The Horror of the Archives: The Novel 300

Abstract

The explosion of a military warehouse (2005) in the Guatemalan capital exposed the archive of the National Civil Police. Key information suddenly appeared to illustrate the dark years of repression and the incredible suffering of numerous innocent victims during the civil war. The novel 300, by Rafael Cuevas, was inspired by this particular fact. This essay interprets Cuevas’s book as a specific form of modern historical novel characterized by multiple narrative voices. These chronicles and monologues help the reader imagine a very complex universe of repression, horror and human suffering and also to understand the false justifications used by some of the protagonists.