Category: Guatemala
Touring the Nacimientos
For centuries, all over the world artistic expressions of the birth of Jesus have touched people of all ages and stages, the right and the poor, the merry and the melancholy, the proud and the profane.
Holiday Scents
These days of celebrations bring colorful treats of greens, reds, golds and other holiday shades. All the senses enjoy December, with its rich foods to taste, velvet cloths to touch, carols to hear. The laughter of children, the ringing of the bells, the singing in the streets, all the sounds of the month join the colors and savors to enjoy.
November Ferias
Late November brings us the opportunity to celebrate and observe another round of distinctly Guatemalan festivities, the ferias or town fairs of towns whose patron saints are St. Catherine (Santa Catarina), St. Martin (San Martín) and St. Andrew (San Andrés).
The Guatemalan Hospitality Bug Bites All
In Guatemala, it is easier to “just drop in” on your friends than it would be in Minneapolis or Melbourne. One reason, I think (write me if you disagree) is that until the end of the previous century telephone calls were something you rarely tried at home. That was when Italy’s telecommunications monopoly brought Gua-temala’s [...]
Cloud Nine: The Tzantizotz Nature Reserve
The swirling mist dusts Volcán San Pedro in a muted dove gray, catching dawn’s sunrays and washing it in an ethereal glow. The steely-mirrored waters of Lake Atitlán are quiet, rippled only by the wake of a distant boat that slides across its surface. The air is still, cool and refreshing. This awe-inspiring view is the reason that Lake Atitlán is undisputedly one of the world’s most beautiful lakes. It is here, in the moment and in the quiet that one can touch the magnificence of God’s creation.
Growing the Industry
photos by Laura McNamara A Guatemalan film crew shares a universal story to highlight their country’s unique virtues in filmmaking. This is a movie crew with a vision: Cru Código wants to train the spotlight on Guatemala, demonstrating to the international community that the “Country of Contrasts” is both a desirable and capable location for [...]
Panajachel Feria
by Ana Flinder photos: Vicoria Stone Panajachel’s patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi, is honored in October with a combination of town fair, cultural dances, religous ceremonies, pyrotechnics and parades Next month brings another great opportunity to experience Guatemalan culture and festivity in a way that is very easy on the visitor, especially with the [...]
A Honey of a Business
by Judith Cohen An expert’s view on how honey and bees are faring in Guatemala Alejandro Nicol is an expert in the honey business. After studying beekeeping for two years at Ohio State University, he now advises the Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación (MAGA) on the care, feeding, export, import and preservation of bees. [...]
Golf Tournament
Last month included the first annual Antigua Invitational Golf Tournament. Played at the spectacular Mayan Golf Club overlooking Lake Amatitlán, the format was “scramble” with four-person teams. The competition was fierce but the lunch gathering afterwards was amiable with prizes for longest drives, closest to the pin, and of course for the lowest scoring team [...]
The Lienzo de Quauhquechollan is considered to be the first map of Guatemala
Click this Link… http://revuemag.com/go/FirstMapGuatemala/ The Lienzo de Quauhquechollan is considered to be the first map of Guatemala. It is also the only firsthand indigenous account of the conquest of Guatemala and one of the few sources to record the military campaigns of Jorge de Alvarado in 1527–1530. The Lienzo was a forgotten relic that had [...]
Kilometer Zero at the National Palace
text and photos by Michael Sherer Set at the northern end of the enormous Plaza Mayor, Guatemala’s National Palace is the origin of all the roads in the Republic with a spot known as Kilómetro Cero. Two and half miles north of the gleaming chrome-and-glass towers that line the Avenida La Reforma, the edifice is [...]
Health Care in Colonial Guatemala
Part III: University of San Carlos Medical School By the end of the 17th century, six hospitals had been founded in Guatemala. But, lacking scientific information and methods, hospitals provided little more than refuge or asylum. Sickness and cultural attitudes toward it were a social problem. In addition, the times were characterized by conflict between [...]
Guatemala’s National Dish Revealed!
Twenty months after her first and, to date, sole visit to Guatemala, my niece Holly Myrick remains stricken by Guatemala. In March she did her seventh-grade country report, and she could have chosen any of Earth’s 197 sovereignties. Reader, you guessed it—she didn’t choose Djibouti. It helped to have a Guatemala expert (so reputed) in [...]
