Margarita Melville Papers

Mandeville Special Collections Library

The UCSD Libraries

9500 Gilman Drive

University of California, San Diego

La Jolla, California 92093-0175

Phone: (858) 534-2533

Fax: (858) 534-5950

URL: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/

Descriptive Summary

Creator: Melville, Margarita B., 1929-

Title: Margarita Melville Papers,

Date (inclusive): 1967 - 1993

Extent: 3.60 linear feet (9 archives boxes)

Abstract: Papers of Margarita Melville, a former Maryknoll sister and human rights activist, that document revolutionary movements in Guatemala from the 1960s through 1993. Revolutionary groups represented in the collection include Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (FAR), Guatemala Human Rights Commission and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG). The collection mainly consists of flyers and distributions published by the revolutionary groups.

Repository: University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.

La Jolla, California 92093-0175

Collection number: MSS 0272

Language of Material: Collection materials in English

Access

Collection is open for research.

Acquisition Information

Not Available

Preferred Citation

Margarita Melville Papers, MSS 0272. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.

Publication Rights

Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.

Biography

Margarita Melville, a former Maryknoll sister known as Marian Peter, was born in 1929. From the summer of 1954 until 1967, she was in Jacaltenango, a remote community in Huehuetenango in Guatemala's western highlands. The work performed there by Melville and other sisters led to augmentation of programs that brought the children of the elite to work among the poor in the highlands. Melville started a number of the Maryknoll Sisters' key social programs including girl scout troops and an experimental school called Monte Maria.

Beginning in 1966, she began to associate with members of rebel groups in Guatemala, including FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes), the military wing of the Guatemalan Labor (Communist) Party or PGT. Her work with these groups continued until 1967, when the Maryknoll Sisters supervisor expelled Melville and a few others from Guatemala for their activism.

She married Father Thomas Melville (after both had left the religious order), a Maryknoll Brother who was expelled and wrote THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, THE U.S. HOLOCAUST IN CENTRAL AMERICA. They became a part of a group of expelled clergy still working to help the poor of Guatemala. This group planned to participate in other Guatemalan guerrilla movements, but threats forced them back to the United States. They settled in Washington, D.C., and continued to foster awareness about Guatemala. Melville is the author of TWICE A MINORITY: MEXICAN AMERICAN WOMEN, and has become a teacher on Latin American issues.

Scope and Content of Collection

The papers of Margarita Melville, a former Maryknoll Sister named Marian Peter, are related to revolutionary movements in Guatemala from the late 1960s through the 1990s. Materials include fliers, newsletters, manuscripts, propaganda materials, and subject files.

The papers are arranged in six series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) ORGANIZATIONS, 3) NEWSLETTERS AND BULLETINS, 4) SUBJECT FILES, 5) WRITINGS OF OTHERS and 6) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.

SERIES 1: CORRESPONDENCE

This series is mostly miscellaneous personal correspondence from 1985 to 1986.

SERIES 2: ORGANIZATIONS

The ORGANIZATIONS series contains manifestos, founding documents, and other materials (1967-1993) on revolutionary groups in Guatemala, including the Centro de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala (CDHG), the Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP), the Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (FAR), the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (CHRCC), the Guatemala News and Information Bureau (GNIB) and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG).

SERIES 3: NEWSLETTERS AND BULLETINS

The NEWSLETTERS AND BULLETINS series contains the ENFOPRESA newsletter for years 1984 to 1987 and NOTICIAS DE GUATEMALA from 1986 to 1990.

SERIES 4: SUBJECT FILES

The SUBJECT series includes information on the Central America Peace Plan in 1988, files on the Catholic Church in Central America, information collected on the Indians of Guatemala, human rights issues, and the testimonies of refugees from Guatemala.

SERIES 5: WRITINGS OF OTHERS

The WRITINGS OF OTHERS series contains the Melville's collection of writings on the situation in Guatemala from the 1960s to the 1980s. The writings include articles on the indigenous people of Guatemala, the background of the conflict between the government and the rebel groups, land issues, and racism.

