Este trabajo permite conocer el ir y venir de diversos actores dentro de esos procesos, evidenciando el papel que cada uno de ellos desempeñaron en los mismos. De tal manera que esa gama va desde el rol que jugó en ellos la política exterior estadounidense, enmarcada dentro de los parámetros de la llamada “Guerra Fría”, pasando por los del ejército, los finqueros, la Iglesia Católica y los partidos políticos en una gama que va desde el Movimiento de Liberación Nacional hasta el Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo. En el otro extremo de esta narrativa se pueden escuchar las voces y perspectivas de hombres y mujeres campesinas que vivieron esa experiencia de manera directa. En esa polifonía de voces destacan las de dos indígenas maya q´eqchi´s que, desde los momentos históricos específicos en los que se hicieron escuchar, dan cuerpo y sentido a la totalidad de la narración: Adelina Caal Maquín (luego conocida como Mamá Maquín) y José Angel Icó. Si bien sus vidas, aunque simultáneas, no se entrecruzaron físicamente, si se articularon de manera directa en torno a las luchas sociales sobre las que da cuenta este trabajo. Son voces subalternas que nos relatan no sólo sus experiencias de vida personal, sino también en cuanto a sus perspectivas sobre la vida y el futuro que soñaban. Se trata, en tal sentido, de un aporte que contribuye a recrear y enriquecer los ámbitos de la memoria y la historia nacional, en tanto referentes indispensables para la construcción de una sociedad que sea capaz de dar cuenta de la complejidad de los procesos sociales por los que ha transitado a lo largo del tiempo.

The right-wing repression that occurred in 1980s Guatemala was exceptionally bloody. In less than five years 130,000 were killed by the army's "scorched earth" campaign. Millions were forced from their homes. These numbers far outweigh the more famous rightist repression in countries such as Chile or Argentina. Indeed, according to Greg Grandin, "the Guatemalan civil war in all its cruelty could understandably be considered history in extremis—singular in its viciousness and devastation" (4).
Grandin's argument that Guatemala's experience gives us a window into the larger Latin American history is interesting. In many ways, the events of the Guatemalan civil war provide a model that would later be followed by other Latin American countries. Its 1944-1954 democratic opening under Juan Jose Arevalo and Jacobo Arbenz was on of the most prolonged experiment in economic reform and democratic socialism. The coup that brought an end to this period of openness in 1954 was the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) first intervention in Latin America. Guatemala also has the dubious distinction of being the first Latin American nation in which the United States introduced, assisted, and perfected counter-insurgency techniques. The strategy of political disappearances was also introduced in Guatemala. Because of these distinctions, Grandin proposes to use Guatemala as a template to explain Cold War history in Latin America in The Last Colonial Massacre. Specifically, Grandin attempts to accomplish the retelling of this history through a recounting of the lives of individuals who led the leftist struggle in Guatemala.
Much of Grandin's work seems to be, in many ways, an eulogy and obituary for the old left; much of the book recounts the struggle for land and social reform by the Guatemalan Communist Party, efforts that helped create a sense of community among leftist peasants. It also helped create a hope for a liberal state that would destroy the evils of peonage and repression. This world, sympathetically described by Grandin, would later be destroyed in the bloody repression of the 1980s. The hope for a liberal state has mutated from one that advocated solidarity and promised welfare into one that promotes a very hollow version of democracy. Ironically, though, right-wing repression could defeat the socialist threat only by implementing some of its demands. The dictatorial state did end the feudal power of the large landowners—"in this sense, government repression was both a backlash against the ongoing legacy of the Revolution and the revolution's perverse realization" (131). So, "many of the reforms the left long struggled for were achieved not through victory but through defeat" (132).
Grandin succeeds in telling the story of Guatemala through the horrors of Cold War repression. His research is superbly grounded in a wide variety of archival, primary and secondary sources. While the organization of the book does follow some sort of logic, the focusing of each chapter around one core figure does provide both coherence as well as some redundancies as the same theme may be addressed more than once throughout the book. Because the book is not organized thematically or chronologically, at times it is difficult to understand whom the author is referring to or how a particular passage relates to the bigger picture. One gets the sense that Grandin is very sympathetic to the figures of the Guatemalan old left; the work is imbued with a sense of nostalgia for what was and what could have been.
Grandin fits his work perfectly within the historical context, fitting the experiences of Guatemala from the 1950s to the 1980s within the context of both a wider Latin American history as well as within the context of the greater Cold War. While some may quibble with his expressed ability to relate Cold War Latin American history within the confines of the Guatemalan story, he succeeds to a greater extent than he fails. ( )