Still Standing

A shocking firsthand account of a young mom's fight for justice while being wrongly imprisoned, and the incredible stories of the women she meets inside.



Anait 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 page turning and unforgettable memoir, we are with Anait day by day as she is forced from a comfortable life as part of Guatemala's higher social class into a woman fighting for survival, edible food, decent living conditions, and justice. Anait 's husband had been accused of a spectrum of financial crimes, and while she had no part in his wrongdoings, her opposers and a corrupt judicial system kept her imprisoned--without evidence.



In prison, we meet face-to-face the women in the shadows who the Guatemalan government attempts to forget. We hear firsthand accounts of crimes and atrocities, by free will or by force, 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 women, like Anait , are left to linger in jail for crimes they didn't commit.



This remarkable volume is Lisa and Laura Ling's Somewhere Inside meets Piper Kerman's Orange is the New Black. The story was a media sensation in Guatemala, but despite Anait 's American citizenship was largely ignored by the American government. In Still Standing, it 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?