In 1954, during the height of the Cold War, the CIA carried out a coup to overthrow the first democratically-elected president in Guatemala. In the months leading up to the coup, the CIA Station Chief in Guatemala City was Grossinger’s grandfather. Dying long before Grossinger was born, his presence still loomed like a mythological creature throughout much of her childhood. Serpent Tongue explores Guatemalan history through the lenses of power, identity and memory.

Make studying statistics simple with this easy-to-read resource Wouldn't it be wonderful if studying statistics were easier? With U Can: Statistics I For Dummies, it is! This one-stop resource combines lessons, practical examples, study questions, and online practice problems to provide you with the ultimate guide to help you score higher in your statistics course. Foundational statistics skills are a must for students of many disciplines, and leveraging study materials such as this one to supplement your statistics course can be a life-saver. Because U Can: Statistics I For Dummies contains both the lessons you need to learn and the practice problems you need to put the concepts into action, you'll breeze through your scheduled study time. Statistics is all about collecting and interpreting data, and is applicable in a wide range of subject areas which translates into its popularity among students studying in diverse programs. So, if you feel a bit unsure in class, rest assured that there is an easy way to help you grasp the nuances of statistics! * Understand statistical ideas, techniques, formulas, and calculations * Interpret and critique graphs and charts, determine probability, and work with confidence intervals * Critique and analyze data from polls and experiments * Combine learning and applying your new knowledge with practical examples, practice problems, and expanded online resources U Can: Statistics I For Dummies contains everything you need to score higher in your fundamental statistics course!

The Mayans have long fascinated modern readers with their complex written language, sophisticated mathematics, and advanced astronomy. In Guatemala in 1558, a young Mayan K'iche' man transcribed what he called a sacred book that "we can no longer see." This was the Popul Vuh, the Mayans' written account of the creation of the universe, the gods and demi-gods who occupied that universe, and the story of how man was created by them. Furthermore, it traced, generation by generation, the lineage of the Mayan lords down to their imprisonment and torture by the Spanish invaders. Considered the Mayan bible, the Popol Vuh appears here in an authoritative, gorgeously illustrated version by noted Maya anthropologist Victor Montejo, who has captured all the drama and excitement of one of the world's great creation stories.

In My Eyes, You Are Beautiful is a coming-of-age novel, that narrates the life of an Indigenous young woman. It depicts the transformation of Olivia Padilla Xuc, an illiterate six-year-old picking coffee in the Guatemalan countryside as she becomes a liberated, powerful woman working in Mexico City. Through Olivia’s deeply moving narrative, we explore the possibility of change and growth of an indigenous woman as she delve into issues of racism, economic opportunity and self-worth – the vital themes that first nation people confront globally while they try to better themselves in societies convinced of their worthlessness. Against an historical period of armed conflict, turmoil and conflict, Olivia Padilla is funny, intense, imaginative, alternately serious and playful. Her courage allows her to explore her sexuality in Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and Italy as she builds a satisfying, independent life few people could have considered possible.

In this book, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Maya activist Rigoberta Menchu Tum returns to the world of her childhood. The Honey Jar brings us the ancient stories her grandparents told her when she was a little girl, and we can imagine her listening to them by the fire at night. These Maya tales include creation myths, a classic story about the magic twins (which can also be found in the Popol Vuh), explanations of how and why certain natural phenomena came to exist, and animal tales. The underworld, the sky, the sun and moon, plants, people, animals, gods and demi-gods are all present in these stories, and through them we come to know more about the elements that shaped the Mayas' understanding of the world. Rich and vibrant illustrations by noted Mazatec-Mexican artist Domi perfectly complement these magical Maya tales. Key Text Features illustrations Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.

Set in strife-torn Guatemala City in the early 1980s, this sophisticated, quasi-comedic tale depicts the decline and near-fall of a prominent Guatemalan Jewish family. In the face of military rule, terrorism, and sabotage, Marcos learns the truth about his brother Aaron, only to find that sibling secrets can be every bit as dangerous as civil unrest.

"Evoking both Kafka and Conrad, Unger's character study of a broken man in a culture broken by a ravenous corporation makes compelling reading."
--"Booklist"
"Unger does a great job with fish-out-of-water situations, as protagonist] Samuel's travails--sometimes Kafkaesque, sometimes Laurel and Hardy--nicely pit his timidity against his growing desperation."
--"Publishers Weekly"
"David Unger's tale utterly seduces with its mix of the exotic and the familiar."
--"Toronto Star"
"Unger's rendering of human contradiction is masterful, for in the space of Samuel's four days of awe, Unger reveals life's slippery terms of engagement in all their complexity with a clarity that still contains compassion . . . We can be grateful for the message of this wondrous book: despite our fears, even the least heroic among us can find the will to go forward."
--"Literature and Arts of the Americas"
In 1938, as Samuel Berkow's tramp steamer from Germany approaches Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, he is full of hope that he will be able to remake his life in the new world. Part character study and part riveting narrative of a German Jew escaping the Nazis, this novel provides its own mix of Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, and Louis-Ferdinand Celine, as Samuel stumbles to get his footing in a hostile setting.
David Unger was born in Guatemala City in 1950 and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of two previous novels and a story collection. He has translated sixteen books into English, including works by Nicanor Parra, Silvia Molina, Elena Garro, Barbara Jacobs, Mario Benedetti, and Rigoberta Menchu. He is considered one of Guatemala's major living writers even though he writes exclusively in English.

Antipoems: New and Selected, a fresh bilingual gathering as well as retrospective of the work of Chile's foremost poet, reintroduces him to North American readers after thirteen years. Though he has been hardly unproductive, the politics of his homeland have channeled his inventiveness into new modes of expression, which remind us of the sometimes sly hermeticism of Italian writers, Eugenio Montale and Elio Vittorini among them, during the Fascist regime. As Frank MacShane makes clear in his introduction, Parra has not tried to escape repression, but by "using his wit and his humor, he has shown how the artist can still speak the truth in troubled times." Since much of Parra's early work is now out of print, editor David Unger has included many of the poems which influenced North American poets such as Ferlinghetti and Merton in the '50s and '60s, some in new or revised translations. Of Parra's more recent work, there are generous selections from Artifacts (1972), Sermons and Preachings of the Christ of Elqui (1977), New Sermons and Preachings of the Christ of Elqui(1979), Jokes to Mislead the Police (1983), Ecopoems (1983), Recent Sermons(1983), and a section of "Uncollected Poems" (1984). Antipoems: New and Selected is edited by David Unger, who contributed many of the translations to Enrique Lihn's The Dark Room and Other Poems (New Directions, 1978). Professor Frank MacShane of Columbia University, in his critical introduction, gives a full evaluation of a poet who is "unquestionably one of the most influential and accomplished in Latin America today, heir to the position long held by his countryman, Pablo Neruda."

The Dark Room presents in a compact bilingual selection the extraordinary poetry of Enrique Lihn (1929-1988), winner of the prestigious Casa de las Americas Prize and one of Chile's most remarkable writers. Gathered here is Lihn's most representative work from 1963 to 1977, drawn from his major books.