SERIES 6: ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES

The ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES series contains the originals of brittle or high acid content documents that have been photocopied.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects

Melville, Margarita B., 1929- -- Archives

Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (Guatemala)

Guerrillas -- Guatemala

Maryknoll Sisters -- Guatemala

Guatemala -- Politics and government -- 1945-1985

Collection Contents

CORRESPONDENCE

box 1, folder 1

Carmen to Melvilles 1985 - 1986

box 1, folder 2

Cruz, Willy and Gustavo 1972

box 1, folder 3

Eugenia, Caly 1986

box 1, folder 4

Miscellaneous Correspondence

box 1, folder 5

Vasquez, Miguel and Marina 1986

ORGANIZATIONS

box 1, folder 6

Agencia Centroamericana de Noticias ACEN-SIAG, June 1986

box 1, folder 7

Amnesty International 1984

box 1, folder 8

Amnesty International

Note

"Guatemala: Extrajudicial Executions and Human Rights Violations Against Street Children", July, 1990.

box 1, folder 9

Association in Solidarity with Guatemala (ASOGUA), "The Voice of the Quetzal" 1980 - 1981

box 1, folder 10

Central America Research Institute (CARIN), Central America Bulletin, June 1986

box 1, folder 11

Centro Exterior de Reportes Informativos sobre Guatemala (CERI-GUA) 1987 - 1988

box 1, folder 12

CERI-GUA 1988

box 1, folder 13

CERI-GUA 1989 - 1990

box 1, folder 14

Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala (CDHG) 1982 - 1986

box 1, folder 15

CDHG, Testimonials about the Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil (PAC) en Huehuetenango, November 1985

box 1, folder 16

Comité Indio 1984

box 1, folder 17

Comité Interamericano de Desarrollo Agricola (CIDA) - Tenencia de la Tierra - Guatemala 1967

box 1, folder 18

El Comité Nacional de Unidad Sindical en el Exterior (CNUS-EX) 1985

box 1, folder 19

Convergencia Revolucionaria 1987 - 1988

box 1, folder 20

Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP)

box 1, folder 21

EGP, Estrategia y Tácticas 1975

box 1, folder 22

EGP, Lecturas y Testimonios - El Camino de Paxil, Sebastian Guzman: Principal de Principales 1982

box 1, folder 23

EGP - Los Pueblos Indígenas y la Revolución Guatemalteca 1982

box 1, folder 24

EGP, Manifesto 1979

box 2, folder 1

EGP - Various

box 2, folder 2

Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (FAR) 1967 - 1969

box 2, folder 3

FAR 1982 - 1989

box 2, folder 4

FAR - Contribución al Analisis de la Situación Actual

box 2, folder 5

FAR - Cuestión étnico-Nacional 1987

box 2, folder 6

FAR - Guatemala en Lucha 1982

box 2, folder 7

FAR Statement 1984

box 2, folder 8

FAR Statement - Pablo Monsanto, February 1986

box 2, folder 9

Grupo Crater, Directorio

box 2, folder 10

Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) 1986 - 1988

box 2, folder 11

GHRC 1989 - 1990

box 2, folder 12

Guatemala News and Information Bureau (GNIB) 1986

box 2, folder 13

GNIB 1987

box 2, folder 14

GNIB 1988

box 2, folder 15

GNIB 1989

box 3, folder 1

GNIB Contacts

box 3, folder 2

GNIB Grants

box 3, folder 3

GNIB Land Reform articles 1986 - 1987

box 3, folder 4

GNIB Newsletters 1976 - 1992

box 3, folder 5

GNIB, "Report on Guatemala", Vol. 14, Issue 1 1993

box 3, folder 6

Guatemala Scholars Network 1984 - 1985

box 3, folder 7

La Iglesia Guatemalteca en el Exilio - Iglesia de Guatemala: "Apprendiendo de la Historia", January 1987

box 3, folder 8

La Iglesia Guatemalteca en el Exilo, Publications 1984 - 1989

box 3, folder 9

Informador de Guatemala, October - December 1982

box 3, folder 10

Integración de Indigenas Mayas (IXIM) 1988

box 3, folder 11

IXIM, Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo 1983

box 3, folder 12

Justicia y Paz - Inter-Religious Task Force, Central America

box 3, folder 13

El Movimiento Campesino Indigena

box 3, folder 14

Movimiento Cooperativista Guatemalteco (MCG), Testimonio 1984

box 3, folder 15

Movimiento Indio de Guatemala, "Ch'olnoj Maya" 1984

box 4, folder 1

Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NSIGUA) 1981 - 1987

box 4, folder 2

Octubre Revolucionario

box 4, folder 3

Octubre Revolucionario, Opinion Politica 1985 - 1990

box 4, folder 4

Guatemala - Organización del Pueblo en Armas (ORPA)

