The literature coming out about the communities around Guatemala’s Lake Atitlán is abundant. Some of this literature is the result of individual or community efforts to document Maya oral tradition. The indigenous writers in this region working on the revitalization of Maya culture write openly, as opposed to Ignacio Bizarro Ujpán, who continues to write anonymously (keeping a diary) as a paid worker for James D. Sexton. This is the case with the recently published volume Joseño: Another Mayan Voice Speaks from Guatemala, which is a product of this collaborative work of secret documentation.
This volume contains the diary of Ignacio Bizarro Ujpán (pseudonym) covering the years from 1987 to 1998. The material consists of brief journalistic accounts of daily life and events in his own community, as well as from the communities around Lake Atitlán. These vignettes deal with a variety of issues: armed conflict, human rights abuses...
