Still Standing

A shocking firsthand account of a woman's fight for justice while being wrongly imprisoned, and the incredible stories of the women she meets on the inside.Anaite Alvarado was at home caring for her children when she noticed Guatemalan police on her street. She sent her children to school just minutes before the police burst into her home, handcuffed her, and dropped her in a dirty Guatemalan prison.In this vivid and unforgettable memoir, we are with Anaite day by day as she is forced from a comfortable life as part of Guatemala's higher social class into a fight for survival, edible food, decent living conditions, and justice. Anaite's husband had been accused of a spectrum of financial crimes, and while she had no part in his wrongdoings, her opponents and a corrupt judicial system kept her imprisoned without evidence. In prison, we meet the women in the shadows that the Guatemalan government tries to forget. We hear firsthand accounts of crimes and atrocities, but we also see how, even in the most deplorable of conditions, friendship, kindness, and humanity persevere. WE see how women can become violent criminals, murderers even, and yet still have empathy and compassion. We also see how people like Anaite are left to linger in jail for crimes they didn't commit. This remarkable story was a media sensation in Guatemala but, despite Anaite's American citizenship, it was largely ignored by the American government. In Still Standing, Anaite's fight for justice is told in full detail for the very first time, and it raises the question of if a terrible, unexpected event happened to us, could we too persevere?