[3] Her posting in Guatemala in 1954 coincided with the year Carlos Castillo Armas overthrew Jacobo Árbenz, with the support of the CIA.

Although she worked in a prosperous area as a teacher, the Maryknollers gradually became more aware of the plight of the Guatemalan poor, and she began taking short courses with the Jesuits on these issues, and studied both in Guatemala and the United States.

In Mexico City she married Thomas R. Melville, a former Catholic Maryknoll priest, who had worked in Guatemala for ten years before also being expelled in 1967 by Guatemalan and Church authorities for his role in planning the formation of a Christian unit to graft onto the guerrilla movement that was fighting Guatemala's military rulers.

Peters notes that she made a point of wearing a dress that wouldn't wrinkle in anticipation of being arrested and unable to change for a couple of days (97).

Before reporting to the Federal Women's Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia for her two-year sentence, she and her husband spoke to many antiwar groups.