Finding Oscar: Massacre, Memory, and Justice in Guatemala

The harrowing and heartrending story of Guatemala's Dos Erres massacre, and the survivors whose lives were forever changed by it In 1982, at the height of Guatemala's civil war, twenty soldiers from the army's commando unit, called the Kaibiles, invaded the farming village of Dos Erres. Masquerading as leftist guerillas, the squad members cut their way through the small town, killing more than 250 men, women, and children. Only a handful of people survived. One of them, a young boy, was adopted by Kaibil lieutenant Ramirez and raised by Ramirez's family, who named him Oscar. Just three years old at the time of the massacre, Oscar grew up unaware of his true origins. It wasn't until almost thirty years later, living in the suburbs of Boston with a family of his own, that Oscar would learn the truth. Drawn from interviews with massacre survivors, commandos-turned-protected witnesses, lawyers, and forensic anthropologists, Finding Oscar is a powerful, groundbreaking investigation into the Dos Erres massacre and its aftermath. It is an unforgettable account of the secret abductions of Dos Erres survivors, the mission to bring the perpetrators to justice, and the courage of the Guatemalan people. This ebook contains content not available anywhere else. Additional features include: A preface by Sebastian Rotella An afterword by acclaimed author Francisco Goldman Oscar's story is also featured on the May 25, 2012, episode of This American Life, available for download at www.thisamericanlife.org. A slide show, timeline, and details about how this story was reported can be found at www.propublica.org.

About the Author :
Sebastian Rotella is an award-winning foreign correspondent and investigative reporter at ProPublica, a New York City-based nonprofit that produces journalism in the public interest. In April 2012, Rotella won the seventh annual Urbino Press Award, which recognizes members of the American press committed to excellence in journalism. Rotella worked for almost twenty-three years for the Los Angeles Times. He served as a national security correspondent in Washington, DC, international investigative correspondent, bureau chief in Paris and Buenos Aires, and Mexico border correspondent. In 2006, he was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for international reporting for his coverage of terrorism and Muslim communities in Europe. He is the author of two books: Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border, named a New York Times Notable Book in 1998; and the novel Triple Crossing, published by Little, Brown/Mulholland Books in 2011. Rotella is a graduate of the University of Michigan and was born in Chicago. Ana Arana is a US investigative journalist and director of the Fundacion MEPI, an independent journalism project based in Mexico City. Arana is a former Knight International Journalism Fellow in Mexico, where she trained investigative units at various news outlets. One of her investigative teams at the daily El Universal won Mexico's National Press Award in 2008. Arana's work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, Salon, the Columbia Journalism Review, Business Week, the Village Voice, the Miami Herald, and CBS News. She is a former reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and was a foreign correspondent for the Miami Herald in Central America and Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s. She is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and San Francisco State University.