Enduring Violence: Ladina Women's Lives in Guatemala - Paperback

by Cecilia Menjívar (Author)

Drawing on revealing, in-depth interviews, Cecilia Menjívar investigates the role that violence plays in the lives of Ladina women in eastern Guatemala, a little-visited and little-studied region. While much has been written on the subject of political violence in Guatemala, Menjívar turns to a different form of suffering--the violence embedded in institutions and in everyday life so familiar and routine that it is often not recognized as such. Rather than painting Guatemala (or even Latin America) as having a cultural propensity for normalizing and accepting violence, Menjívar aims to develop an approach to examining structures of violence--profound inequality, exploitation and poverty, and gender ideologies that position women in vulnerable situations-- grounded in women's experiences. In this way, her study provides a glimpse into the root causes of the increasing wave of feminicide in Guatemala, as well as in other Latin American countries, and offers observations relevant for understanding violence against women around the world today.

Front Jacket

A rare and groundbreaking contribution to the study of everyday violence. Richly textured by the experiences of Ladino women in eastern Guatemala, Enduring Violence is not only informed by, but serves to inform, cutting-edge theoretical debate which links multiple aspects of personal abuse and rights violations with broader structural and institutional factors. Menjívar's scholarly and sensitive monograph makes a profoundly persuasive case for an holistic conceptualisation of violence that positions women's human rights at the centre of development in 'post-conflict' and other developing states. A 'must read' for all interested in issues of gender, ethnic and other forms of social, economic and political injustice.--Sylvia Chant, London School of Economics and Political Science

"Violence in Guatemala can be a mind-numbing, though urgent and necessary, topic of study. Horrific data mount--from state sponsored genocide in the 1980s, to feminicide, lynchings and shadow state violence today--but clarifying analysis does not always follow. This insightful and beautifully crafted monograph is a welcome exception. Rather than recognizable interpersonal or overtly political acts, Menjivar focuses on the mundane insults and indignities that women endure, violence so 'normalized' that it often fades from view; she then turns standard causal reasoning on its head, arguing that these 'misrecognized' processes of daily dehumanization are profoundly diagnostic, an unexamined key to why the horrific data keep mounting. Though somber in content, Menjivar's book offers inspiring confirmation that innovative, engaged scholarship on intractable social problems can make a difference."--Charles R. Hale, University of Texas at Austin

"Enduring Violence is of great scholarly importance as it fills a gap in the literature about Guatemala and allows for a nuanced understanding of the ways that women live with violence in their everyday lives. Menjivar's focus on women's discourses of illness, surveillance and endurance is particularly insightful since these narratives symbolize the multiple levels of violence in women's lives and the often imperceptible practices through which a daily life with violence is mediated."--M. Gabriela Torres, Wheaton College

"Menjivar's deep commitment to shedding light on the many forms of violence that women experience is evident throughout her book. She effectively shows how the violence faced by women goes beyond physical violence and has structural origins as well in various forms. This is a great and informative work that needs to be read to understand the structural causes that bring injury to Guatemalan women."--Nestor Rodriguez, University of Texas at Austin

"In Enduring Violence, Cecilia Menjivar presents a perceptive and powerful account of the multiple and entwined layers of violence that permeate the lives of diverse women in Guatemala. The book offers both a valuable theoretical lens and a textured ethnographic analysis, which brings into sharp focus not only the most egregious forms of gender-based physical violence, but also a range of invisible injurious practices rooted in pervasive structures of inequality. Written with empathy, while retaining a critical edge, this accessible and insightful volume sheds light on complex political, economic, and social processes shaping the violent realities of many women in Latin America."--Barbara Sutton, author of Bodies in Crisis: Culture, Violence, and Women's Resistance in Neoliberal Argentina

"So much has been written about the spectacular agony of Central America's recent history. In Enduring Violence, Cecilia Menjivar seeks to understand the structures that gird no only the publicly visible violence but also the unspectacular, slow, often silent suffering that defines so many lives in the region. Her moving ethnography may explore the painful particulars of gendered existence in eastern Guatemala, but it also does so in such a way that reveals how deeply embedded inequalities can contort all human relations."--Ellen Moodie, author of El Salvador in the Aftermath of Peace: Crime, Uncertainty, and the Transition to Democracy

Author Biography

Cecilia Menjívar is Cowden Distinguished Professor of Sociology in the School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. She is the author of Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America (UC Press), among other books. Menjivar won the Julian Samora Distinguished Career Award from the Latino/a Sociology section of the American Sociological Association.