BEg2 chapter 10 Xiomara’s people

[Michael Bailey]

If government agencies were in-laws, Xiomara would’ve been less than
acceptable on a number of counts. Politically her family was trouble
waiting to happen, from old-school arevalista “spiritual socialists” on
leftward, through activists with a history of nonnegotiable hatred for
United Fruit, hardcore anarcho-Marxist aunts and cousins who ran safe
houses and talked Kanjobal with the folks out in the country, plus assorted
gun runners and dope dealers who just wanted to be left alone but were
invariably described as Suspected Guerrilla Sympathizers, which seemed to
mean everybody who lived in the region.


         Arevalista -

Juan José Arévalo - this was the guy *before* US-coup-victim Arbenz, who
instituted higher wages, a new constitution, literacy programs.

Arbenz tried a bridge too far, maybe, with land reform, whereupon that darn
United Fruit stepped in - hence the nonnegotiable hatred mentioned.
Per Wikipedia “In October 2011, the Guatemalan government issued an apology
for Árbenz's overthrow.” - still waiting for an apology from the US State
Department and CIA!

Kanjobal - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qʼanjobʼal_language
77,000 speakers, principally in the Huehuetenango department of Guatemala.