Guatemala English language Magazine
Author/photographer: Hanne Linder KOM Publishing (www.komforlag.no) Graphic design: MILLA Design Printed in Guatemala by Print Studio 222 pages, color photography www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrOX29x1zvg “My Guatemala brings you a powerful encounter with the people and the environment the author has gotten to know throughout more than 20 years. It all comes together as a colorful and fulfilling book about the country, the culture […]
Read more
A candid chat with INGUAT’s Walter Fischer Imagine a place with volcanoes and mountains, jungles and deserts, white sands and black beaches … but while you and I have already discovered the beauty of Guatemala, the majority of the world remains oblivious. INGUAT, the country’s tourism board, has embarked on a 10-year campaign to increase tourism in the country at […]
Read moreColor-chart people say carnelian is a reddish-brown somewhere between cardinal and cerise. OK, if you say so. Painters in oil say carnelian is a perfect shade as a skin tone in painting handsome Mesoamerican natives. Jewelry makers and rock hounds say carnelian is a form of quartz, found worldwide, soft and easy to carve. Crafts makers say it’s onyx, which […]
Read more
by Eric Mencher Years ago in the infancy of my photojournalism career, after I complained yet one more time about a dropped credit line under one of my artful, award-winning photos (or so I had naively thought), an editor once told me that only mothers and other journalists read credit lines and mastheads. I can’t vouch for the mother part, […]
Read more
Like thousands of his New Orleans neighbors, blues piano player and singer Nelson Lunding was uprooted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “There was eight feet of water in the street, three feet of water in the house, cars were underwater…my neighborhood didn’t exist,” Lunding recalls. “People became insane, angry, heartbroken—including myself.” After more than a decade of performing in New […]
Read moreRestoration brings new life to an old district Last year, the municipality of Guatemala City undertook a project to conserve and revitalize the city’s heritage, and it started with La Sexta Avenida, Zone 1: the backbone of el centro histórico. Historically, La Sexta was the fashion capital of Guatemala—the place to see and be seen—with shops selling luxury goods and […]
Read moreA luxury getaway on a coffee plantation by Tanya Hughes “The hardest part is stepping off the edge,” my canopy-tour guide said encouragingly. Dubiously, I peered over the 40-foot drop. After a couple of deep breaths I took that step and I was flying through the air, held securely in place by my harness. Both youngsters and adults can line […]
Read more
written by Anna-Claire Bevan Francis Dávila is one of Guatemala’s leading DJs and is heralded as being hugely influential in the country’s electronic scene. “I first started playing a live act with a sampler and a synthesizer at the local raves in the late 90s,” says Dávila. But it wasn’t until a few years later when he moved to San […]
Read more
One of this month’s birthstones is beryl, a simple colorless crystal in its pure form. But Guatemala is never colorless, so to celebrate May we must find some impure beryl, which gemologists tell us can be green, blue, yellow, red, white. Whatever, it’s still beryl, with different names. Let’s go find this month one crystal from the impure-beryl list: aquamarine. […]
Read more
A Guatemalan Girl’s Journey through Adoption Author: Jacob Wheeler Foreword by Kevin Kreutner 280 pages, 27 illustrations 978-0-8032-3362-1 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Lincoln, Neb. www.nebraskapress.unl.edu Veteran journalist Jacob Wheeler puts a human face on the Guatemalan adoption industry through the story of 14-year-old Ellie, who was abandoned at age 7 and adopted by a middle-class family from Michigan. Wheeler […]
Read more
Using brightly colored native textiles as her media, Guatemalan artist Diana de Solares is introducing a line of fine, handmade handbags, each of which is unique. “You won’t see anything like this in the market,” de Solares says. “This is a high-end product—it is totally different.” In a range of sizes, the handbags incorporate geometric and floral patterns, as well […]
Read moreThe carpets, floats and sorrowful dirges of Semana Santa carry centuries-old tradition reserved for the holiest period of the Catholic calendar. But, in Guatemala during this special season, you’re also likely to encounter sights and sounds that are common year-round. Before you panic thinking there’s a shootout down the street or a UFO hovering nearby, here’s a brief rundown of […]
Read more
A fellow in Scotland coined the name and invented that mirrored tube he called the kaleidoscope, an “observer of beautiful colors.” We don’t need his device to see swirls of beautiful colors that form our sensuous Guatemalan kaleidoscope all year. Color, sound, aromas, tastes and touch are especially strong throughout Lent, from confetti and fireworks at the start, then through […]
Read moreDespite scares, pet tortoise enjoys a pampered life He survived a murder attempt in the United States and death threats in Honduras. He touched off a brief crisis at the Mexican border and was the object of a frantic search in La Antigua Guatemala. Yet as durable as the patterned shell he calls home, Jamal perseveres. “Slow and steady wins […]
Read moreCostumed revelers — and at least one pimped-out piñata — provided Antigua’s down-sized but festive version of Mardi Gras on Fat Tuesday night at the second annual Antigua Masquerade Ball. An eye-catching assembly of plumed, beaked and beaded guests converged outside La Merced for a parade to the ruins of San José El Viejo, where the Venetian-style charity event was […]
