The Good Within the Evil
After the tragic events of the Guatemalan genocide, the survivors were left with fear, horror, memories, and unanswered questions. The story of the survivors brings hope to people all around the world and it gives us insight on what these people went through. Let these survivors share with us the courageous and brave will to survive, their anger and their craving for the regaining of justice.
A spark of good can shine through an eternity of bad.
When we hear the word genocide, our first reactions are things like this: “genocide is horrible, genocide should never have happened, genocide is so tragic, so many people died!” In reality, genocide is all of the above but that is just an outsiders view. For a survivor, genocide is a horror that they will live with forever. For us it is just a sad fact that we heard about but for survivors, that is where the truth begins.
Our views on the people who committed genocide, the killers, are even more judgmental. The main word we use for these people are perpetrators which actually means someone who committed a crime of evil. Our views on the killers are things like: “how could they do such a thing, what monsters, they deserve to die, they are evil, they should never be forgiven, they have no right to be alive.” In reality, these are expectable things to say against these people for the crimes and horrors they committed. These killers did horrible things, things that are shared through survivor’s stories. A survivor of the Guatemalan genocide named Rigoberta Menchu tells of her experience of watching her brother die.
“My brother was tortured for more than 16 days. They cut off his fingernails, they cut off his fingers, they cut off his skin, and they burned parts of his skin. Many of the wounds, the first ones, swelled and were infected. He stayed alive. They shaved his head, left just the skin, and also they cut the skin off his head and pulled it down on either side and cut off the fleshy part of his face.”(Menchu,11)
What happened to Rigoberta’s brother was inexcusable; it was the type of situation where we would condemn the person who did this to death. Who wouldn’t? This sort of thing should never ever happen in the first place.
It is situations like this that makes us think of the killers as monsters. Which rightfully, they are, but what if there were some acts of good that shined through all the acts of bad every once and a while? Would that have an affect on or view?
Maybe not all killers who played part in the genocide were all evil even when most were.
Ramiro Cristales survived the Guatemalan genocide. All of the people in his village, including his parents and his six siblings were massacred. During the genocide Cristales was taken by the elite government force, the same force who killed his parents. (McAllester)
Ramiro Cristales was spared. He was taken away instead of being killed and was raised in the home of a killer as one of his own. He was taken by the killer of his family and raised by him for 15 years. Imagine the feeling of living with the person who killed your family. Imagine looking at the face of this person and all you see is the reason why you are utterly alone, the reason why your family is gone. In the act of murder and the choice to spare, there has to be a spark of good somewhere in the killer’s dark heart. Why was one out of a thousand children spared?
“When there were only twenty women remaining the patroller Pedro González called me and said: "I'm not going to kill you but you have to come with me to Xococ and help me with my work. I am only taking you because I have no children.” (www.pbs.org)
This piece of evidence shows mercy. It shows good in evil. By taking this child home and sparing him, Pedro Gonzalez committed at least one act of good. Even if it was just one act of god out of a thousand acts of bad, one little act of good can shine through many acts of bad.
We cannot justify why certain children were spared but we can at least justify and or believe a few different reasons for the reason of why they were spared. Maybe the killer felt a special connection with a certain child, which made it unbearable to kill. Maybe the killer yearned for children but did not have any and therefore “adopted” one from the massacre. No matter what the reason, a child was spared, an innocent life was saved. One child who might have had a family that survived was saved and then later on could have found his family because of him surviving. By saving one life, it can lead to a realization that more lives can be saved. Maybe by doing so much wrong and then committing one right can be the stop to such mass killings. It is important to recognize an act of humanity in an area where an act of humanity would not be expected because it can lead to more and more acts of good. By this sort of recognition, it helps realize that we have all done bad things in our life but we have also done good things. It helps us see the slight spark of humanity in people who are condemned to the description of “bad”. So I ask, can we condemn a person to an eternity of evil while a spark of good has been lit?
Sources:
"Mayan Genocide of Guatemala." - History Forum ~ All Empires. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.
"Black-Thought." : Guatemala. BBC News, Wed June 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.
McAllester, Matt. "Ramiro Remembers: Key Witness in Guatemala Massacre." GlobalPost. Global Post, May 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.
Duarte, Diana. "MyMADRE." 'myMADRE' N.p., Mar. 2011. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.