box 4, folder 5

Panorama Nacional 1986

box 4, folder 6

Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo (PGT) 1987 - 1988

box 4, folder 7

Programa de Ayuda Para los Vecinos del Altiplano (PAVA) - Displaced Report 1984

box 4, folder 8

Reivindicaciones Indígenas Revolucionarias

box 4, folder 9

Servicio de Información de Análisis de Guatemala (SIAG), El golpe de Mejia Victores 1983

box 4, folder 10

Taller Artesanal JA C'amabal I'B 1986

box 4, folder 11

TEMAS 1982 - 1987

box 4, folder 12

Turcios/MR13 1965

box 4, folder 13

Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG), Boletín Internacional 1986 - 1987

box 4, folder 14

URNG - Various informational materials

NEWSLETTERS AND BULLETINS

box 5, folder 1

The Defense Monitor 1984 - 1993

box 5, folder 2

Enfoprensa, February - June 1984

box 5, folder 3

Enfoprensa, July - December 1984

box 5, folder 4

Enfoprensa 1985

box 5, folder 5

Enfoprensa 1986

box 5, folder 6

Enfoprensa 1987

box 5, folder 7

Focus: Newsletter of the Office of the Americas, July 1997

box 5, folder 8

Infopress: Centroamericana, April 1988

box 5, folder 9

News and Analysis, Council on Hemispheric Affairs 1986

box 5, folder 10

Noticias de Guatemala 1986 - 1987

box 5, folder 11

Noticias de Guatemala 1988

box 5, folder 12

Noticias de Guatemala 1989

box 5, folder 13

Noticias de Guatemala 1990

box 6, folder 1

Noticias de Guatemala

box 6, folder 2

U.S. Newsletters

SUBJECT FILES

box 6, folder 3

Alvarez-Marroquin, Maria Concepción - Request for Asylum in the U.S.

box 6, folder 4

Anthropology Resource Center (ARC) - Sandy Davis

box 6, folder 5

Captura de E. Toj 1981

box 6, folder 6

Central America Peace Plan 1988

box 6, folder 7

Central America Resource Center

box 6, folder 8

Church History in Costa Sur, Guatemala

box 6, folder 9

Declaración de Jeronimo Camposeco Rojas

box 6, folder 10

Declaration of the Meeting of Communist Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean 1975

box 6, folder 11

Farnsworth Interviews, 1987- "Voices from Guatemala"

box 6, folder 12

Father Giron and the Land Movement in Guatemala 1987

box 6, folder 13

FTN Development Project 1975

box 6, folder 14

Guatemala Land Reform

box 6, folder 15

Guatemala's Bureaucracy of Death - G-2

box 6, folder 16

Guatemalan Coops

box 6, folder 17

Guatemalan Evangelicals 1988

box 6, folder 18

Guatemalans "Disappeared" 1984 - 1985

box 6, folder 19

Historia de la Iglesia desde 1954

box 6, folder 20

Iglesia Guatemalteca en el Exilio (IGE)

box 6, folder 21

Indian Question - ORPA, EGP, PGT

box 6, folder 22

Indian Refugees - Articles

box 6, folder 23

Interview: Lider Movimiento Pro - Tierra/Manz

box 6, folder 24

Ja C'Amabal I'B Cultural Center

box 7, folder 1

Jesuits in Zone 5 of Guatemala

box 7, folder 2

Legislative Update on Guatemala 1989

box 7, folder 3

Letter to the Friends of EGP, February 1984

box 7, folder 4

Luya/Talks - Newsclippings

box 7, folder 5

Massacres and Human Rights

box 7, folder 6

Mayan Revitalization

box 7, folder 7

Military in Guatemala (various)