Read moreInternationally known blues guitarist Steve James traveled from Austin, Texas, to perform for an appreciative audience at Ocelot, the blues & jazz joint in La Antigua Guatemala. The intimate setting, limited to just 50 guests, was the perfect venue for James’ flawless fingerpicking on the guitar and mandolin. Singing old standards and newer favorites from his latest CD, ‘Short Blue […]
Read moreAs more U.S. residents are going abroad for medical treatment, an Antigua company guides medical tourists to doctors in Guatemala Frustrated with the rising costs and maddening bureaucracy of the U.S. medical system, more patients are looking overseas to get treatment of the same or better quality at a fraction of the cost. This year, well over 1 million North […]
Read more
Discovering Textiles in Guatemala Author: Kathryn Rousso Three parts within 14 chapters; illustrations, b/w & color photography; appendix 1-5; table, Mayan terminology; glossary; bibliography; further reading & index Publisher: The University of Arizona Press, Tucson www.uapress.arizona.edu “There is no other publication quite like this one devoted to maguey use in Guatemala, past and present. Rousso’s photographs are excellent and provide […]
Read more
Chocolate is coming back home to Central America, good chocolate at last. The cacao plant has been cultivated here for at least three millennia, the bean used as beverage and a food ingredient. Archaeologists found evidence of cacao cultivation at sites dating back to 1400 BC, with carvings of Maya enjoying the frothy, bitter drink. Spanish conquerors took chocolate to […]
Read more
‘I Do, Guatemala’ creates dream weddings amid Antigua’s romantic settings With volcanic backdrops, a signature arch, cobblestone streets and centuries-old ruins, La Antigua Guatemala couldn’t be more picturesque. Diana Sciarrillo of Guatemala City and colleague Romie Black of Atlanta (USA) want those and other images unique to Guatemala in wedding albums around the world. So last year they started “I […]
Read moreIgnore the deep sky-blue, the forested green Highlands, the foamy ocean surf, the coffee browns, the rich oranges and yellow lemons stacked high in market stalls. This month, drink in Guatemala’s Valentine colors—bright reds, soft pinks, pure whites. Valentine reds are long-stemmed roses in the markets, bougainvillea spilling over walls, poinsettias still in bloom from the holidays, brilliant scarlet huipiles […]
Read more
February 3-6 The Guatemala Orchid Association presents the XXXVII National Orchid Exposition, featuring a colorful array of orchids and informative workshops, from Feb. 3-6 in Guatemala City. The event will be at Cervecería Centroamericana, Salón José Mariano Arzú Castillo, 3 ave. 17-16, z. 2. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is Q25. Guatemala, the Land of Eternal Spring, […]
Read more
Oliver Thor Janson is a wildlife conservationist who uses photography as a tool to promote environmental education, his life passion. Born in Chicago, the son of a Swedish immigrant father and an Irish-Chippewa Indian mother, Thor began his career as an explorer at the age of four when he ventured out on his tricycle far beyond the home territory. At the […]
Read more
Pearls are scattered across this favored country, ready for your discovery without your needing to bother getting wet or even opening an oyster. Our pearls can be found along roadways, wildflowers of translucent white that bloom most of the year, and in our gardens, from tiny white buttons of blossoms to creamy white roses. Pearls glisten on our cobbled streets […]
Read more
Sapphires sparkle all around you in Guatemala. Unlike some other gems that must be searched out, sapphires are overhead, underfoot, all around. You can easily bathe in deep, rich pools of sapphire. No, not the imported jewelry gems found in stores, but rather in nature throughout this “land of eternal spring.” The Pacific and Caribbean coasts flanking Mesoamerica offer expanses […]
Read moreI feel fortunate that my vocation offers me low-altitude air travel to the four corners of Guatemala. When I’m in a helicopter or small plane, or even at a window on an upper floor of a Zone 10 high rise in Guatemala City, I invariably carry away two impressions: Quauhtlemallan, from the 16th century Nahualt for “land of trees,” is […]
Read more
text and photos by Dr. Al Thompson What might one do with a garden wall constructed of block painted white, other than wonder what one might do with such a wall so common in Antigua? Frequently, your 10-foot wall has been challenged by new construction behind it, which may exceed yours by another eight or 10 feet. Yes. What might […]
Read morewritten by Asa Bjorklund and Judith Gibbons photos by Asa Bjorklund Have you ever “choked” in the face of an important competition? Many athletes have panicked and become paralyzed in the arena, even to the point of giving up sports they really liked. In June, Sandy Venneman, psychology professor and equestrian, visited Club Ecuestre La Ronda in Finca Azotea in […]
Read more
Yes, emeralds are found in our jewelry stores, but only imported gems. Emerald, however, is a rich sight in the Highlands of Guatemala, especially now with the rainy season polishing the leaves and enriching the grasses. And yes, we’ve our own emerald stones too, the deep imperial of Guatemala’s very special jadeite jewelry, but it’s the deep green tones of […]
Read more
The oldest cookbook Carole has utilized, Lybro de Cocyna, which dates from 1844, is an anonymous compilation of recipes published by the University of San Carlos
Read more