After the tragic events of the Guatemalan genocide, the survivors were left with fear, horror, memories, and unanswered questions. The story of the survivors brings hope to people all around the world and it gives us insight on what these people went through. Let these survivors share with us the courageous and brave will to survive, their anger and their craving for the regaining of justice.
A spark of good can shine through an eternity of bad.
When we hear the word genocide, our first reactions are things like this: “genocide is horrible, genocide should never have happened, genocide is so tragic, so many people died!” In reality, genocide is all of the above but that is just an outsiders view. For a survivor, genocide is a horror that they will live with forever. For us it is just a sad fact that we heard about but for survivors, that is where the truth begins.
Our views on the people who committed genocide, the killers, are even more judgmental. The main word we use for these people are perpetrators which actually means someone who committed a crime of evil. Our views on the killers are things like: “how could they do such a thing, what monsters, they deserve to die, they are evil, they should never be forgiven, they have no right to be alive.” In reality, these are expectable things to say against these people for the crimes and horrors they committed. These killers did horrible things, things that are shared through survivor’s stories. A survivor of the Guatemalan genocide named Rigoberta Menchu tells of her experience of watching her brother die.
“My brother was tortured for more than 16 days. They cut off his fingernails, they cut off his fingers, they cut off his skin, and they burned parts of his skin. Many of the wounds, the first ones, swelled and were infected. He stayed alive. They shaved his head, left just the skin, and also they cut the skin off his head and pulled it down on either side and cut off the fleshy part of his face.”(Menchu,11)
What happened to Rigoberta’s brother was inexcusable; it was the type of situation where we would condemn the person who did this to death. Who wouldn’t? This sort of thing should never ever happen in the first place.
It is situations like this that makes us think of the killers as monsters. Which rightfully, they are, but what if there were some acts of good that shined through all the acts of bad every once and a while? Would that have an affect on or view?
Maybe not all killers who played part in the genocide were all evil even when most were.
Ramiro Cristales survived the Guatemalan genocide. All of the people in his village, including his parents and his six siblings were massacred. During the genocide Cristales was taken by the elite government force, the same force who killed his parents. (McAllester)
Ramiro Cristales was spared. He was taken away instead of being killed and was raised in the home of a killer as one of his own. He was taken by the killer of his family and raised by him for 15 years. Imagine the feeling of living with the person who killed your family. Imagine looking at the face of this person and all you see is the reason why you are utterly alone, the reason why your family is gone. In the act of murder and the choice to spare, there has to be a spark of good somewhere in the killer’s dark heart. Why was one out of a thousand children spared?
“When there were only twenty women remaining the patroller Pedro González called me and said: "I'm not going to kill you but you have to come with me to Xococ and help me with my work. I am only taking you because I have no children.” (www.pbs.org)
This piece of evidence shows mercy. It shows good in evil. By taking this child home and sparing him, Pedro Gonzalez committed at least one act of good. Even if it was just one act of god out of a thousand acts of bad, one little act of good can shine through many acts of bad.
We cannot justify why certain children were spared but we can at least justify and or believe a few different reasons for the reason of why they were spared. Maybe the killer felt a special connection with a certain child, which made it unbearable to kill. Maybe the killer yearned for children but did not have any and therefore “adopted” one from the massacre. No matter what the reason, a child was spared, an innocent life was saved. One child who might have had a family that survived was saved and then later on could have found his family because of him surviving. By saving one life, it can lead to a realization that more lives can be saved. Maybe by doing so much wrong and then committing one right can be the stop to such mass killings. It is important to recognize an act of humanity in an area where an act of humanity would not be expected because it can lead to more and more acts of good. By this sort of recognition, it helps realize that we have all done bad things in our life but we have also done good things. It helps us see the slight spark of humanity in people who are condemned to the description of “bad”. So I ask, can we condemn a person to an eternity of evil while a spark of good has been lit?
Sources:
"Mayan Genocide of Guatemala." - History Forum ~ All Empires. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.
"Black-Thought." : Guatemala. BBC News, Wed June 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.
McAllester, Matt. "Ramiro Remembers: Key Witness in Guatemala Massacre." GlobalPost. Global Post, May 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.
Duarte, Diana. "MyMADRE." 'myMADRE' N.p., Mar. 2011. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.