Synopsis
"After the Coup: An Ethnographic Reframing of Guatemala 1954," edited by Timothy J. Smith and Abigail E. Adams, is a collection of essays that reexamines the 1954 coup d'état in Guatemala through an anthropological lens. The volume focuses on the overthrow of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, which brought an end to the progressive "Ten Years of Spring" (1944–1954), a period of social and economic reforms influenced in part by New Deal ideals. Rather than retelling the well-documented political and international dimensions of the event—widely seen as the first major U.S. covert intervention in Latin America—the contributors emphasize its long-term local impacts on Guatemalan communities, indigenous populations, and everyday life across different regions.
Drawing from papers presented at a 2005 conference marking the coup's fiftieth anniversary, the book explores how the event reshaped relationships between U.S.-based anthropologists and their Guatemalan subjects, as well as how ethnographic work can illuminate the coup's effects beyond historical or political analyses. The authors incorporate voices from the people they have lived and worked with, offering grounded perspectives on how national and international forces played out in rural villages, ethnic sectors, and daily social relations. They address two central questions: what unique insights ethnography brings to understanding 1954, and how the coup has influenced the practice and representations of anthropology in Guatemala ever since.
Overall, the collection provides a fresh, community-centered reframing that highlights the human and cultural dimensions of this pivotal Cold War moment, connecting historical rupture to ongoing ethnographic realities in Guatemala. It serves as both a reflection on past interventions and a cautionary perspective informed by more recent U.S. foreign policy actions.