Media Work
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NISGUA Articles and Interviews

Mother to Tell of Terror Behind 'Disappeared'
Spokesman Review
by Kelly McBride Staff writer
October 20, 2001

Blanca Hernandez scheduled her speaking tour of the Northwest before Sept. 11. She planned to talk to churchgoers and college students about the suffering of Guatemalans at the hands of their own government.

Since Sept. 11, she hopes people will be able to hear her better. Because ultimately, what Hernandez wants to talk about is justice and terrorism, about looking for people who will never be found, about living in fear.

Hernandez is one of the founding members of FAMDEGUA, the Association for Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Guatemala. Her son was ``disappeared,'' as they say in Guatemala, in 1984. He is one of 55,000 people who simply vanished without a trace since 1980, when the Guatemalan military took control in a bloody coup. He was 22. ``You suffer now and we truly understand,'' she said through a translator during a phone interview Friday. ``And we understand your need to seek justice.''

Hernandez, 56, is hoping that since Sept. 11, residents of the United States will better understand others who live in constant fear.

When she founded FAMDEGUA along with other mothers of the missing nine years ago, she was surprised how common their stories were, once they began to tell them.

Living in fear takes a toll, she said. First you fear for your own life, then for those you love.

Then you become afraid of those around you, your neighbors, the police, she said.

``You become fearful of everything, everybody,'' she said.

Then comes the isolation, imposed from both the inside and the outside. People get impatient and want you to move on, she said. Families of the victims get frustrated with the lack of justice.

Then comes the suspicion. People don't trust each other, they don't trust the authorities, they don't even trust their own perceptions.

``It changes your whole life,'' she said.

But there are healthy ways to counter the erosion that terrorism causes on families and communities, she said.

``One thing is to sympathize with other things that have happened, other violence that people have suffered,'' she said.

Individuals need to know the laws that govern their own communities and use those laws in their own favor, she said. Education is crucial, she said.

``We need to educate other people to say no to war and the destruction of human life,'' she said.

Finally, she said it is important to think of the children

When her oldest son disappeared, Hernandez said thinking of her three children kept her going.

She hopes her trip to the United States can stimulate international pressure on Guatemala, where in spite of democratic elections, military violence persists against civilians who dare to speak out.

``I am coming to ask you to stand in solidarity with us,'' she said. ``Only through justice can we arrive at reconciliation.''