To the Mountain and Back

The Mysteries of Guatemalan Highland Family Life

 

Jody Glittenberg

 

Capturing the cultures of rural Guatemala in a uniquely vivid manner! Glittenberg’s involving account traces her work experiences in highland Guatemala and her own growth as a nurse, an anthropologist, and a person becoming aware of the world community. During her first trip she worked as an “unwelcome” visiting nurse at the famous Behrhorst Hospital. Later, she returns to Guatemala with her family to conduct a year of fieldwork in two highland towns—the Ladino town of Zaragoza and the town of Indian Power, Patzun. Her year is a richly colorful account of the puzzles and problems of two distinct cultures seized by poverty and oppression. Glittenberg returns once again in 1974, during a terrible time. The terror has increased, and the population has suffered a devastating earthquake. But this time she has come back to help, to make a difference and to give help in a country where once a personal crisis was how to order a scrambled egg.

Violence and Hope in a U.S.–Mexico Border Town