The Bean TreesHistorical Context

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What is the historical backdrop What is the historical backdrop of The Bean Trees?of The Bean Trees?

• Human Rights Struggles in Guatemala

• Conservatism in the 1980s

• Division Between Rich and Poor

• Child Abuse and Native Americans

HUMAN RIGHTS STRUGGLES IN GUATEMALA

• Widespread violence and political upheaval marked a 36-year period in Guatemala that spanned the 1960s through the mid-1990s.

• During this period, Guatemalans lived in fear and oppression as opposing forces both tore apart the government and terrorized its citizens.

• Anti-government left-wing guerrilla groups systematically attacked the Guatemalan government on many fronts, assassinating leaders and denouncing the series of governments that rapidly succeeded one another.

• In reaction to the guerrillas, extreme right-wing groups tortured and killed tens of thousands of citizens—among them teachers, doctors, peasants, students—that they believed were in league with the leftist groups.

• Many of those tortured and killed in the conflict were Mayans, a people native to the region, and thousands of those persecuted fled the country as refugees, seeking safety in countries like the United States.

Conservatism in the 1980s• Taylor's statement after a troubling

incident with Turtle is "nobody feels sorry for anybody anymore....Not even the President. It's like it's become unpatriotic," addresses the fallout of the 1980s mood of conservatism in the United States.

• During the Reagan era—the two consecutive terms of the hugely popular conservative president—some conservative groups used words like "patriotism" and "traditional family values" in ways that excluded people and encouraged intolerance.

• When conservatives celebrated "family values," some critics asserted that they were referring to values culled from a nostalgic, unrealistic view of family life as it supposedly was in the past.

• Many right-wing conservatives blamed families that did not fit into this stereotype—such as single-parent or blended families—for a host of social ills.

• Some Christian fundamentalists, believing that what is written in the Bible should guide daily life, condemned any group—homosexuals, liberals, feminists, divorced individuals—that seemed incompatible with their Biblical interpretation.

• The 1986 Immigration Control and Reform Act included an amnesty program for illegal U.S. immigrants, yet some people seemed to confuse anti-immigrant sentiment with patriotism.

• Immigrants were often blamed for taking away jobs from "real" Americans.

DIVISION BETWEEN RICH AND POOR

• In 1980s America, the rich got richer while the poor got poorer, and the middle class struggled to hang on.

• In essence, economic changes were creating a two-tiered society.

• By the mid-1980s, Wall Street saw the start of the most successful bull market in American history, creating more wealth for investors.

• Many of those who benefited spent their money showily on expensive cars, designer clothing, and real estate.

• Yuppies—young urban professionals—emerged in the early 1980s.

• At the other end of the spectrum, homelessness in the United States rose by about 25 percent a year in the 1980s, due in part to cuts in government spending for low-income housing and mental health services.

• The price of health care rocketed out of the reach of low-income and many middle-income Americans, and the infant mortality rate in America's inner cities neared and even surpassed those of Third World countries.

• Drugs and violence tore apart low-income urban neighborhoods, and residents of these neighborhoods saw their educational and employment opportunities shrink.

CHILD ABUSE AND NATIVE AMERICANS

• The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1974 led to a dramatic increase in reporting of child abuse cases.

• The number of cases reported in 1988 was four times the number reported in 1980, and in 1989 alone, 2.4 million cases were reported.

• In 1990, hearings before the 101st Congress led to passage of the Indian Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

• Congress passed this act after learning how underreported incidents were of child abuse on Indian reservations.

• The main purpose of the act was to provide Federal enforcement of reporting of child abuse incidents on Indian lands, as well as mental health support and treatment programs for Native American children who had been victimized.

What is the historical backdrop What is the historical backdrop of The Bean Trees?of The Bean Trees?

• Human Rights Struggles in Guatemala

• Conservatism in the 1980s

• Division Between Rich and Poor

• Child Abuse and Native Americans