"I Was in Lucida"

1.) What does the poet say that she has been to Lidice?

Esquivel mentions that she is in Lidice because she's at a museum. She walks through the museum and sees all the horrid things that the Nazi's had done to the citizens of that village. She compares what she is seeing to the chaos that she experienced in Guatemala.


2.) The poet comments on how strange it is to look through strocity through windows at museums. How is this emotion unique from actually being involved in the atrocity?\

The emotion is unique for the poet because she's seeing it from an outsiders perspective. Although they experienced the same tragedy, it was a different feeling for her to see it from a different way.

3.) Esquivel writes, "And now, my heart in shreds, I think of the Super-Nazis/ in the Pentagon/ who have created more than 200 Lidices/ in my Guatemala/ sheltered by thr diplomatic marketplace/ of false Western democracy." What does she mean by this? Why does she reference the Pentagon and "false Western democracy?" Please expound on what you already know and research any questions that you might have.

When the poet writes, "And now, my heart in shreds, /I think of the Super-Nazis/ in the Pentagon/ who have created more than 200 Lidices/ in my Guatemala/ sheltered by thr diplomatic marketplace/ of false Western democracy,"  she's thinking about the United States. The United States took a big part in the killings of the Guatemalan people buring the Guatemalan Civil War. Our country had no idea of who they made alliances with. Esquivel looks back of what her people experienced and is sick of the ammount of people who had died in the massacres that the United States was involved in.

4.) Esquivel speaks to the fact that massacres are not a new concept in Guatemala. Do some research and write about one particular massacre that has occurred in Guatemala. Be sure to include locations as well as how many people are affected. What was the army's motive? Include all relevant information.

 The Dos Erres  massacre on December 6, 1982 was under the "de facto" presidency of Efrain Rios Montt. It was a massacre in a village called Dos Erres where two hundred people - including women, the elderly, and children - were slaughtered. In October of 1982, guerillas ambushed an army convoy near Palestina. They had killed twenty one men and took all of their weapons (total of nineteen rifles). On December 4 1982, a total of fifty-eight of Guatemala's special force agents were flown into the area and ordered to dress like the guerillas and to kill all the guerrilla sympathisers. Later on that day, they forced every citizen in the village out of their houses. Killing every single one of them by; seperating children from their parents and killing them by bashing their heads against a tree, interrogating the men and killing them by penetrating their heads with a hammer, and raping the women and ripping out the foetusses of pregnant women.