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Alejandra De Leon
Professor Zelaya
Central American Studies 114B
12 May 2014
Uncivilized Acts Post-Civil War
1960-1996 Guatemala experienced, a horrific, brutal civil war. This civil war inspired author
Rodrigo Ray Rosa to write a novel called The Good Cripple. The book is based on a man named
Juan Luis Luna, who was kidnapped by a group that was made up of five men in Guatemala,
who later on had trauma from it. The men in the gang were known by their nicknames Bunny,
the Sephardi, El Horrible, Carlomango, and Barrios the Tapir. The reason why they kidnapped
Juan Luis was because they wanted money from his father, Don Carlos. The violence from the
civil war caused the citizens to resort to physical violence, prostitution or to suffer psychological
trauma. The police were not involved in the novel which shows the lack of protection the citizens
had. This initiated the men in the novel to demonstrate a brutal kidnap for money without being
arrested, while it lead Juan Luis to be infidelity to his wife, Ana Lucia, by sleeping with
prostitutes.
In The Good Cripple, there is a scene where the group of men kidnaps Juan Luis and tries
to convince him to write a letter to manipulate his father to give them the money. If it did not
work, the group of men would turn to physical violence. Hed taken a short, curved razor from
the pocket of his pants. He held the toe between two fingers (Rosa 28). In other words, the
men were going to amputate his toe as a threat to get the money. This scene shows how easy
physical violence happens to anyone in Guatemala. The men show no sympathy for Juan Luis as
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his toe is being amputated as Tapir on page 28 claims that thats all there is to it to removing
the toe.
Physical violence was and still is usual in Guatemala since the civil war that lasted thirty-
six years. Guatemalas military regime committed hundreds of massacres of unarmed civilians.
A un-sponsored truth commission estimated that as many as 200,000 people were killed during
the countrys 36-year civil war (Worse Than War). Many people were dying so the death
rates were very high in the 1980s. The novel The Good Cripple is based on during the 80s and a
good example of one of the characters trying to kill people was the scene where the usage of a
grenade becomes involved. The grenade the Sephardi had thrown at them the grenade broke
through the windshield a fraction of a second later came the explosion (Rosa 57). The
physical violence that was being demonstrated in the civil war influenced the Sephardi to want to
kill his group in order to get rid of them and get what he wants. As the article, Wore Than War
claimed, the military of Guatemala during the civil war massacred a large group of people in
order to get rid of them, and that is what the Sephardi did. He wanted to get rid of his group in
order for him to keep the money.
In an article called Guatemala: Guide to conflict and peace building in Guatemala, asserts
that As a result of the civil war, levels of violence remain extremely high, with over 6,500
murders in 2009 for a country with a population of 14 million people more than twice the
murder rate of Mexico, and one of the highest in the world. It is no wonder that the Tapir
amputated the toe of Juan Luis. That being said, the option the men chose to convince Juan Luis
to manipulate his father was through brutal violence. But that did not stop the men from
continuing the usage of physical violence. They yet again were violent by amputating Juan
Luiss foot, hence The Good Cripple. The Tapir and the Sephardi went down the hole at dawn
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to perform the amputation (Rosa 33). To paraphrase, physical violence was used because during
the civil war, the rates of death and physical violence were rather high, that people began to
replicate it to get their way. This caused people to have psychological trauma by witnessing the
production of what the civil war was creating.
A lot of violence during the civil war carried over to the time the novel The Good Cripple
was based on. No police were involved in order to tame the crime and homicides that were
happening. In the novel, the police were not implicated to stop the kidnappers from threatening
Don Carlos and chopping off Juan Luis's foot. Without the help of the police, the kidnappers got
away just like the criminals in Central America. According to an academic document based on
Police reform in Guatemala, it states:
Since the 1996 peace accords that ended 36 years of armed
conflict, donors have poured tens of millions of dollars into
police and justice sector reform... he [President of Guatemala
has deployed troops to help patrol high-crime areas... he
promised to strengthen the police by adding thousands of
recruits. (Police reform in Guatemala i).
The president of Guatemala believed that by adding more people to the police enforcement,
crimes will decrease. This was made possible by Guatemala having more money from the donors
giving money to the police and justice system. It gave them hope that crime rates will go down,
but sadly, Otto Perez looked for quantity instead of quality. The thousands of officers he hired
lack the skills that a police office should have. For example, in a different article called:
Guatemala Gets a Bump in its Police Force, asserts that "Several thousand [of police officers]
