TRANSCRIPT – LOS RETORNADOS / THE RETURNED

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Docwerkers presents

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In co-creation with the Return Community
Copal AA La Esperanza

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LOS RETORNADOS

A film by Tessa Boeykens and Pieter De Vos

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An armed conflict between state forces and left-wing guerilla  groups ravaged Guatemala between 1960 and 1996.

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Guatemala's military regime committed hundreds of massacres against  the rural  Maya population.

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More than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared.

Thousands  fled to Mexican refugee camps.

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In 1993, the survivors returned from Mexico to Guatemala.

They are known as ‘Los Retornados’.

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Welcome, Guatemalan brothers.

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They built new communities on land obtained from the government.

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'Copal AA La Esperanza' is one of these return communities.

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Today, the community fears that history is repeating itself.

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Welcome to this sacred spot.


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We, Copal AA La Esperanza,
are holding a sacred ceremony


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in honour of the victims
of the internal armed conflict


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that took place in this region,
to honour the more than 900 victims


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who died in different places
in this region,


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who died in these mountains,

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in the hills, in the streams
and in the rivers.


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Our brothers gave their lives
for this land.


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Here rest their souls,
their memories,


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but they are not dead,
they are with us.


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They give us the courage to speak,
the courage to live


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and the courage to work


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and to stand united,
as Guatemala's indigenous people.


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Let's start over.
It goes one, two...


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One, two, three.


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One more time.
One, two, three.


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All right?
Let's go. One...


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One, two, three.


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That was wrong.


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One, two... three.


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It's sad to think back on it.


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Once, a girl told me:
You can forget about it.


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She told me: Get in the river,
let the water wash over you,


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dip your head in the water,
wash your face,


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and that will erase your memories.


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No, I told her,
because if I go to the river,


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if I go to a stream,
I take my past with me.


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Perhaps I'm no longer living.
Perhaps I'm dead.


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I walk about,
and I hear the rustling of the leaves.


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And they sound sad.


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And when the wind blows,
at times it sounds like...


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The sound of tiny animals,
but it's a very loud sound.


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They screech and screech.
Some of them sound really sad.


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And you start listening to them,
amongst the trees,


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and you see the hills,
and then you think...


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I can't shake it, I said.
I'll never get it out of my head.


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I'm sure of that.


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War is  not a nice word to hear.
War brings sadness with it.


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Fear, too.

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If you ask an elderly woman
how she experienced the war,


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she will cry.
Many of them can't talk about it.


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They can still see in their minds
how their loved ones were killed,


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their home set on fire
and their village razed.


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All of this is like a film in their mind.


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We fled, we survived the armed conflict
and we returned


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to the land that is ours.


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Some of you will have heard
that you were born in Mexico.


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Not you, perhaps.
You were born in Copal AA,


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since we've been living here
for 20 years now.


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But some of your big brothers and sisters
will have been born in Mexico,


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not because your parents wanted that,


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but because the war forced
many people to flee.


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Here, you can see the first refugee camps
in Mexico.


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After over twelve years in Mexico,


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we realised that we had to return
to our homeland.


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Go and have a look at the photos.
There's a little bit of everything there.


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Those are bones that were found,
belonging to the people who were killed.


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Forensics experts dug them up.
Here, you can see a skull.


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It still has a shred of a headscarf.


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Here, you see another exhumation.
They found another burial pit with bones.


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These people lived in Ixil.
Their families cried for their loved ones.


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They didn't know who they were,
but these bones were exhumed then, too.


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This photo was taken
in the jungle of Ixcán.


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A group of guerrillas stands in formation
in the mountains.


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Here you see two almost identical faces.


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Let's ask Don Hugo.
Don Hugo, this is you, isn't it?


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When we founded the association,
we divvied up the land equally.


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No one got more or less.
Seeds were also distributed equally,


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so that no one got more or less
than anyone else.


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In this community, there is a rule
that whoever cuts down a tree


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has to sow three or seven new trees.
We're required to sow forests.


