Daniel Rothenberg

A new book by Daniel Rothenberg, Executive Director of the Center of Law and Global Affairs at the College of Law, is a compelling read and moving description of an “extraordinary moment in Guatemalan history,” says Editor Tim Eigo of Arizona Attorney magazine.

In the publication’s June 2012 “From the Editor” column and in his blog, Eigo writes about Rothenberg’s recent introduction of the book, Memory of Silence: The Guatemalan Truth Commission Report, to a packed house at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.

Rothenberg edited and translated into English the Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification’s original 4,400-page report, the definitive account of one of the most brutal cases of government repression in the Western Hemisphere. Rothenberg’s work sheds light onto a conflict that the commission said created a culture of terror, forced neighbors to act against each other and resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 people.

“Listeners leaned forward in their seats as Rothenberg described large-scale death in a poor country: `Massacres like this are intimate and physically difficult and protracted,’” Eigo wrote. “`They forced civilians to become part of the terror apparatus, to become implicated.’”

To read Eigo’s blog post and column, click here.