box 7, folder 8

El Movimiento Indígena - Tojil

box 7, folder 9

Responses to "Bureaucracy of Death" - The New Republic 1986

box 7, folder 10

Socialization Interviews

box 7, folder 11

Story of Antonio Alvarado - Sr. Marian Pahl

box 7, folder 12

Testimonios de Refugiados Guatemaltecos en México - Raquel Saravia

box 7, folder 13

Testimony of Rene de Leon Schlotter

box 7, folder 14

Testimony of Soldado via Chavez 1986 - 1988

box 7, folder 15

Vatican 1991

WRITINGS OF OTHERS

box 7, folder 16

"II Consulta Ecuménica. Aporte de los Pueblos Indígenas de America Latina a la Peologia Cristiana" 1986

box 7, folder 17

Alvarez, Francisca. "Derechos Indígenas en Guatemala," December 1 1986

Note

Ponencia Presentada.

box 7, folder 18

Barros, Sally Margaret. "International Aid: An Indigenous View"

Note

"The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Guatemala, 1950-1960", May, 1983.

box 7, folder 19

Bodenheimer, Susanne. "Crucifixion By Adams", BERKELEY JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 1971 - 1972

box 7, folder 20

"Breve Análisis Sobre la Situación en Guatemala", January 1986

box 8, folder 1

Brockett, Charles D. "Background to the Conflict: The Right to Food, Agrarian Change and U.S. Aid Policy..." 1983

box 8, folder 2

Brown, Charles E. "Motivation for Guerilla Warfare", August 20 1973

box 8, folder 3

Camposeco, Jeronimo. "El Movimiento Indígena Frente a la Represión en Guatemala"

box 8, folder 4

Carmack, Robert M. "Indians and the Guatemalan Revolution", Cultural Survival, Inc. 1983

box 8, folder 5

Cojti-Cuxil, Demetrio. "Problemas de la Identidad Nacional Guatemalteca"

box 8, folder 6

Dennis, Philip A., Gary S. Elbow and Peter L. Heller. "Development Under Fire: The Playa Grande..."

Note

Texas Tech University, 1984-1986.

box 8, folder 7

History of "Diocesis de Huehuetenango"

Note

In Spanish.

box 8, folder 8

"Documento Básico del FGEI (Frente Guerrillero Edgar Ibarra) de las FAR y que origino el EGP" 1967

box 8, folder 9

Elbow, Gary S. "Determinants of Land Use Change in Guatemalan Secondary Urban Centers"

Note

PROFESSIONAL GEOGRAPHERS, 1983.

box 8, folder 10

Falla, R. "Análisis de la Declaración de la Urng Con Ocasión de la Vista del Papa a Guatemala" 1983

box 8, folder 11

Falla, Ricardo. "El Movimiento Indígena", GUATEMALA: DRAMA Y CRISIS SOCIAL, June 1978

box 8, folder 12

Falla. "Situación del Movimiento Revolucionario Guatemalteco", November 1984

box 8, folder 13

Feder, Ernest. "The New Penetration of the Agricultures of the Underdeveloped Countries..."

Note

OCCASIONAL PAPERS, 1975.

box 8, folder 14

Galileo, Jacinto. "La Hora de Nuestro Pueblo" 1982

box 8, folder 15

Green, Linda. "Fear as a Way of Life", CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1994

box 8, folder 16

Greenlee, Mel. "Asylum Policy in Action: The Case of Guatemala's Kanjobals", May 1990

Note

International Development Policy and Law Final Paper.

box 8, folder 17

Gruzmán, Sebastián. "Camino de Paxil"

box 8, folder 18

"Guatemala 1984-1986: Un Pronóstico Sobre el Acontecer Economico y Politico", INFOPRESS CENTROAMERICANA 1984

box 8, folder 19

"Guatemala: Crisis Social y Actualidad de la Revolución"

box 8, folder 20

"Guatemala Indian Problem"

box 8, folder 21

Guatemalan Military in Quiche...

