The Week of M-Words

Mugabe. Massacre. Murambi. Mokoto. Mobutu. Mozote. Morazan. Monterrosa. Marquez. Mercedes. Martinez. Marcos. Mam.

I dare you to not get these confused.

Partial Glossary:

Mugabe: Current leader of Zimbabwe. As in Breakfast with Mugabe, a play I saw last night with friends from my CNF program. The play toys with an interesting “What If?” As in—what if you could sit down with a controversial leader? How would you get access? What would he say?

Massacre: when many people are killed violently.

Murambi: a school in Rwanda where a massacre of Tutsis occurred in 1994. As in the film Massacre at Murambi, which is only five minutes long, and you should watch. It’s a beautiful, tragic, almost literary film and propaganda.

Mokoto: a town in Zaire where a massacre of Tutsis occurred in a cathedral in 1996. As described in Philip Gourevitch’s We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families.

Mobutu: the leader of Zaire when the Mokoto massacre took place.

Mozote: a village in El Salvador where a massacre occurred in 1981 (also partly in a cathedral). As described in Mark Danner’s book The Massacre at El Mozote.

Morazan: the province in which El Mozote is—or was.

Monterrosa, Marquez, Mercedes, Martinez, y mas: names of people in Danner’s book—whose relationships and identities I have yet to decipher.

Marcos: As in the village of San Marcos. A coffee plantation in Guatemala.

Mam: the largest language group in San Marcos.