were also removed for corruption and other crimes during at time" (Guatemala Gets a Bump in
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its Police Force). The police themselves were committing crime and were being removed from
the justice system. Since some police officers were criminals, it only makes sense that the
people in Guatemala commit crime. Not only did the violence influence the kidnappers from
The Good Cripple to commit the crime, but also the lack of seriousness the police officers had.
Having no law enforcement available may cause psychological trauma, but psychological
trauma is very common to those who have experienced a life-changing event. They start to act
differently in order to cope with the trauma. For example, Juan Luis turned to marijuana, alcohol,
and prostitutes in order to manage the fact that he was kidnapped and got his foot amputated.
Hed drunk too much he ended up in bed with a beautiful prostitute from Belize, a not at all
unpleasant experience (Rosa 84). He cheated on his wife with prostitutes from a whorehouse
because he felt that he did not deserve the love that Ana Lucia gave him. Although Juan Luis
was not a child when he got kidnapped, he still suffered psychological trauma. In an article
called Childhood Trauma May Hinder Romantic Relationships in Adulthood, written by an
unknown author claiming studies suggest that a rough childhood can affect romantic
relationships in destructive ways later on in life (Childhood Trauma). Juan Luis was affecting
his romantic relationship with his Ana Lucia by having meaningless sex with prostitutes. Juan
Luis blocked the thoughts of being kidnapped by not being faithful to Ana Lucia because he
drifts away from tenderness, intimacy, and affection from her. He instead has anonymous sex
with someone that does not mean anything to him in order for him to have a distraction from his
past. It was easier for him to cheat with a prostitute because after the civil war ended, there were
many prostitution houses in Central America.
Prostitution houses lead to men being infidelity to their significant other. It is unfortunate
that woman sell themselves into sex in order to support themselves. In a scene on page 87 in The
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Good Cripple, Juan Luis finished sleeping with the prostitute; he then saw what seemed to be
one of the kidnappers, Bunny. The prostitute seemed a little worried, but not because Juan Luis
looked scared. It was because she wanted her money already. Im going downstairs. Pay me
(Rosa 87). In other words, she just slept with him for money. It is her job to do so, and she did
not think twice to tell him to pay. Prostitution was immense after the civil war because dozens,
maybe even hundreds, of women are trafficked from other countries to Guatemala by larger
criminal organizations (In Sight Crime). When there is more crime in a certain area and
physical violence is high, it is more likely for there to be prostitution houses because men turn
into sex in order to relieve their stress from the trauma. In The Good Cripple, the prostitution
house is near Zone 10 where Juan Luis lives (Rosa 83). It is easier for him to ignore his
psychological trauma by simply going to the prostitution house that is not too far from him.
Ultimately, the Guatemalan civil war that lasted thirty-six years, affected the citizens by
physical violence being a dominant action. Kidnapping is an example of the brutal acts that
happened post-civil war. The novel The Good Cripple gives a great explanation of what happens
to someone who survives a kidnapping like Juan Luis did. Unfortunately, there was no police
involved which lead the kidnapping to happen. Juan Luis had psychological trauma from the
inhumane amputation of his foot from the kidnapping. In order for him to cope with the trauma,
he turned into meaningless sex with prostitutes. It was easier for him to sleep with prostitutes
because many prostitution houses were being available after the civil war. Men go to sex to
relieve their stress from trauma of the physical violence they witnessed. In the long run, the fact
of how police were not involved in the novel, shows the lack of protection the citizens had and
have. That is why so many deaths happened during and after the civil war. This encouraged
Bunny and the rest of the men to be barbarous with Juan Luis.
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Works Cited
Blogger, Guest. "Guatemala Gets a Bump in Its Police Force." The Christian Science Monitor.
The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Feb. 2013. Web. 9 May 2014.


"Childhood Trauma May Hinder Romantic Relationships in Adulthood." It's Cheating. N.p., n.d.
Web. 23 April. 2014

"Guatemala: War, Conflict & Peace." Insight on Conflict. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 April. 2014

"Perspectives Investigating Guatemala." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 23 April. 2014

"Police Reform in Guatemala: Obstacles and Opportunities." N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May. 2014

Rosa, Rodrigo. The Good Cripple. ed. : New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004. Print.

Valdizan, Alejandra. "Of Slaves and Serfs: Guatemala's 'Occupied' Bodies - InSight Crime |
Organized Crime in the Americas." Of Slaves and Serfs: Guatemala's 'Occupied'
Bodies - InSight Crime | Organized Crime in the Americas. N.p., n.d. Web. 23
April. 2014