Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala

by Kirsten Weld

Overview

In Paper Cadavers, an inside account of the astonishing discovery and rescue of Guatemala's secret police archives, Kirsten Weld probes the politics of memory, the wages of the Cold War, and the stakes of historical knowledge production. After Guatemala's bloody thirty-six years of civil war (1960–1996), silence and impunity reigned. That is, until 2005, when human rights investigators stumbled on the archives of the country's National Police, which, at 75 million pages, proved to be the largest trove of secret state records ever found in Latin America.

The unearthing of the archives renewed fierce debates about history, memory, and justice. In Paper Cadavers, Weld explores Guatemala's struggles to manage this avalanche of evidence of past war crimes, providing a firsthand look at how postwar justice activists worked to reconfigure terror archives into implements of social change. Tracing the history of the police files as they were transformed from weapons of counterinsurgency into tools for post-conflict reckoning, Weld sheds light on the country's fraught transition from war to an uneasy peace, reflecting on how societies forget and remember political violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822376583
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	03/21/2014
Series:	American Encounters/Global Interactions
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Kirsten Weld is Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Power of Archival Thinking Part I: Explosions at the Archives Chapter 1: Excavating Babylon Chapter 2: Archival Culture, State Secrets, and the Archive Wars Chapter 3: How the Guerrillero Became an Archivist Part II: Archives and Counterinsurgency in Cold War Guatemala Chapter 4: Building Counterinsurgency Archives Chapter 5: Recycling the National Police in War, Peace, and Post-Peace Part III: Archives and Social Reconstruction in Postwar Guatemala Chapter 6: Revolutionary Lives in the Archives Chapter 7: Archives and the Next Generation(s) Part IV: Pasts Present and the Future Imperfect Chapter 8: Changing the Law of What Can Be Said, and Done Chapter 9: Conclusion: The Possibilities and Limitations of Archival Thinking Notes Bibliography Index

What People are Saying About This

Kate Doyle

"Kirsten Weld's book is a tremendous achievement, chronicling the improbable, stunning, and heroic recovery of a lost archive of repression in Guatemala while recounting the story of a society trying to save itself. If the police files are the cold, bureaucratic residue of the counterinsurgent state, Weld's tale glows with the lives, loss, hopes, and fierce political commitment of the archivist-activists who dared to defy their country’s history of terror and dream of justice. Brilliant."

Editorial Reviews

"Future historians who consult the PN archives will benefit immensely from this fine-grained anatomy of it; more broadly, scholars of Latin America and other regions, too, will learn much from Paper Cadavers, particularly as they ponder how the production and organization of their sources affects their scholarship."

--David Carey Jr. "Ethnohistory"

"Paper Cadavers is a creatively crafted combination of ethnography and historiography that demonstrates the complex process through which academic, national, and personal histories are produced in tandem. Kristen Weld fulfills the promise of interdisciplinarity by expertly combining the engaged anthropology of participants with the historian's concentration on reconstructing narrative. . . . Paper Cadavers is a most welcome historical narrative, and not only because of the inherent excitement of its subject or even because it is accessible and readable to lay and expert audiences alike."--M. Gabriela Torres "The Americas" (7/1/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Paper Cadavers is not a compilation of the archives' contents but rather a meditation on the relationship between archives and national history, accompanied by an account of the transformation of a rotting warehouse into the scene for writing history, and an exploration of the perceptions of the people who carried out this work. . . . [B]rilliant and essential. . . ."--Stephen Henighan "Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies"

"'Essential reading' is an apt way to sum up Paper Cadavers. The book weaves together issues of transitional justice, human rights, historical memory, and state terror. Rich in original insight, it is of equal use to scholars and students and promises to be much cited and assigned." --J. T. Way "Hispanic American Historical Review"

"In a sense, Weld's book isn't really about history at all. It's a book about a country that's been run badly off the rails, where every day is characterized by appalling violence, impunity, and by state institutions that are either, as she puts it, "totally ineffectual or deeply enmeshed in organized crime." But what you can't help but wonder, thanks to Weld's insightful and engrossing work, is how much better Guatemala's situation might now be if it hadn't lost generations of student leaders, trade unionists, intellectuals and idealists, the very kinds of people it needs to face its intractable problems."--Peter Canby "The Nation"

"Kirsten Weld's Paper Cadavers is an extraordinary book. It is a multistranded tale of intrigue, of power, and of struggle skillfully woven together by the author.... Paper Cadavers is a first-rate work of history and historical production that importantly demonstrates the power of a rapprochement between anthropology and history."--Linda Green "American Anthropologist" (6/1/2016 12:00:00 AM)

