Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Stoll, David.
Between Two Armies in the Ixil Towns of Guatemala
. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1993. A controversial book postulating the theory that the Ixil Mayans
of Nebaj, Chajul, and Cotzal were not so much enamored with revolutionary possibilities
for social change as much as simply caught between the opposing fires of the military and
guerrilla forces with widely differing sociopolitical agendas.
Stoll, David.
Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans
. Boulder, Color-
ado:WestviewPress,1999.Alsoquitecontroversial,thisworkdirectlychallengesmuchof
the testimony presented by Rigoberta Menchú in her autobiography as embellishments or
fabrications while granting that the atrocities described therein were accurate depictions of
events during the civil war.
Wilkinson, Daniel.
Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in
Guatemala
.NewYork:HoughtonMifflin,2002.Parttravelogueandparthistorybook,this
is a fascinating, well-written account of the American author's experience in Guatemala; it
managestouncovermanyoftheissuesrelatingtotheoriginsandunfoldingofGuatemala's
civil war as told by those who survived the violence.
Central America
LaFeber,Walter.
Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America
.NewYork:
W.W.Norton,1993.Traces thehistorical rootsofCentral America'sarmedconflicts along
with the role of U.S. hegemony in perpetuating them.
Travelogues
Benz, Stephen Connely.
Guatemalan Journey
. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. A
humorous, insightful, and well-written account of an American traveler's experiences liv-
ing in Guatemala during the late 1980s.
Huxley, Aldous.
Beyond the Mexique Bay
. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers,
1934. A classic take on early 20th-century travel in Guatemala by a well-known author.
Shaw, Christopher.
Sacred Monkey River: A Canoe Trip with the Gods
. New York: W. W.
Norton,2000.Asuperblywrittenadventure-travelnarrativepackedwithhistoricalandnat-
ural history anecdotes about the mighty Usumacinta River, which flows along the Mexico-
Guatemala border.
Stephens, John Lloyd.
Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán
. New
York:DoverPublications,1969.Aclassicbookandamust-readforthetravelertoGuatem-
ala, also featuring the fantastic illustrations of Stephens's friend and traveling companion
FrederickCatherwood.Itcreatedquiteaninterestintheregion,particularlyitsMayansites,
when it was first published in 1841.