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That was the decision that was taken.


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To me, it's very important
that we finally have land of our own.


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I no longer have a boss exploiting me,
oppressing me,


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mistreating me
or discriminating against me.


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Now, I'm my own boss.


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That is freedom.


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If everyone has land,
everyone can live.


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A lot of blood has been shed
for that piece of land.


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This is the land they gave us


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to replace the land
they took from us in the past.


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And we are trying to protect it
for the next generation.


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The fight continues.


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We are now at Xalalá.


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A bit farther upstream,
there is a gully


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the river flows down,


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and they want to disrupt
the Chixoy River there.


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The Xalalá  project is a dam.


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The biggest problem is
that the river will dry up.


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That means the people living here now
will have to leave their land.


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The dam will flood
a vast swathe of land,


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land that is now worked
by our brothers farther upstream.


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We were victims of the civil war,
they took our land

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and now we risk falling victim
to the Xalalá dam.


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That's precisely what we don't want.
So, this is our fight.


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We don't want them blocking the river.


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This tree is at least 150 years old.


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It has stood in this spot for that long.
We've dubbed it Ujushte.


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In Q'eqchi', we call it Aax.


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It provides food for us and for animals.


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It produces a kind of maize
you can turn into a tortilla or eat plain.


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You can also use it to make empanadas
or bake it into bread.


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If there is ever a maize shortage,


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the tree can feed me,
and my grandchildren.


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And my great-grandchildren after that.
They can live off of it.


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100 years from now,
they shan't die of hunger.


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I often think back on my friends,
my comrades in arms who died.


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I lived through the Sa' Laguna massacre.
The army executed the attack


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in the afternoon on September 23, 1983.


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We were attacked by an army patrol.


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We had set up camp
on this bank of the Chixoy River,


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just south of here.


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28 people died that day,


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including two pregnant women
and an old lady.


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They made the bodies disappear,
so that word wouldn't get out,


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so there would be no proof
of what had happened.


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It still affects me a little bit mentally,
but...


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In my dreams perhaps.
In my nightmares and dreams.


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Then I'm with them,
walking with them.

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When I perform my ceremony,
I also call on my comrades in arms


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who drowned or were shot,
who were killed in beatings or by bombs.


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I summon their spirits, their energy,
during a Day of the Dead ceremony.


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I'm happy when I can help them.


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I make an offering, so their soul,
their spirit, doesn't suffer.


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Here, you have food.
Smell it, eat it up, spiritually.


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Then I'm satisfied,
because I'm talking to them.


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I speak to them, and they respond.
If the fire flares up,


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the spirits of the dead, of those
who died back then, are answering.


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What, exactly, happened in...


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In Río Negro?


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Right now, the Río Negro dam
is producing electricity.


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There was a community there,
and the people living along the river


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started to express
their discontent with the project,


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so they were persecuted.


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We had a meeting
with one of their leaders,


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a survivor of the civil war,
of the massacre,


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and she told us that
seventy-odd men, women and children


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were driven up a hill,
where they were killed.


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They were all inhabitants of Río Negro.


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That's how they were able
to push through the Río Negro dam


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against the locals' will.


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They killed all of those people
so they could build the dam.


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And... Do you think that is how it will go
with the dam they want to build in Xalalá?


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Is that how it will go?


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Many people say that the war is over.


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But it's not.
The war isn't over.


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It has entered another phase.


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There's no more armed conflict,
but now they want to kill us politically.


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The situation is starting to look
more and more like it did in 1982.


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Local leaders are being abducted again.


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People who defend the locals
are being killed again.

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Guatemala is hit by a new wave of state violence and land grabbing.

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Rural communities are evicted to make room for large-scale  mining,  energy and agricultural projects.

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State and paramilitary actors  with ties to Guatemala’s elite are targeting community leaders.

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Some have been threatened or kidnapped. Others  are being killed or jailed.

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In the year 2015,


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we had to stop a military unit.


