Back where I belong – Anaité Alvarado

My name is Anaité Alvarado and I have had a wonderful life. The book you are about to read details a portion of a very difficult but tremendously enriching chapter of my life. I have decided to share my story with everyone who wishes to know it because in the age of the internet, I find that anyone can search my name and read what strangers, self proclaimed journalists, and partial or biased media have to say about my life. I was inadvertently thrown into the media spot light, accused of unproven wrongdoings, and sent to preventive prison after the investigation time period defined by my first judge had ended. All this, in a third world country, currently going through a very particular point in history, when CICIG (International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala) is investigating and prosecuting serious crimes in Guatemala. As far as I know, CICIG is not after me, but there is such turmoil and fear within the country, even among judges and magistrates, that being involved in a criminal case in this particular time in Guatemala’s history is terrifying. Because of all this, and because my good name has been tarnished by these accusations, I have a need to share my testimony, my views, my perceptions, my reality, my feelings. I cannot control what other people do or write, but I can control how I tell my story. I wrote this book as a diary, writing every day during the 65 days of my incarceration. This is my experience, seen through my eyes, from my confined and very personal vantage point. I have also included the stories of several fellow inmates in the hopes that they will enlighten the public about their plight. I have changed some of their names although they each shared their story freely and agreed to be included in this book. I have recounted their stories as I remember them, and they are simply that, stories. Each life is a unique string of stories experienced from each person’s unique perspective. These stories are not meant to prove or disprove anything, anyone’s guilt or innocence. They are not to be taken as universal truth. They are simply stories, each a stitch in the embroidery of our lives. Before this experience, inmates in any prison would have been the last thing on my mind. After this experience, they will never be far from it. And the primary reason I have written this book is because I have two six-year-old children at home who will soon be able to read stories written by strangers about their mother’s life. It is for them that I write these pages. May this experience empower them. May they know that if their mother was able to survive this experience, they can survive just about anything. We all have stories. This one is mine. Anaité Alvarado Sánchez Guatemala, August 2016.