"One of the most compelling sections of the volume is Weld's interviews with volunteers who worked in the archives and their motivations for doing so, including coming to terms with the experiences of disappeared relatives and friends. A thoughtful addition to the emerging discussion on understanding archives in the wake of human rights violations of repressive regimes. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above."--E. A. Novara "Choice"

"The book Weld has written, entitled Paper Cadavers: Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala, is brilliant and engrossing, told with the passion the topic deserves.... A study of surveillance and secrecy and of the courageous few that expose that power, Paper Cadavers is a book for us all."--Deborah T. Levenson "ReVista"

"Weld's Paper Cadavers is a beautifully written, utterly absorbing history of the Guatemalan police archives. . . . Paper Cadavers is a model for rigorous, engaged scholarship: Weld herself worked as a volunteer on the project for six months, helping reconstruct the archives of counterinsurgency, and continues to be committed to the project. Her book is also highly readable."--Molly Geidel "American Quarterly" (6/1/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Weld's chronicle of their efforts is extraordinary, less about an archive as a historical information source and far more about an archive as a subject, a history-maker in its own right."--Brian Bethune "Maclean's"

"Weld's combination of academic rigor and inside access to the human-rights activism that propelled the project is an important subtheme woven throughout the text. The tension between these two roles also informs her central argument that the process of reconstructing the National Police Archive provides a lens through which scholars can better understand not only Guatemala's armed conflict, but also the struggle to make sense of that conflict after it ended in 1996. . . . Paper Cadavers is a valuable contribution to the study of state-sponsored violence and historical memory, because Weld's innovative questions focus not on the documents themselves but, rather, on the archive. In this sense, Paper Cadavers carves out its own space in a well-developed literature on Cold War violence in Latin America. . . . [T]he book's clear writing makes it an option for advanced undergraduate courses that provide the necessary context for students to interpret her argument."--Stephen Dove "History: Reviews of New Books" (10/1/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Weld's publication is a serious contribution to archival literature. Weld places front and centre the activities carried out within the archival walls in human rights struggles. While this is about the police archives of Guatemala, it is also about archives in general and the sometimes strained and tenuous positions in which they find themselves in relation to the powers that fund, operate, and sanction them. Even for archivists who have visited the country or who live there, not only is it reaffirming to examine archival practice and theories in a very real world setting, seeing the challenges and benefits of our professional process through this particular lens, but it is also revelatory of our own subjectivity in what we do."--Heather Home "Archivaria"

"Weld's skillfully deployed 'dialectical' method makes a compelling case that historical research on such questions cannot take the constitution of the archive itself for granted. She has inspired us to explore the historical processes underlying the creation of the data we collect, while reflecting critically on the relationship between this data (including that which might have existed) and the core values that drive our research."--Charles Hale "American Historical Review"

"What Weld offers is an updated, much more compelling and theoretically sophisticated case study of why popular historical knowledge and struggles over archives matter so much and the role a politically engaged scholar might play in the process."--Julie A. Gibbings "Canadian Journal of History"

From the Publisher

Paper Cadavers is a creatively crafted combination of ethnography and historiography that demonstrates the complex process through which academic, national, and personal histories are produced in tandem. Kristen Weld fulfills the promise of interdisciplinarity by expertly combining the engaged anthropology of participants with the historian’s concentration on reconstructing narrative. . . . Paper Cadavers is a most welcome historical narrative, and not only because of the inherent excitement of its subject or even because it is accessible and readable to lay and expert audiences alike.

The Americas - M. Gabriela Torres

Weld’s Paper Cadavers is a beautifully written, utterly absorbing history of the Guatemalan police archives. . . . Paper Cadavers is a model for rigorous, engaged scholarship: Weld herself worked as a volunteer on the project for six months, helping reconstruct the archives of counterinsurgency, and continues to be committed to the project. Her book is also highly readable.

American Quarterly - Molly Geidel

"Weld’s publication is a serious contribution to archival literature. Weld places front and centre the activities carried out within the archival walls in human rights struggles. While this is about the police archives of Guatemala, it is also about archives in general and the sometimes strained and tenuous positions in which they find themselves in relation to the powers that fund, operate, and sanction them. Even for archivists who have visited the country or who live there, not only is it reaffirming to examine archival practice and theories in a very real world setting, seeing the challenges and benefits of our professional process through this particular lens, but it is also revelatory of our own subjectivity in what we do.

Archivaria - Heather Home

Weld's skillfully deployed ‘dialectical’ method makes a compelling case that historical research on such questions cannot take the constitution of the archive itself for granted. She has inspired us to explore the historical processes underlying the creation of the data we collect, while reflecting critically on the relationship between this data (including that which might have existed) and the core values that drive our research.