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They invaded,
and we had to defend the Chixoy River


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against the planned dam.


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We didn't want to let the army through.


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It happened in the morning,
around nine o'clock, more or less.


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At about nine or ten o'clock.
The men had all left the village for work.


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I ran into the street, screaming:
The army is here, but we're not leaving.


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And all of the women chanted:
We don't want the army here.


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Life is good here.
We don't need the army's help.


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No, no, no.
We don't want to see you here.


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You terrified us in the past.
You killed people. Children, too.


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They said:
We're not like that now.


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Your uniform hasn't changed,
and neither have you.


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No, they said.
You shall not pass, I said.


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I still believe in the ideas and ideology
of the revolutionaries.


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You never forget them. You stay
true to those principles until death.


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You always think about your people,
your family, your generation.


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That never stops.


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You carry it in your heart.


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You belong to your people,
a group that has suffered.


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Many of the people who returned
are ex-combatants.


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They fought for their people,
for the cause,


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against injustice
and for their own family.


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For their land.


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In Copal AA, we have experience with
resistance, organisation and training.


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We are no longer fighting with weapons,
but with ideas.


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In that way, we are still defending
our home, our land, our territory.


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They praise us for being good
at organising and conducting politics,


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but economically, we are poor.


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Money doesn't matter much to us.


00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:37,200
What we're interested in
is living in peace.


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We want a dignified life
for all members of our community.


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This message is directed
at everyone in the community.


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We want to remind
the entire community


00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:14,640
that today, at two o'clock,
we are meeting in the communal kitchen.


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Defending our territory is on the agenda.


00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:25,240
Once again, I would like to call on


00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:28,280
everyone in the community,


00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:30,920
everyone in the community,


00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:35,240
and remind you of our meeting,
which will take place at two...


00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:43,240
Many people say that
we are against development.


00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:45,280
No, we are not.


00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:50,200
We are against the way in which
it is forced on us. That is our enemy.


00:27:50,360 --> 00:27:55,200
This land is ours.
As Guatemalans, we have a right to it.


00:27:55,360 --> 00:28:01,600
We are Mayas, and we've got documents
that protect us as such,


00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,600
but that is not respected
in this country.


00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:11,080
That's how the war started
in the Eighties, in 1982:


00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,240
with the abduction
of local and religious leaders.


00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,640
They were killed. They were tortured
in churches and schools.


00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:23,560
That's how it started. They used
the same method they're using now:


00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:25,920
kidnapping local leaders.


00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,000
Why were they abducted?
Because they led a community.


00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,000
Because they led a group of people.


00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:39,520
That was the crime for which the
Guatemalan Army abducted and killed them.


00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,280
The question we must ask ourselves is:


00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:48,520
What are we going to do
if they abduct or kill one of our leaders?


00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:50,760
It has already happened in Barillas.


00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:55,280
There, they found leaders killed,
their arms cut off,


00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,760
without heads or feet,
in a grain sack.


00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:05,120
If we don't call a halt to this,
we risk returning to the 1980s.


00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:10,440
I think the threat is greater now.


00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:14,720
What we're experiencing now
is more dangerous, I think.


00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:21,680
No to the dam...
Xalalá.


00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:23,640
Rivers for a dignified life.


00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,840
We can live without electricity,
not without water.


00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,720
It is important for us,
as indigenous Mayan people,


00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:52,400
to protect our identity,
so that youths, children,


00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:59,160
can carry on the culture
of their grandparents, of their parents,


00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,840
and stand up for our right
to self-determination,


00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,080
for our way of governing
and living together,


00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:11,000
for our customs and traditions,
for our way of organising.


00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:15,760
That's the crux of the matter.
This community isn't lacking any of that.


00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:26,720
History is kind of a revision
of the future.


00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:31,680
If you look at the present,
you can look ahead


00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:35,160
to where we, as people, are headed.


00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,960
I'm already packing my bags


00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:52,560
to meet the spirit.


00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,160
In a place where I can't be seen.


