Abstract

PAGE PLIEGO, Jaime Tomás. Memory, Imagination, and Fear in the Genesis of Diabetes Mellitus. The case of a Guatemalan Woman. Rev. pueblos front. digit. [online]. 2019, vol.14, e433.  Epub Aug 07, 2020. ISSN 1870-4115.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2019.v14.433.

People who suffer diabetes mellitus frequently state that stress and fear are triggers, or even the main cause, for this disease. Furthermore, it is well known that psychic and physical suffering contribute to persistent hyperglycemia. This paper explores the social representations of remembrance, imagination and fear from this experience that contribute to persistent emotional toil in a context of structural violence. These are illustrated through the case of Doña Caridad, a Guatemalan Kichean woman who recalls experiencing overwhealming and persistent fear and sadness, with acute periods, as a result of being a direct victim of the ethnic extermination that took place during the eighties in Guatemala and, later, when she experienced the 1994 Zapatist uprising in Chiapas, Mexico.

Keywords : structural violence; emotional suffering; ethnocide; chronic disease.