This edited, one-volume version presents the first ever English translation of the report of The Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), a truth commission that exposed the details of 'la violenca,' during which hundreds of massacres were committed in a scorched-earth campaign that displaced approximately one million people.

"Memory of Silence"is an edited English language version of the Guatemalan Commision for Historical Clarification (CEH). CEH was one of the more important and successful truth commissions, exposing the details of "la violenca" during which hundreds of massacres were committed during a scorched earth campaign that displaced approx. one million people, a tenth of the population of Guatemala. Rothenberg received a grant from the Open Society to fund translation of the report and a legal team to oversee the editing and translation process. The final book will be stylistically formal but by no means unreadable, Rothenberg will be condensing this from hundreds of pages to about 200 pp which will allow him to be selective about the material he includes and will be editing out the UN style paragraphs which will should give the book a narrative feel. It will include a preface by either Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for indigenous activist work, or Kofi Annan, a forward by the Commissioner of the CEH, intro. by Rothenberg, and a conclusion by Michael Ignatieff.