Note

Article in Spanish.

box 8, folder 22

Guerra-Borges, Alfredo. "La Cuestión Agraria, Cuestión Clave de la Crisis Social en Guatemala", November 1983

box 8, folder 23

Guerra-Borges, Alfredo. "La Politica Agraria de la Reforma Liberal en Guatemala, 1871-1885" 1983

box 8, folder 24

Horizontes, Colectivo. "Las Corrientes Politico-Ideologicas Dentro del Movimiento Indio Guatemalteco" 1988

box 8, folder 25

Instituto Nacional de Transformación Agraria (INTA). "Proyecciones del INTA en el Agro Guatemalteco" 1968

box 8, folder 26

Lopez y Rivas, Gilberto. "Programa de la Materia Sobre la Cuestión Etnico-Nacional de la Maestria..."

box 9, folder 1

Lovell, W. George, Christopher H. Lutz. "The Primacy of Larger Truths: Rigoberta Menchu..."

box 9, folder 2

Lykes, M. Brinton. "Speaking Against the Silence: One Maya Woman's Exile and Return" 1994

Note

WOMEN CREATING LIVES: IDENTITIES, RESILIENCE, AND RESISTANCE.

box 9, folder 3

Lykes, M. Brinton. "Terror, Silencing and Children: International, Multidisciplinary Collaboration..." 1994

Note

SOCIAL SCIENCE MEDICINE, Vol. 38, No. 4.

box 9, folder 4

Lykes, M. Brinton, Mary M. Brabeck, Theresa Ferns and Angela Radan. "Human Rights and Mental Health..."

Note

PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN QUARTERLY, 1993.

box 9, folder 5

Maloney, Thomas J. "EXMIBAL/INCO: Regional and National Impact of Nickel Minting in East-Central..."

Note

November 20, 1983.

box 9, folder 6

Manger C., Sebald G. "Land Relationships and Development of the Agricultural Sector in Guatemala"

box 9, folder 7

McCreery, David. "An Odious Feudalism: Mandamiento Labor and Commercial Agriculture in Guatemala, 1858-1920"

Note

LAP.

box 9, folder 8

Melville, T. "Insurgency in the Modern World" (Review), August 1981

box 9, folder 9

Moore, Alexander G. Jr. "Old and New Patterns of Leadership in a Guatemalan Town", December 1967

Note

A Paper for the American Anthropological Association.

box 9, folder 10

Moors, Marilyn. "Work and Fieldwork: American Anthropologists Look at the Migratory Labor of Guatemalan..." 1986

Note

Draft, prepared for NEH Summer Seminar.

box 9, folder 11

Paul, Benjamin D. "Fifty Years of Religious Change in San Pedro La Laguna, A Mayan Community...", November 1987

Note

Prepared for meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

box 9, folder 12

Payeras, Mario. "Que Implicaciones Tendria para el Actual Regimen Guatemalteco la Consumación..."

Note

RESPUESTAS A LA MONDE.

box 9, folder 13

Payeras, Mario y Hector Diaz-Polanco. "Dialogo Sobre la Cuestión Etnico-Nacional" 1990

box 9, folder 14

"Peasant and Worker Organization in Guatemala"

box 9, folder 15

Peckenham, Nancy E. "Land Colonization in the Peten", August 6 1979

box 9, folder 16

"Pueblos Indigenas y la Revolucíon Guatemala" 1982

box 9, folder 17

Racismo 1978

box 9, folder 18

Santos, Agustin. "La Nueva Politica Centroamerica de la Administration Bush", June 21 1989

box 9, folder 19

"La Segunda Fase de la Politica de la Administración Bush", CENTROAMERICANA, February 14 1990

box 9, folder 20

Sintesis de 3 Textos Indigenistas - Guatemala 1985

box 9, folder 21

Smith, Carol A. "Economic Reorganization as a Continuation of War: Military Impact...", September 1987

box 9, folder 22

Smith, Sheldon. "Plantations and Underdevelopment: The Views from Jardin and Westby" 1983

box 9, folder 23

"Testigos Del Reino Para Los Hombres de Hoy, Breva Historia de la Confrerencia de Religiosos de Guatemala..."

box 9, folder 24

Trudeau, Robert H. "The Recent Restructuring of the Guatemalan Political System", September 1983

Note

Prepared for the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association.

box 9, folder 25

"Violencia Politica en Guatemala", September - October 1977

Note

Typed report in Spanish.

box 9, folder 26

Whetten, Nathan L. "Land Reform in a Modern World". RURAL SOCIOLOGY, vol. 19, no. 4, December 1954

box 9, folder 27

Woodward Jr., Ralph Lee. "Liberalismo, Conservadurismo y La Actitud de Los Campesinos de La Montaña..."

ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES

box 9, folder 28

Originals of Preservation Photocopies

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