CHS 31: An Introduction to A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, themes, and historical frameworks from CHS 31 Week 7 on Óscar Martínez's 'A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America'.

Óscar Martínez

The author of The Beast and A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America, who uses investigative reporting and narrative to document lived realities in the region.

Northern Triangle

The region consisting of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, where Óscar Martínez documents pervasive conditions of violence, state absence, and survival.

Testimonial Journalism

A narrative method centered on storytelling used by Óscar Martínez to document truth, memory, and accountability through the direct voices of victims, gang members, police, and migrants.

"Emptiness"

The overarching concept introduced in Part I of Martínez's book, denoting the systemic absence of state protection, economic opportunity, and justice, which forms physical, institutional, and emotional voids.

Violence as Structure, Not Exception

The understanding that violence is not a series of isolated criminal acts, but a normalized system and organizing principle of society that dictates daily mobility, employment, relationships, and survival.

The Absence of the State

A condition in which formal government institutions and law enforcement are weak, complicit, or entirely nonexistent, leaving a vacuum where gangs and criminal networks regulate daily life through coercion.

Psychology of Survival

The emotional and psychological dimension of emptiness in which individuals internalize constant fear, normalize trauma, and adopt survival strategies such as silence, displacement, or compliance.

Migration as a Response to Emptiness

Forced displacement resulting from a lack of safety and opportunity, functioning as a necessity for survival rather than a purely economic choice, while exposing migrants to extortion and border exploitation.

Moral Complexity

An analytical approach that rejects rigid binaries between victim and perpetrator, humanizing actors in violent systems by showing how structural conditions generate both victimization and complicity.

Structural Conditions of Central American Violence

The broader historical and political forces framing violence in the region, including civil war legacies, U.S. intervention, neoliberal economic policies, weak institutions, and deportation dynamics.

When the Mountains Tremble: War and Revolution in Guatemala

A documentary assigned in the course to examine the history of war, revolution, and political conflict in Guatemala.

How U.S. Involvement In Central America Led To a Border Crisis | AJ+

An assigned video analysis examining how historical U.S. foreign policy and intervention in Central America contributed to contemporary regional destabilization and migration crises.