La Guardia Civil (Civil Guard)

sova.nmai.ac.071_ref82

See more items in: Michael Plyler photographs from Guatemala; Michael Plyler photographs from Guatemala / Series 3: K'iche' / 3.1: K'iche' photographic prints

Collection Citation: Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Michael Plyler photographs from Guatemala, image #, NMAI.AC.071; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.

Scope and Contents: Photograph of a member of the Civil Guard. Photographed by Michael Plyler in Cunen, Guatemala. Same image as Roll 70 in Subseries 3.2. Description from Plyler: "In March, 1982 a group of young army officers deposed President Romeo Lucas Garcia in a coup d'etat. One version of the story has it that General Efrain Rios Montt had nothing to do with the actual planning and staging of the coup, and was merely invited to become President by the young officers who staged the coup. The other version has Montt as an active planner and participator. Either way, he became an unelected President and instituted a policy that became known as 'beans and guns.' He had the army organize local 'civil guards' to combat the guerillas and armed them with old, outdated rifles and also distributed frijoles to the villagers who helped battle the insurgency. This guy was a member of the Civil Guard in Cunen. I photographed him from afar with a 200mm lens on the Olympus. I felt it was the safe, rational approach. From the steely look in his eyes I think he embraced his responsibilities quite readily."

Collection Restrictions: Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).

NMAI.AC.071_ref82

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv40f70166a-5622-42e6-8b12-99c9d1575e0f

NMAI.AC.071

NMAIA

Michael Plyler photographs from Guatemala

Creator

Plyler, Michael, 1955-

Summary

This collection consists of photographic prints, negatives, and transparencies taken by Michael Plyler between 1982 and 2018 that depict the everyday lives of five Highland Maya community groups from Guatemala. Also included are images of churches, buildings, and historic structures from Guatemala.