In the basement of a North Side Presbyterian church, a group of young girls keep ancient Maya music alive.
On a recent evening, they bounced rubber mallets over the marimba, a kind of wooden xylophone, creating high-pitched melodic sounds.
These children of Guatemalan parents, who fled a country marred by 36 years of civil war, were preparing for a concert with a special guest, Guatemalan President Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen.
He kicks off his first presidential visit to Chicago, home to an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Guatemalans, with a Friday breakfast at which the girls will perform.
“He’s interested in helping the poor and the indigenous,” said Brenda Mendizabal, 16, of Logan Square, a member of Marimba Oxib K’Ajau, the only group of Guatemalan girls in the United States to play the marimba, an instrument normally reserved for men in their home country.
But others in the Guatemalan community are not greeting Arzu’s visit as enthusiastically.
“Arzu has made a lot of contributions to the peace process (in Guatemala),” said Jose Oliva, director of a local radio broadcast about Guatemala. “But there is still so much more he can do.”
Oliva is helping to plan a Friday evening vigil outside the Palmer House Hilton, where Arzu is scheduled to meet with community leaders.
Arzu was invited to Chicago by DePaul University to deliver the college’s commencement address Sunday and receive an honorary degree.
John Kordek, DePaul’s associate vice president for external relations, said Arzu was chosen because of the critical role he played in the peace accords reached in Guatemala.
“He was the person who could either make it or break it,” Kordek said.
University officials should have also honored the rebel group that signed the agreement, according to Julio Revolorio, executive director of Casa Guatemala, a community organization in Chicago. “I think DePaul University has made a mistake by honoring just one side,” he said.
Kordek said that two years ago, the university gave an honorary degree to Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan indigenous leader and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Arzu’s visit here comes at a time when many Guatemalans are expecting him to stem the violence in their Central American homeland.
In April, Catholic Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera was murdered two days after issuing an exhaustive report blaming the Guatemalan Army for 80 percent of the 150,000 deaths during the civil war that ended when peace accords were signed in December 1996.
Dr. Robert Kirschner, an official of Physicians for Human Rights and a clinical associate at the University of Chicago, traveled to Guatemala to assist with the murder investigation.
“They have the wrong person in custody,” said Kirschner, the former Cook County deputy chief medical examiner, referring to a suspect in the bishop’s death.
Kirschner said the bishop was not robbed of his wallet or car, and the suspect in custody had a fractured right arm that would have made it difficult for him to beat the bishop to death with the triangular cement block identified by Guatemalan authorities as the murder weapon.
Rosa Maria Merida de Mora, Guatemala’s consul general in Chicago, defended the government’s actions in the case.
“The president himself and all his cabinet condemned this murder,” she said. Arzu also appointed a committee to investigate the slaying, and a second suspect is now in custody.
On Saturday evening, an ecumenical service in memory of Gerardi is planned at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Chicago.
Other recent incidents in Guatemala, including the slayings of a mayor and a special prosecutor have raised fears for the future.
“Human rights violations continue taking place,” said Adriana Barto, 45, of the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. “They’re slapping us in the face by giving (Arzu) this award.”
Barto said her brother was killed and six relatives kidnapped by the army during the war. She said she has asked a presidential commission for help to find her family without results.
