Horrific Events

People choose to participate in horrific events because they may not have a choice and are fearful, but to do so. Governments target people to help them and they basically make them participate or they will kill them. The choice the people have is to either get shot and die or participate. It is a very hard decision to make, but I would rather be dead than to kill and torture my friends and neighbors. If the tortured go on and live their life after the coup, they will always remember the betrayed people who wouldn't take their own life, but another's. I don't know how those friends who tortured their friends could live another day with that guilt of killing or almost killing someone they were once close to because trust me, they won't ever become close to the torturers again no matter if they ask for forgiveness. I would rather take my own life and not suffer the aftermath and experiences during the coup and concentration camps. What they also did was brainwash all the youth like in the Holocaust Hitler had the Nazi Youth club which so many children signed up for. At the club the Nazis were able to manipulate the children into turning in their own neighbors. Also, peer pressure plays a big role in this. If a boss or someone more powerful or higher on the totem pole tells you to do something often times you will do what they ask; following others. Which is also is connected to what others think. If more people think one way, it is more likely for you to follow and join the power of the group. REVENGE: this also plays a role when people, for example, are like hey these people killed your parents and everyone gets mad at each other. There are lots of reasons.

PTSD

The best way to get over trauma is to go see someone who is a specialist in the field of helping to overcome trauma. Whether it is a councilor, doctor, or therapist for mental disabilities, or you could see someone who went through the same thing as you, and how they overcame it. Although you may never will overcome it, it is worth of a try. Therapy is still better than relying on drugs or alcohol. You may take medicine and replace those bad memories with new happy ones and could get over the trauma. GET HELP! Often if you don't ask for help, it gets worse, and you then might rely on drugs and alcohol to get your mind off of your past experiences. It helps a lot to go over what you are going through and tell your mind to another person. Joy is a good thing to have to help become restored back to how you were before the trauma. Also, being comfortable is another big thing that helps. Since Marcelo didn't get help in the beginning, his mental and physical situation got a lot worse. He didn't want help and thought he could do everything on his own. But he couldn't and finally realized this as his alcoholism got worse. As he started going to therapy, his flashbacks started to get better and he didn't have to rely on alcohol to get himself away from past experiences. He started to take control of his life with help and he realizes that he can get better and live a somewhat normal life, although he will never get back to his old self, but his life can get better. He stopped drinking himself into sleep and cut down his alcoholism by a lot. Also, with therapy, he was able to start talking about past experiences and with Courtney's help, he was able to start getting his story out more so that people can realize what actually is going on.

Enduring Legacies and Obligation

I agree about this idea, that those who benefited from it should be held responsible. It would be something like, for example, a few friend and you get caught for running in a hall. A few of your friends steak away right as you get into trouble and the teacher never knows. Is that fair or justified? Most people would answer no and a version of this story is in a way true for what happened in Chile and other places around the world. Justice plays a role along with forgiveness. Justice connects to forgiveness because now they are justified to ask for forgiveness. Because Chile's civilians that should be held accountable and should ask for forgiveness, but didn't, then the country of Chile's citizens fall out of the President's universe of obligation because she endured and experienced what they did to Piñera. All people who were part of the coup are out and vice versa. I say that because how could you like someone who is trying to hurt you and kill you or your family/friends? Those people that were gaining from your suffering and not helping to stop your suffering wouldn't be in your Universe obviously.

International Connections

An enslavement of the native people of Guatemala. I described it this way because this is exactly what it was doing to the Guatemalans. It was getting slaves to harvest this food for the United States. The US was making money for other people doing the "dirty" work. US was inconsiderate; all about the US; as long as we make money, it doesn't matter what we have to do to the people to make money, just make money.

Nostalgia of Light

In Nostalgia of Light some acts of revolution/rebellion I saw was how the one woman gave massages to the tortured victims saying without words that she is rebelling against the government because now the government is saying that they didn't torture all these people like the Holocaust. Also when the women were going day after day to the desert to find their family members' remains. Even though people said it was worthless, they still pursued to find them. It called attention to what they were doing and they stood out to the government. The most effective act of preserving history was when one of the prisoners came out of the camps, memory played a huge part to preserve the history. He was able to remember the exact dimensions and the layout of the concentration camps. Because of this, he is able to prove the government wrong that the concentration camps did exist. His story can't be denied or passed by because there is no way that it couldn't be true. Exactness is what he had, which makes his story come to life.

Arpilleras

Arpilleras are acts of revolution and rebellion because they were created as means of protest. All of the arpilleras were created with lots of symbolism weaved inside them to stand out to the government. They were created to speak out against the government without having to use physical voice. It also kept the women under the radar so that they weren't also taken away and become disappeared, too. I feel like this counts as voice because it is a different way of protesting and speaking out, to spread the word about what is happening. It counts as voice because they were speaking out, but in a different way. It raised lots of awareness. It was a safe way to speak out and passive resistance.

Identity

Identity is what a person is like, what their personality is, how they react to situations, and how they interact with others around them. Identity can both stay constant and change. When people are around others, they change and their identities and personalities are changed and reformed and reshaped. But some people can have their identities stay the same, but for the most part they change. Gringolandia provides evidence to support my argument because when Marcelo goes through the changes in the concentration camps, he comes out of it as an older, and completely different person. Also, when the family leaves the only place they ever knew, Chile, they end up changed from the move to America. When Marcelo comes home and Tina sees him, her views on him completely change from having a young, loving father to an old, ratty, messed-up stranger.

Voice of Activists

Violence works the best, but is the most destructive. It creates sudden effects, but many people suffer and die. It isn't the best method to use though. If I had to choose, I would do what Mandela did. Start out with peace, but if that didn't work I would choose violence, but only as a last resort. It can be difficult to try to be like Ghandi and stay like that. Violence, like Che, can not last long as many people hope it to use because a coup d'etat could arise. For lasting effects, I would use Mandela's theory.