What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance

by Carolyn Forché

“We have no Sierra Madre here,” he said, in the voice of a father about to tell a story to a child. “We have no jungle. There is no place to hide. If the people take up arms, those arms must come from somewhere, and the ammunition from somewhere, and the fighters must be fed, and have continual access to potable water. Equipment and supplies must be moved from place to place without interruption and without detection. Fighters who are killed must be replaced. They must also be transported back to their homes or buried. Wounded fighters must receive medical attention. Doctors and nurses are needed, as well as surgical and medical supplies, and all of this must also be transported, again, continually, again without detection. Do you see how challenging this is, Papu?”