Introduction; Latin American History and Culture: Series 5: Civil War,Society and Political Transition in Guatemala: The Guatemalan News andInformation Bureau Archive, 1963-2000: Parts 1-3

Scope and Organization

The GuatemalaNews and Information Bureau (GNIB) Archive is the product of over two decadesof effort on the part of the GNIB to document Guatemalas political and socialprocesses from multiple angles and through a wide variety of sources. It is anextensive collection of often rare and unique ephemera, serials, studies, andreports spanning a range of dates between 1963 and 2000.

The collectionis divided into three groups. The first two groups comprise ephemera; the thirdgroup encompasses 1) serials; 2) studies, reports and other publications; and3) news clippings:

Ephemera.

Ephemeraconsists of both unpublished and published documents, correspondence,propaganda, bulletins, action alerts, clippings and other types of ephemeralmaterial. In terms of intended audience, documents range from reports directedto the US general public, to clandestine publications produced by revolutionaryorganizations.

The originalfiling system, in which The GNIB organized and subdivided materials accordingto subject, has been retained. Small adjustments for clarity and consistencyhave been made, where necessary, to the numbering, labeling, and contents offiles. The number of items in each file and the range of dates represented bythese has been added to each files original listing.

The followingare the major subject divisions established by the GNIB for its filing system.Descriptions provided here are general and incomplete. For a detailed outline,proceed to the inventory.

Basic Information : general information on Guatemala,historical summaries, political overviews, and fact sheets.

Geography/Environment : maps, environmental degradation andnatural disasters.

Social and Cultural Issues : such subjects as health, womensissues, children and youth, Mayan culture, and others.

Economy : tourism industry, multinationalcorporations, land reform.

Politics and Government : government administrations, themilitary, political violence, political parties, peace process, TruthCommission.

Foreign Policy : Guatemalan foreign policy, U.S.involvement, the School of the Americas, other countries and internationalorganizations.

Human Rights : human rights organizations, human rightsviolations, massacres, kidnappings, tortures, specific cases. Extensive.

Revolutionary Organizations : information from and aboutorganizations such as the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG), the Ejrcito Guerrillero de LosPobres (EGP), the Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (FAR), and the Organizacin delPueblo en Armas (ORPA).

Popular and Democratic Organizations : the largest section of ephemera, thisincludes documentation from and about peasant and indigenous rightsorganizations, refugees, labor unions, solidarity groups, religiousorganizations, and several others.

GNIB Ephemera : this final section contains correspondence,flyers, and other documents produced by the GNIB to, among other purposes,inform the public, lobby government officials, and raise funds.

Note: Considerable amounts of ephemeral materialremained unsorted when the Archive was transferred to the Princeton UniversityLibrary. Library staff organized it both according to the broad subjectcategories used by GNIB and chronologically. This material is found at the endof each file section under the heading Miscellaneous unsorted. Researchers areadvised not to underestimate the quantity or value of the material containedunder this heading. In some cases, it consists of several linear feet ofdocuments.

Serials

This sectionincludes runs of over 125 serials received and collected by the GNIB. Theserials are arranged alphabetically by title and/or corporate body orpublishing organization. Cross referencing with ephemera files and otherserials in the collection has been provided.

Note: Some serial holdings in the Archive overlap withthose in the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)archive of Latin Americana, published by Scholarly Resources in 1998. In suchcases, overlapping issues were removed and only complementary holdings wereretained. These instances are indicated in the inventory with a note.

Reports, Pamphlets, and Other Publications

Consists mostly of published pamphlets and reports on humanrights and politics. A complete list of titles is included in this inventory.The last item in the inventory, a file labeled Miscellaneous human rightsreports and action alerts, contains hundreds of faxed and e-mailed documents.These have been arranged chronologically.

News Clippings

By far thesmallest section of the collection, Section 4 consists of dozens of newsclippings arranged by subject and filed by the GNIB. The clippings were cutprimarily from newspapers from Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States.