American Historical Review - Charles Hale

"Kirsten Weld’s Paper Cadavers is an extraordinary book. It is a multistranded tale of intrigue, of power, and of struggle skillfully woven together by the author.... Paper Cadavers is a first-rate work of history and historical production that importantly demonstrates the power of a rapprochement between anthropology and history."

American Anthropologist - Linda Green

What Weld offers is an updated, much more compelling and theoretically sophisticated case study of why popular historical knowledge and struggles over archives matter so much and the role a politically engaged scholar might play in the process.

Canadian Journal of History - Julie A. Gibbings

One of the most compelling sections of the volume is Weld’s interviews with volunteers who worked in the archives and their motivations for doing so, including coming to terms with the experiences of disappeared relatives and friends. A thoughtful addition to the emerging discussion on understanding archives in the wake of human rights violations of repressive regimes. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Choice - E. A. Novara

Future historians who consult the PN archives will benefit immensely from this fine-grained anatomy of it; more broadly, scholars of Latin America and other regions, too, will learn much from Paper Cadavers, particularly as they ponder how the production and organization of their sources affects their scholarship.”

Ethnohistory - David Carey Jr.

"Weld’s chronicle of their efforts is extraordinary, less about an archive as a historical information source and far more about an archive as a subject, a history-maker in its own right."

Maclean's - Brian Bethune

The book Weld has written, entitled Paper Cadavers: Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala, is brilliant and engrossing, told with the passion the topic deserves…. A study of surveillance and secrecy and of the courageous few that expose that power, Paper Cadavers is a book for us all.

ReVista - Deborah T. Levenson

"'Essential reading' is an apt way to sum up Paper Cadavers. The book weaves together issues of transitional justice, human rights, historical memory, and state terror. Rich in original insight, it is of equal use to scholars and students and promises to be much cited and assigned." 

Hispanic American Historical Review - J. T. Way

In a sense, Weld’s book isn’t really about history at all. It’s a book about a country that’s been run badly off the rails, where every day is characterized by appalling violence, impunity, and by state institutions that are either, as she puts it, “totally ineffectual or deeply enmeshed in organized crime.” But what you can’t help but wonder, thanks to Weld’s insightful and engrossing work, is how much better Guatemala’s situation might now be if it hadn’t lost generations of student leaders, trade unionists, intellectuals and idealists, the very kinds of people it needs to face its intractable problems.

The Nation - Peter Canby

Weld’s combination of academic rigor and inside access to the human-rights activism that propelled the project is an important subtheme woven throughout the text. The tension between these two roles also informs her central argument that the process of reconstructing the National Police Archive provides a lens through which scholars can better understand not only Guatemala’s armed conflict, but also the struggle to make sense of that conflict after it ended in 1996. . . . Paper Cadavers is a valuable  contribution to the study of state-sponsored violence and historical memory, because Weld’s innovative questions focus not on the documents themselves but, rather, on the archive. In this sense, Paper Cadavers carves out its own space in a well-developed literature on Cold War violence in Latin America. . . . [T]he book’s clear writing makes it an option for advanced undergraduate courses that provide the necessary context for students to interpret her argument.

History: Reviews of New Books - Stephen Dove

Paper Cadavers is not a compilation of the archives' contents but rather a meditation on the relationship between archives and national history, accompanied by an account of the transformation of a rotting warehouse into the scene for writing history, and an exploration of the perceptions of the people who carried out this work. . . . [B]rilliant and essential. . . .

Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies - Stephen Henighan

"Kirsten Weld's book is a tremendous achievement, chronicling the improbable, stunning, and heroic recovery of a lost archive of repression in Guatemala while recounting the story of a society trying to save itself. If the police files are the cold, bureaucratic residue of the counterinsurgent state, Weld's tale glows with the lives, loss, hopes, and fierce political commitment of the archivist-activists who dared to defy their country’s history of terror and dream of justice. Brilliant."

Kate Doyle

"Kirsten Weld should have a theorem named after her. Call it Weld's Paradox: the more a state engages in surgical, almost microscopic surveillance of its citizens—which, one would think, would limit the amount of actual violence that is needed to maintain control—the more likely it is to perpetuate indiscriminate, scattershot mass terror. By following the team of archivists working through the more than 75,000,000 documents found in Guatemala's recently discovered police archives, Weld, in her methodologically innovative and brilliantly conceived Paper Cadavers, provides an unparalleled look into the paperwork of state repression and the forensics of justice. In so doing, Weld provides crucial historiographical grounding to much of the airy theorizing concerning the relationship of knowledge to power, or, better, ink to blood."

Greg Grandin