Research team

Xhiv Koot Ceto was proposed by the Ixil University to participate in the project Komon Sa’jb’ichil: Cartographies of the Cold War. She is a student of Technical Rural Community Development at the same university and has collaborated with Fundamaya, where she has developed a recognized track record of participation and social activism in the Ixil territory. As part of the project, she worked on the development and design of the memory map of the Ilom region, conducting in-depth interviews with members of the indigenous authorities and elders of the community. 

Andrés Brito is originally from the community of Santa Clara, one of the Communities of Resistance (CPR) in the municipality of Chajul. He is a student at the Ixil University and is part of the new generation of young Ixil researchers. He participated in the project Komon Sa’jb’ichil: Cartographies of the Cold War, collaborating with Sergio Vi in the creation of the memory map of the municipality of Chajul. 

Rosa Gómez was proposed by the Ixil University as a researcher for the project Komon Sa’jb’ichil: Cartographies of the Cold War. Originally from the municipality of Cotzal, she is a survivor of state violence and the genocide that occurred in the Ixil region in the early 1980s. A recognized community leader, she has done notable work collecting testimonies and life stories that contributed to the creation of the memory map of the Ixil territory. 

Alan López is a student at the Ixil University and a young ancestral authority of the municipality of Nebaj since 2024, where he holds the position of Mayul within the structure of Ixil authorities. He participated as a researcher in the project Komon Sa’jb’ichil: Cartographies of the Cold War, in which he worked, alongside Cristina Soliz, on the creation of the memory map of the municipality of Nebaj. 

Catarina Raymundo is one of the youngest researchers in the project Komon Sa’jb’ichil: Cartographies of the Cold War and a student at the Ixil University. Originally from the community of Shipiu, in the municipality of Nebaj, she participated alongside Xhiv Koot Ceto in the creation of the memory map of the Ilom region. Her work included conducting interviews with elders and community authorities, strengthening the connections between research and local memories of the Ixil territory. 

Cristina Soliz was nominated by the Indigenous Mayor’s Office of Nebaj to participate in the project Komon Sa’jb’ichil: Cartographies of the Cold War, where she represented that Mayor’s Office as an ancestral authority. She currently works in the Private Secretariat of the Presidency of Guatemala, in the conflict resolution area, with special attention to the Quiché department. She participated in the creation of the memory map of the municipality of Nebaj, alongside Alan López. 

Sergio Vi has been the first indigenous mayor of the ancestral authorities of the municipality of Chajul and was proposed by them to participate in the project Komon Sa’jb’ichil: Cartographies of the Cold War. With extensive experience in community organization, catechist training, and political participation in the Ixil region, he is recognized as one of the most important indigenous leaders in the territory. As part of the project, he participated in the creation of the memory map of the municipality of Chajul, conducting interviews with people who experienced the war, including former indigenous combatants and members of the army. His contribution has been essential to the development of the research. 

Diego Zambrano was proposed by the Indigenous Mayor’s Office of Cotzal to participate in the project Komon Sa’jb’ichil: Cartographies of the Cold War. He currently serves as the principal indigenous mayor of the ancestral mayor’s offices in the same municipality. With over twenty years of experience in mental health care and support, he has worked especially on cases related to trauma from the genocide in the Ixil region. Additionally, he has collaborated as a technician at Fundamaya, supporting community and rural development processes in various communities of the Ixil territory. 

Dr. Julie Gibbings is a Senior Lecturer in the History of the Americas in the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. She is the PI on both the “Cold War Cartographies” and the “Komon Sajibil” AHRC projects. She is the author of award-winning articles and of Our Times in Now: Race and Modernity in Postcolonial Guatemala (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which will appear in Spanish soon as Nuestra Tiempo es ahora: La Raza y la modernidad en Guatemala poscolonial (CIRMA and Sophos, 2026). She also co-authored Out of the Shadow: Revisiting the Revolution from Post-Peace Guatemala (University of Texas Press, 2020) 

You can learn more about her research and teaching at the University of Edinburgh here.  

Dr. Alejandro Flores is a visual ethnographer and multimodal anthropologist focused on the entanglements of state violence, Indigenous politics, and territory in Guatemala. He is a postdoctoral researcher on the Komon Sajb’ichil project at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, and he collaborates with the Ixil University, where he co-supervises and teaches in community-based research with Maya Ixil authorities and students. He hold a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s degree in Cultural and Political Sociology from Freie Universität Berlin. Through films, memory maps, collaborative exhibitions, and writing, he explores how Ixil communities narrate and contest Cold War cartographies in the present. 

You can learn more about his work at: https://www.alejandrofloresaguilar.link/ 

Dr. Adriana María Linares-Palma is an independent scholar engaged in critical thought and participatory methods, particularly in archaeological praxis in Guatemala. She holds a Wenner-Gren Post-PhD Research Grant for “Ancient material culture in the Ixil region: Archaeological and Ixil readings over kamaviil.” Adriana contributed to “Cold War Cartographies” (2025) by creating a historical GIS map of political violence and extractive development projects in Northern Guatemala. She was a visiting scholar in University of California Riverside (2024-2025), forensic archaeologist at Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (2022-2024), and scholar resident at the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, NM (2021-2022). Adriana defended her dissertation (2021) in Latin American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.  

Feliciana Herrera Ceto, also known as Sit Po’p, is a Maya Ixil woman currently serving as the Coordinating Mayor of the Indigenous Municipality of the Maya Ixil people in Nebaj. She holds a degree in Legal and Social Sciences and has completed a postgraduate program in the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, awarded by the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain. She is also trained in Community Rural Development from the Universidad Ixil and is a member of the academic council of the institution, which is part of the council of Maya universities in Guatemala. Her professional experience includes work as a journalist and community researcher, contributing to the empowerment and visibility of indigenous communities. 

José Manuel Mayorga (curator) is a lawyer and notary, visual artist, cultural promoter, and editor. He has been responsible for curating the exhibitions Otras Visiones (2009) as part of Foto30 and Margarita Azurdia, Todo es Una (2020). He lives and resides in Guatemala.