Radicalisation and political crisis: the personal transitions of a Guatemalan social Christian militant, 1942–1981

Abstract

This article examines the life of Mayan-K’iche’ social Christian activist Emeterio Toj Medrano. Through in-depth interviews, complemented with work in archives located in Guatemala and the United States, the article reconstructs how Emeterio developed and used personal tools to assess the moments of political crisis and radicalisation scenarios that he had to face during the Guatemalan experience of the inter-American Cold War. Taking into account different aspects of Emeterio’s life – his K’iche’ identity and historical memory, spheres of influence, narratives, militant activities and so on – helps us to understand specific dimensions in the process of political deterioration between certain social layers of central Highlands K’iche’ population vis-à-vis the Guatemalan military regime. In articulating these local and national processes, his life also helps us to understand the different local nuances that characterised the polarisation of the Central American isthmus during the 1970s. The article is part of a historiographic trend that emphasises the importance of taking into account the personal scale to explain domestic, regional and global processes.