Lexington Books
Pages: 218
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-4985-3326-3 • Hardback • December 2016 • $109.00 • (£84.00)
978-1-4985-3327-0 • eBook • December 2016 • $103.50 • (£80.00)
Marcia Esparza is sociologist and associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. She is the Founder and Co-Director of the Historical Memory Project (HMP).
Carla De Ycaza teaches at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University and serves as editor of Dialogues on Historical Justice and Memory Network at Columbia University.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Why Remember the Rescuers in Latin America?
Marcia Esparza and Zachary McKiernan
Chapter 1: Rescued From Fear: The Sebastian Acevedo Movement Against Torture in Chile
Christopher Ney
Chapter 2: Bending the Rules: An Ambassador's Quest to Save Lives
Pascale Bonnefoy
Chapter 3: The Santo Tomás Chichicastenango's Municipal Firefighters: "Green Pines Covering the Dead Bodies"
Marcia Esparza, Stephanie Alfaro and Kristy Sanandres
Chapter 4: Strategic Rescue Responses to Genocide: The Guatemalan Case
Roddy Brett
Chapter 5: Between Memory and Oblivion: The Cases of Eureka and Afadem
Isabel de León Olivares, Maribel Rivas-Vasconcelos and Miriam Rodriguez
Chapter 6: From Rescue to Solidarity: (Re) Humanizing Relationships for Social Transformation
Jenny Escobar and Angie Tamayo
Chapter 7: Argentine Rescuers: A Study on the "Banality of Good"
Jessica Casiro
Conclusion: On the Moral Value of Rescue and Remembering Rescuers: Conceptualizing Rescue in the Latin American Context
Jeffrey Blustein
About the Contributors and Editors
The least noticed aspect of genocide is the courageous resistance that is often put up to save the victims. This collection shows how victims were helped during Cold War violence in Latin American countries including Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. The rich exploration of historical cases enhances our general understanding of "rescue", showing that it is not just a matter of bystander intervention but of solidarity among victims. This is an important collection that deserves a wide readership.
— Martin Shaw, emeritus, University of Sussex
A much-needed and relevant collection of essays on a rarely studied topic—rescuers of human rights violations in Cold War Latin America. Who were the rescuers and how and why did they risk their lives to save others? By examining cases arising in a number of national contexts, the volume provides a valuable contribution to previous discussions about the figure of the “rescuer” and the political and moral duty to remember that have long characterized Holocaust studies. It explores the tension between a historically and geographically broader reading of acts of humanity on one hand, and concrete historical contexts on the other, delivering hopeful and inspiring insights.
— Nina Schneider, Global South Study Center (GSSC), University of Cologne