Our lives have been touched and forever changed by our visit with Blanca and the work of FAMDEGUA…Families of Missing and Detained Persons in Guatemala. Our visit there this morning was powerful…here are a few photos to share with you as a partial description of our experience today.
- Karen Evenson (ke)
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- A somber Patrick after our visit with Blanca at the Families of Missing and Detained Persons on Wednesday morning.
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- Our FAMDEGUA host, Blanca, with Alejandro, our translator, and Clare
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- “The Mother of the Disappeared,” a figure used in this poster 12 years ago. A brown-skinned Mary holds an empty crown of thorns.
This poster is a contemporary icon by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM, of Olean, NY, and is titled, in Spanish, “Madre De Los Desaparecidos.” This icon is based on “Madre Dolorosa,” i.e., the “Sorrowful Mother.”
1976, Argentinean “Madres de Los Desaparecidos” began a silent protest in front of government offices. “They wore a white rose bud if they hoped their loved one was still alive, and a red rose bud for the dead. From Argentina, the march of the mothers spread to El Salvador and other countries.”
In the icon, “[s]he has no photograph to carry of her son, who was also abducted by a death squad and tortured to death, but she carries his crown of thorns. She wears both red and white rose buds, since she has become mother of all the disappeared.”
I am fascinated if this icon is prolific throughout Guatemalans’ homes.