November 10, 2004 for immediate release


The UNBC Geography program will be hosting two Guatemalans with strongties to a bloody civil war that only ended eight years ago.

Guillermo Chen Morales is a human rights activist from Rabinal,a region identified by the United Nations as having lost 20% of itspopulation to state-sponsored violence and genocide during Guatemala's36 year long (1960-1996) civil war. Morales is a co-founder of EscualaNueva Esperanza (New Hope School), which encourages students tore-learn their history, language, and culture.

He will be speaking on Tuesday, November 16, at 7pm in Agora room 7-212.

Alan Robinson, a director of the Guatemalan ForensicAnthropology Foundation, will also be visiting UNBC next week. TheFoundation is the main organization working on the exhumation of massgraves throughout the Guatemalan countryside. The forensic work isproviding new clues about the genocide and is part of a long-termprocess of community healing and recovery.

Robinson will be speaking in an Economics class on Thursday, November18 at 1pm (open to the public) in 5-172 and an Anthropology class at4pm in 7-212 on the same day (also open to the public). He will also begiving a public lecture - titled, Guatemala: Exhuming the Truth - onFriday, November 19 at 7pm in Agora room 7-150. Admission will be bydonation.

This past summer, ten UNBC students participated in a Geography fieldschool in Guatemala. One of their destinations was Rabinal, where theywitnessed first-hand the work of Morales, Robinson, and theircolleagues.