00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:59,600
But that doesn't make me sad.
It doesn't worry me.


00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:03,680
I tell what I've seen,
what I know, more or less.


00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:07,120
That's my commitment.


00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:20,680
We also call on the energy
of the hills, the rivers and the forests.


00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,880
Big companies are taking
the rivers, the hills and the valleys.


00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,320
They're stealing our air.
They're stealing everything.


00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:31,600
They do major construction projects.


00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:35,400
They want to wipe us out.
This is no longer an armed conflict.


00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,840
They take our water,
our air and our land from us.


00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:44,360
They hunt down our leaders,
but they don't scare us.

00:32:00--> 00:32:11

A regional  opposition movement led by Copal AA succeeded in putting the Xalalá  project on hold.

00:32:12--> 00:32:23

But governments and elites continue to promote extractive industries in indigenous  territories,  in Guatemala  and beyond.

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As the Copaleros say: La lucha sigue!

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I love Mother Earth.

Directed by Pieter De Vos


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I love nature.

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In co-creation with the Return Community Copam AA La Esperanza

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I love the living water.

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Without all of that, I wouldn't be alive.

Originated from a participatory and visual ethnography by Tessa Boeykens

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I won't give up

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CAST
Hugo Evaristo Caal
Juana García Domingo
Clemente Velasquez
Juan Morales Sames
Amilcar Oxom
Students Instituto Básico Nuevo Amanecer (IBNA)
José Gómez
Los Francos
Moisés Reynoso Ramos
The Copal AA La Esperanza community


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until I can enjoy my rights.


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Out of love, I can stop a bullet
with my chest.


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Love is what keeps me fighting.

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Out of love,
I'll keep on fighting fearlessly.


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Danger doesn't frighten me.


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A life without risk is no life at all.


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Out of love of your land,


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you will find a way out.


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I won't give up


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until I can enjoy my rights.


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Out of love, I can stop a bullet
with my chest.


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Love is what keeps me fighting.


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Out of love,
I'll keep on fighting fearlessly.

00:33:55 --> 00:35:11

Written by
Tessa Boeykens and Pieter De Vos

Camera
Pieter De Vos

Field producer
Tessa Boeykens


With logistical and substantive support from the indigenous authorities and ADECO-UNZ

Production assistants
Lucas Ramires Felix
Aldo Yovany Pérez Alvarado

Editor
Leslie Verbeeck

Additional editing
Maria Cadenas, Pieter De Clerck

Color grading
Xavier Dockx

Audio mixing
Mathieu Savenay - Studio Henri

Title design
Tessa Boeykens & Jelle Martens

Original music
Benjamin Struyfs

'Si es por Amor'
Los Francos de Copal AA la Esperanza


Transcripts
Gerardo Caal Ixim

Subtitles
Piet De Meulemeester

Archival footage provided by the community Copal AA la Esperanza

 
Thanks to

IBNA Copal AA, Grupo de Mujeres Copal AA,
Las Águilas y Unión Defensoras,
COCODE Copal AA,
ADECO-UNZ Copal AA,
Consejo Ancestral de Copal AA,
Consejo Ancenstral de Nimlajacoc,
Hotel Monja Blanca, Estéla Pérez Martínez,
the Huet-Macz family,
Municipality of Herent, Nimlajacoc Regional Center,
Maria Luisa Col


Geert Veuskens, Edwin Atema, Berber Bevernage, Koen Aerts,
Maud Seuntjes, Eva Willems, Maarten Hendriks,
Luca Boeykens, Linde De Vroey, Willy Boeykens, Marleen Van Dijck
Eline Mestdagh, Jelle Martens, Ruth Aerts, Magalie Teunen
Katrien, Marc, Pol, Sofie, Stijn, Astrid, Francis, Laura, Anaclara, Camilo
Lies Michielsen,
Sam, Vic and Frida


Special thanks to the community Copal AA La Esperanza


With support from FWO-Flanders, VLIR-UOS and the Belgian Development Cooperation