Horses Have Rights
There is a forgotten population in Guatemala: the equine population. The Foundation for Equine Welfare in Guatemala, known as ESAP, reports that the Guatemalan government has not included more than 250,000 equines in the country’s census since 2003. For six years, horses, mules and donkeys have been forgotten by the government, and ESAP says that [...]
People and Projects: PROGRESA
PROGRESA is a Quaker-run scholarship/loan program that has been in existence for over 35 years. Jointly sponsored by the Guatemala Friends meeting and a Friends meeting in California, the program helps Guatemalans attend universities and secondary schools. Our focus is on the rural poor who often don’t have access to higher education in their communities. [...]
English and Guatemala
A revolution in English instruction coming to Guatemala’s Del Valle University Altiplano
A School without a Soccer Field
Simply put, the entire Colegio Hebrón school “went home” and never came back
Healthcare in Colonial Guatemala
The latest medical advances in Spain were slow to reach Guatemala which saw its first autopsy in 1622. Hospitals were simple asylums for the sick, consoled by religion.
Name Your Favorite Season
So the six seasons are the two mini-seasons, and the before and after phases of the dry and wet seasons. Since winter and summer make little sense as universal terms, I would discard them. But I would use spring and autumn.
Project Niños de Guatemala
Niños de Guatemala is a nonprofit organization that provides education to Ciudad Vieja’s poorest children to develop themselves and improve their life quality and their community’s. NDG’s strength is in the combined support from both international and local people.
6 Sky
The Legacy of Mesoamerican Astronomical Knowledge Art Exhibit: July 22-28, The Galería, Panajachel, Lake Atitlán Astronomy, mythology, the calendar and the spirit world were all of extreme importance to the ancient Mesoamericans. Artist-scholar Dave Schaefer renders these themes in multiple sets of dimensions this month in Panajachel, Lake Atitlán. Some of his images are realized [...]
Not Just Another Flash in the Pan Pipe
text and photos by Michael Sherer Haunting sinuous melodies interwoven with cañas and Peruvian pan pipes, punctuated by a perfect blend of voices backed by guitars and 10-string charangos, peppered with conga drums and a professional quality home-made bass drum fill the green-and-white room at the La Peña de Sol Latino restaurant and bar five [...]
Postcards from the Park
text/photos by Melba Milak The city of La Antigua Guatemala is laid out in a simple grid: seven avenues running north and south and 10 streets going east and west. In the center of town is a park (Plaza Mayor), the heart and soul of the whole area. The atmosphere in the park is carefree [...]
Some Guatemalan Cultural Firsts
Guatemala is home to many surprising precedents, for better or worse. Guatemala is the oldest country in the Americas, though not the oldest republic. Civilization, kindled here some 43 centuries ago, is Guatemala’s loftiest precedent. Ancient Guatemalans were the first peoples in the Americas known to engineer a sophisticated water-pressure system. They may have been [...]
Anonymous donor makes big pledge to support Hospitalito Atitlán
Since the devastating mudslides of 2005, a small hospital in Santiago Atitlán has been struggling to serve the community. In the four years since Hospitalito Atitlán opened, it has filled a great need with a 24-hour emergency room, X-ray, lab and clinics. The hospital board has been hard at work to build a new, permanent [...]
Project Partner for Surgery
One out of 10 rural Guatemalans suffers from a physical condition or disability that can be surgically cured. However, only 11 percent of Guatemalans have access to surgical care. Maya Indian populations face daunting barriers to treatment, including fear of hospitals and lack of information, Spanish language skills and financial resources.
Crafting Clay in Tutuapa
text and photos by Kathy Rousso Food tastes better when it is cooked in a clay pot, everyone agrees. While today enamel and aluminum cookware is found in most kitchens, many cooks still have a clay pot or two for their special dish. Before synthetic materials were available, clay pots, in many shapes and sizes, [...]
Artisty in Wood
text and photos by Ira Lewis Woodcarving in Guatemala Guatemala is fortunate to have a long, rich history of artisan/artists working in many media going back to pre-Colonial times. Most of the ancient sculpted art is seen as carved stone. However, some of the less-durable carvings in wood from this era still survive. We are [...]
Healthcare in Colonial Guatemala
written by Joy Houston photos: Jack Houston Part I: 16th Century What medical options were available centuries ago in Guatemala for wounds from enemy arrows, burns, natural disasters or epidemics? Mixing medicine with magic was routine in colonial days. “Medical science was slave to theory and superstition,” writes Carlos Martínez Durán in Las Ciencias Médicas [...]
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