Dianna Ortiz went to Guatemala to teach Mayan children how to read
After a couple of years she was disappeared and suffered a series of betrayals
She was burned with cigarettes
more than 100 times on her back and chest
She says she was put in a pit full of bodies,
some dead, some alive, all swarming with rats
She says she was forced to stab another woman.
She still cries when she talks about that

Some believe that the things other people do to you cannot harm your spirit
Only the things you do yourself can harm your spirit
The torturers know that
They were well trained
In the US School of the Americas *
As Sartre observes: "The purpose of torture
is not only to make a person talk,
but to make (her) betray others"
Her betrayal destroys her utterly
But Dianna survived

An American named Alejandro was present at her torture
The other men called him boss
He told Dianna he cared about the people of Guatemala
and was working to liberate them from communism
When Dianna's disappearance caused an outcry
because she was an American nun
Alejandro tried to take her to the US embassy
He warned her not to tell about her torture and rape
because they had a videotape of her stabbing the woman
But Dianna jumped out of his car and managed to escape from Guatemala

She's been trying for more than twelve years
To get the US government to tell what it knows about the men who did this to her
She's been called a liar and a crazed lesbian for trying to find out her rapists' names
A couple of years ago I heard her say
that if she knew how hard it would be to go after this information
when the government wanted her to let it go
she probably never would have tried