[act-ma] Guatemala Forum @ Tuft's this weekend

[Brian O'Connell]

Building Understanding through International Learning and Development (BUILD), a student-led sustainable development program of the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University, is proud to present No Alcanza: Voices from Guatemala’s Enduring Search for Peace, to be held February 4-6, 2010. This international forum aims to highlight the international relevance of Guatemala, its ongoing sociopolitical struggles, and its implications on the everyday lives of Americans. Additionally, the forum seeks to be a catalyst for awareness and fundraising for the continuing development of Santa Anita la Unión, a community emblematic of Guatemala’s historical tragedies and contemporary challenges. Santa Anita is a small coffee cooperative composed of resettled guerrilla combatants and refugees from the Guatemalan Civil war, which plagued the country from 1960-1996. More than 200,000 people were killed in those 36 years, with more than 1.2 million people internally displaced and nearly half a million fleeing across international borders as refugees and asylum-seekers. In 1996 all parties to the conflict signed a set of Peace Accords, yet Guatemala’s social tensions and the root causes of conflict remain unaddressed and smolder under layers of complacency, corruption, and continued violence. 

The No Alcanza Forum aims to bring together academics, scholars, professionals, and every day men and women who drive the contemporary struggle for equality and development in Guatemala. The Forum will provide attendees with the opportunity to directly hear from and interact with men and women who fought in the country’s civil conflict, as well as experts and professionals from the fields of agriculture, development, migration, drug trafficking, and gang violence, who will speak to the international relevance of a country so often forgotten under today’s headlines. The Forum will include speeches, panel discussions, film screenings, interactive workshops, small group discussions, and art exhibitions which will all serve to provide a more appropriate and accurate depiction of one community’s struggle and an entire country’s ongoing fight for something more. Overall, the Forum seeks to provide a sense of hope that in the future we will no longer hear the cries of “No Alcanza” from the Guatemalan people, a hope that smoldering memories can be extinguished and laid to rest, and a hope that peace will finally hold its ground after centuries of instability and fear. 

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4 (Terrace Room-next to Miner Hall)
5:00-6:00PM Speakers Reception (invitation)
6:30-7:30PM From Mountain to Mug: How Coffee Gets to Your Cup
8:00-8:10PM Formal Introduction
8:10-9:30PM The Guatemalan Civil War: Perspectives on the Clandestine Conflict

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5 (Cabot Auditorium)
12:30-1:50PM Lunch and Discussions (prior registration)
2:00-2:30PM The Power of Collaboration: BUILD Guatemala and Santa Anita la Unión
2:30-3:30PM How Fair is Fair Trade?
3:30-5:00PM U.S. Consumers and Local Agricultural Development
5:15-6:30PM Santa Anita la Unión: Emblem of the Past, Hope for the Future

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6 (Cabot Auditorium)
12:00-1:30PM Caught in Trafficking: Gang Violence, the Drug Trade, and Youth
3:00-4:15PM Coming and Going: Migration, Displacement, and Reintegration
4:30-5:30PM Concluding Address: Ambassador Villagrán
5:30-5:45PM Final Remarks
5:45-7:00PM Dinner with Ambassador Villagrán (invitation) 		 	   		  
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