A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.
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The Community, a Hard Life, But Good
Until its destruction in 1982, the community of Rio Negro was located on the bank of the Chixoy River (also known as the Rio Negro, or Black River), in the department of Baja Verapaz. The valley itself had been inhabited by Mayans since the classic Mayan age (300 AD to 900 AD) and was the site for several ceremonial burial places.
The land was a source of livelihood for the villagers, as well as a link to their Mayan past and culture. The Rio Negro community owned 1,440 hectares of land. Roughly half was privately owned. The rest was used by the whole community for pasture and firewood.
Villagers grew crops and fruit trees along the valley, fished in the river, and herded cows on the hills. The women made handicrafts out of the petate palm, which they sold in the nearby market town of Rabinal. The journey took eight hours on foot. The survivors remember it as a hard life, but good.
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