Mattleman '11 is traveling to Guatemala this summer to pursue an internship offered through the Holocaust and Genocide Studies concentration. Jesse will be interning with Primeros Pasos, a non-government organization (NGO) based in Quetzaltenango, a city in the highlands of Guatemala that is home to a large population of Mayan people. Primeros Pasos works to empower the people of Quetzaltenango and the surrounding communities by providing free healthcare and health education to children and their families through its walk-in clinic and community education programs. Jesse will work as a community child health educator as well as a clinical assistant in Primeros Pasos' main health facility.
Jesse writes that
"Guatemala's Civil War, which lasted for a brutal 36 years ending in 1996, specifically targeted indigenous Mayans and Mayan supporters. Through direct atrocities and forms of less direct, structural violence, the Mayan people of Guatemala were subjugated, isolated, and treated inhumanly. Guatemalans as young as myself have seen war, terrorism, genocidal massacres, robberies, kidnappings, civil unrest, poverty, despair and more. Moreover, the threat this recent violence and continued discrimination poses towards erasing indigenous people and their culture is very real, and must be remedied.
"The 1996 Peace Accords, among other peacekeeping plans, pledged that Guatemala and its leaders would work towards erasing ethnic discrimination against Mayans. With this, Mayan access to proper and adequate health care was promised; however, the ladino-dominated Guatemalan government has yet to follow through on any large-scale efforts to support healthcare facilities and fund medical professionals in traditionally Mayan regions. Primeros Pasos works to offset this imbalance in access to health care, thereby restoring human rights for Mayans in Quetzaltenango and allowing for equal opportunity despite the tumultuous past.
"Guatemala is close to my heart as last year, before coming to Clark, I took a gap year. During that year, I lived and worked in Guatemala through an NGO, splitting my time between an orphanage for abandoned children and a government-funded health clinic on the outskirts of the capital city in a squatter's settlement. In the clinic, I talked with many Mayan patients, learned about indigenous mythology and superstition surrounding health issues, heard personal accounts of the civil war, and witnessed the mental and physical wounds of the war inflicted on these patients. The work and setting sparked my interest in the Guatemalan Civil War and the social inequity that still exists in its wake. Nearly every person I encountered in Guatemala had some memory of wartime, whether a wife whose husband had disappeared, a scientist working in forensics to uncover and identify bodies, or a child who can still recount times of military occupation. This both fascinated and horrified me, and motivated me to learn more about the Civil War and the ways it dehumanized and dishonored the Mayan people. Moreover, my time in Guatemala instilled in me a deep sense of urgency to bear witness to the experiences of the Mayan people in the wake of their tragedy and support efforts to help them rebuild and sustain their peaceful, indigenous culture. I am so excited to begin!"
Jesse has agreed to share with us, via email, news of her trip to Guatemala this summer. Check the email link in the sidebar to see what she's doing.
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