Event Title
Por la Patria y la Revolución: Sifting through Guatemalan Military Archival Materials
Presentation Type
Poster/Portfolio
Presenter Major(s)
Spanish
Mentor Information
Andrew Schlewitz
Department
Area Studies - Latin American Studies
Location
Henry Hall Atrium 30
Start Date
11-4-2012 9:00 AM
Keywords
Historical Perspectives, Social Science
Abstract
What explains the Guatemalan military's intervention in politics and its eventual take over of the government in 1963? One answer is ideology, and if ideology matters, then it would make sense to look at the education of interventionist officers in Guatemala. To find the link between education and militarism, I spent two months sifting through declassified military documents in Guatemala. This poster presentation describes my biggest challenges and key finds as I dug through military academy documents, piecing together the fragments and shards of relevant information. Focused on the years immediately before and after the 1944 Revolution, the documents revealed a highly centralized institution in which every minute detail of the Guatemalan military academy had to be reported. While the Revolution did little to change that, I was able to piece together evidence of an ideological shift in terms of how officers perceived their institution and their role in Guatemalan national development.
Por la Patria y la Revolución: Sifting through Guatemalan Military Archival Materials
Henry Hall Atrium 30
What explains the Guatemalan military's intervention in politics and its eventual take over of the government in 1963? One answer is ideology, and if ideology matters, then it would make sense to look at the education of interventionist officers in Guatemala. To find the link between education and militarism, I spent two months sifting through declassified military documents in Guatemala. This poster presentation describes my biggest challenges and key finds as I dug through military academy documents, piecing together the fragments and shards of relevant information. Focused on the years immediately before and after the 1944 Revolution, the documents revealed a highly centralized institution in which every minute detail of the Guatemalan military academy had to be reported. While the Revolution did little to change that, I was able to piece together evidence of an ideological shift in terms of how officers perceived their institution and their role in Guatemalan national development.