History

Project Victoria

While working at a language school in Quetzaltenango during 2003-2004, Christopher Curran tutored Gloria, Felicia, and Petronila in English. He heard about their experiences growing up in refugee settlements in Mexico and served as interpreter for a conference given by Marcos López, Gloria and Felicia’s father, who spoke about the 1983 massacre that he and his family survived. After Christopher returned to the U.S., he learned from Gloria, Felicia, and Petronila that the scholarship funding they had been receiving had been cut. They were faced with no other choice but to go back to their community of returned refugees, where they would likely need to marry quickly and lose the chance to work toward professional goals.

From Iowa, Christopher coordinated with Marielos and Roland in Quetzaltenango to establish Project Victoria, legally registered as the non-governmental organization Asociación Victoria in Guatemala, to raise money for Gloria, Felicia, and Petronila's school tuition. The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation provided logistical support to accept tax-deductible donations to the Project Victoria fund and transfer money to Asociación Victoria. In Quetzaltenango, a board of directors was formed to oversee the scholarship program, and members of this board identified many other students in the community who also had a genuine and immediate need for assistance in order to continue their studies. By January 2005, the program expanded to cover scholarships for tuition and workshops for 24 students, while also fulfilling the original commitment to provide scholarships including room and board to Gloria, Felicia, and Petronila.

The first Project Victoria fundraising event was a salsa dance held at Linn-Mar high school. This was followed by a dance at CSPS in the Czech Village of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with support from Legion Arts, and a dance at Xavier high school, all with salsa dance instruction-time donated by Gloria Zmolek and Darryl Carter of Salsations.

Guatemala

The 36-year Guatemalan Civil War ended in 1996 with the signing of Peace Accords between the government and representatives of the URNG, the coalition of guerrilla groups who had carried out an armed struggle against the military. During the war, the Guatemalan government used the pretext of a counterinsurgency to wage what is now widely characterized as genocide against the indigenous populations of the country. People in rural communities, many of them speaking Mayan languages and only a little Spanish, were caught in the middle of this conflict. During the early 1980’s, the military pursued a policy of scorched-earth campaigns in rural Guatemala, massacring all inhabitants of more than 400 villages located in regions where there was any suspicion of guerrilla activity. Many of the students supported by Project Victoria come from indigenous villages severely affected by the war, and two of them are children of massacre survivors who fled to Mexico as refugees and returned to Guatemala in the mid 1990’s to re-establish their communities.

For a historical analysis of the 1954 coup and the role of the U.S. government and CIA in events before and during the Guatemalan Civil War, see Stephen Schlesinger's book Bitter Fruit.

More information can be found on the Guatemalan history page of NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala).

You can also see the report of the Historical Clarification Commission, established during the Peace Accords in Oslo, Norway, to provide an analysis of the period of armed conflict.

Continue on for details about Project Victoria's program.

 Tax-deductible contributions to Project Victoria may be made to:

Project Victoria Fund
Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation
200 1st St. SW
Cedar Rapids IA 52404
319-366-2862