_{Photo: Beverly Lemoine Gutierrez at book launch}

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 11, 2024

A revised and expanded edition of Belizean author and activist, Beverly Lemoine Gutierrez’s book, While Passing Through, was released today, Thursday, July 11, at the Leo Bradley Library in Belize City.

The narrative recounts the first 23 years of Gutierrez’s life while growing up in Belize through a raw first-person point of view as she endured sexual trauma by relatives, poverty, pregnancy, drugs, and multiple suicide attempts along with other topics.

“It’s not about being raped; it’s about healing,” Gutierrez said. “One of the greatest things to me is for a woman or child to be healed and live a life they can be in society and function, even after all the evils that had happened to them,” she added.

When Amandala asked Gutierrez about the title of her book, she explained that it’s about healing.

“Healing. Healing. Healing. You can go to your lowest, but you can come back up. There is always come back up. There is always hope, no matter how low you are, and again loving yourself,”

As mentioned above, this is a revised edition of the original story that was released in 1998, removing the more graphic details of her experiences.

“This book has ways to deal with what happened. Back in those days I was just writing because I was angry; so, 26 years ago I wrote it and we did pretty well. I am surprised, because I want to read that old book, because everything was explicit, from the rape through Majestic Alley to everything; and I tell it step-by-step,” Gutierrez said.

Through the original piece, she was featured on The 700 Club on CBN – Christian Broadcasting Network in the US – using that platform to share her experiences.

Two copies of the book were also given to the Leo Bradley Library, said Geridene Reneau, Senior Librarian. She mentioned that hosting book launches at the Library is being used as a catapult to promote the work of Belizean writers.

“We encourage authors to do their book launch at the library so that we promote the book and encourage others to come read the book, to promote the work of our Belizean artists. As Miss Bev spoke about today, there are stories that we don’t know about, and these stories will help to enlighten and educate the younger population of our country,” Reneau said.

While Passing Through was written under Gutierrez’s pen name – Bev-E.