Peter Benson collected the following observations during fieldwork in the summer of 2002 in Tecpán.

export farmer: "Sept. 11 effected us a lot because we depend on the U.S. economy a great deal. After that I was sad for us and the U.S. because of the dependency we have on that economy. Lots of ports and the borders closed, making it harder for us to export our produce. Also, I have others who do not grow crops but who make sweaters, and they were thinking at that moment of beginning to ship clothes to the U.S. to increase their earnings, but that made it nearly impossible for now. The economy dropped and prices too, and there are now more regulations. So, yeah, it effected us a lot. But do you think there was reason enough to do what they did, that is my question." -who- "Arabs." -what do you think- "I think they had reason and motive, mainly because of the president and his attitudes. There was a clear motive because of the way that the U.S. conducts politics and business in all parts of the world. There is a McDonald's in Antigua, for example, and more and more that town is becoming a pedasito of the U.S. It was in many ways a good lesson for your country to have learned, not the people and those who suffered but the government, those with power and money." -But you told me also that you were against the use of violence during the protests here in Tecpan. How is that different?- "Tough question, but it's because the gangs and those who looted and robbed did not have a motive. The Arabs did have a motive and reason, as I said, and in that case violence was horrible and painful to watch, but it was necessary to make their case. The pacific protesters in Tecpan knew the issues and proposed solutions, and they were committed to remaining tranquil and calm, looking for a dialogue with the authorities, that's all, but they violent ones were wrong because they did not have legitimate political concerns."

 Local Restaurant Worker: "I felt very sad for the US because when I went to New Jersey I saw the towers from the plane when we were landing at the airpot. Then I went to New York and saw them in front of me, looking up at them, how large I couldn't believe it. When it happened on Sept. 11 I was in Wisconsin with friends, working, and we were terrified because we had just been there, looking up, and knew that those towers were not there now but were where we were standing. I worked for an Arab three years here in Guatemala and he didn't want to pay me ever, three years in a restaurant, hard work too, and he didn't ever have money for me, but he had the money, he kept it and spent it. Arabs are mucho cabeza, fucked up as they say in US. I work four years as a landscaper in Florida and there: hour work, hour paid, no problems, you get the money right away, do whatever you want with it, spend it or save it, but here's your money. For this reason I am saddened by what happened in New York, because I appreciate the way the US treated me when I worked there. Also, the US gives so much to Guatemala, to help us, money and food. I worked four years in Miami, Naples, Fort Myers, and I have $20,000 in the bank right now, a bank here in Guatemala. I didn't tell anyone, not even my family, they don't know I have that money, but I do, because I worker and they paid me. Now maybe my kids will want something more, ser algo mas o mejor."

 Campesino: "The U.S. had a tragedy in september, and this is our tragedy. It has effected us greatly also. No one died, but it has been terrible because there was violence and Tecpan is not a violent town, so it changed the way we were used to things, people were angered and aggressive and scared, just like in New York. In both cases, also, the innocent people were the one's that suffered, and the violence was due to gangs here and terrorists in New York. So that makes these tragedies so difficult to face, because it was people just doing what they do that were hurt, and their families are now suffering. People in Tecpan were robbed, lost food, jewelery, clothes, some lost their computer or their radio, and the houses were broken up, the doors and the windows."

 
Diego: “I was in New Jersey when the two planes hit the towers. The night before I went to a birthday party of a friend who lives in Newark, which is just across the river from the towers. His daughter was having her birthday, and because we stayed up pretty late talking and drinking, we woke up a little later than I like. I remember I didn’t sleep well because of the party. Actually, no one slept well, but I woke up first because I had a lot to do that day, had a meeting in Yonkers with Medex in the afternoon and had various things to do in Newark. We had breakfast right away. It was a big breakfast, I remember that, and we were done eating at about 7:15 or 7:30. Then we ended up just chatting around the table for a few hours, drinking coffee. After the first plane hit the first tower we got a phone call from a neighbor in the apartment building who told us to go up to the roof. Everyone in the building was running up the stairs, and when we got up on the roof there were hundreds of people. We saw clearly across the river to the tower, we were really close, and we saw smoke rising from the top of the tower. Everyone was saying it was an accident, because we could also see the Newark airport, so we thought that a plane had just hit the tower, an accident. Then a short while later we saw another plane flying low to the ground pass the towers, dar la vuelta, and come straight into the second tower. Wow. Then we all said, ok, that is no accident. We knew that it was something else. It wasn’t an accident. I didn’t know what was happening, but that plane dar la vuelta and flew into the other tower real quickly. Then there was an explosion and more smoke, and the smoke was thick, coming across the river toward Newark where we were standing, watching the whole thing. I was up in Yonkers a few days before, and I was actually down near the towers that week. We have some vendors down there I was talking with. I was supposed to leave on the 14^th, but I ended up staying until the end of September, three more weeks, because the airport was closed at first and I was able to stay longer, so I decided I could get some work done. A few days after the 11^th I was in the subway with a group of friends, we were coming back from a meeting in Yonkers and going to return to New Jersey, and the subway stopped. We thought there had been another explosion. We stayed in the subway for two hours, waiting, and we didn’t know what happened. Then we found out there was just an accident in the subway and that it wasn’t another attack. But about the towers, I don’t know what I can say. I had never seen anything like that, of course, and all I could say was ‘wow.’ I saw the whole thing from the roof top, and during that week I was in New York City."