Textures of Terror : The Murder of Claudina Isabel Velasquez and Her Father's Quest for Justice : 55

Author: Sanford, Victoria

Caribbean islands

Published on 9 May 2023 by University of California Press in the United States as part of 'the California Series in Public Anthropology' series.

Hardback | 230 pages, 1 map, 1 line art, 1 image
158 x 238 x 22 | 450g

Investigating the unsolved murder of a female law student and the pervasive violence against Guatemalan women that drives migration.

Part memoir and part forensic investigation, Textures of Terror is a gripping first-person story of women, violence, and migration out of Guatemala—and how the United States is implicated. Accompanying Jorge Velásquez in a years-long search for answers after the brutal murder of his daughter Claudina Isabel, Victoria Sanford explores what it means to seek justice in 'postconflict' countries where violence never ended.

Through this father's determined struggle and other stories of justice denied, Textures of Terror offers a deeper understanding of US policies in Latin America and their ripple effect on migration. Sanford offers an up-close appraisal of the inner workings of the Guatemalan criminal justice system and how it maintains inequality, patriarchy, and impunity. Presenting the stories of other women who have suffered at the hands of strangers, intimate partners, and the security forces, this work reveals the deeply gendered nature of power and violence in Guatemala.