The proposed research will examine the impacts of state-sponsored rape on the mental health of survivors and their communities. Through sixteen months of ethnographic participant observation and interviews with Kanjobal Mayan refugees in Mexico, and Los Angeles, the project will: 1) identify the culturally-specific Kanjobal notions of mental well-being, trauma, and coping; 2) use these notions to evaluate the mental health impacts of testimonials of state violence for Kanjobal survivors; and 3) determine whether Kanjobal women who have been raped by soldiers use means other than public testimonials to express and cope with their experiences of gender-specific state terror. The results of this research will help narrow the gap between Western mental health paradigms and the unique cultural experiences of violence trauma and coping. They will also serve as a practical aid for mental health practitioners serving the war- traumatized Guatemalan Maya population.
