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As a graphic designer I can only have admiration for the excellent handling of color, texture, patterns and shapes found in Guatemala’s indigenous art. Come on, just look at the intricate use of colors, dots, and forms in the wooden animal heads above; it is amazing that so many different elements can be in complete harmony as a whole.

Next time you visit Guatemala, make sure your take home a piece of the chaotic, harmonious and colorful Guatemala.

Even though I have shown quite a few photos of Iglesia de La Merced, I believe this is the first time I actually show you the entire front façade of La Merced church. Oops, sorry! I guess my approach is to skip the obvious shots at first and to share with you less common angles or perspectives. Over one year and half had past before I published the first photo of Calle del Arco. I hope you don’t mind seeing other parts of town or perspectives first.

The last time I showed you La Merced church from this perspective I forgot to include this vertical shot, which has a warmer light and better contrast between the yellow church and the blue sky. Go back to look at the previous photograph and tell me what you think?

Chelada or Michelada, or which ever way you have them, Guatemalan beers are so refreshing!

How many Guatemalan beers can you name? How many different Guatemalan beers have you tried? What’s your favorite Guatemalan beer?

Ephemerides Aside: 34 years ago today Guatemala had the most devastating earthquake of its recent history. On February 4th, 1976 Guatemala experienced a 7.5 earthquake that killed over 24,000 and injured over 77,000 Guatemalans and changed Guatemala forever. Read all the details and about it at ClimaYa.Com and the eye-witness interview to Kara Andrade’s abuelita at NewMaya.org; both great readings.

Like I said yesterday, “my never ending quest of bringing you the contrast of the ‘Old’ Guatemala versus the ‘New’ Guatemala…”

Also, I believe I mentioned before that living in La Antigua Guatemala is not like time traveling to the past, but rather, it’s more like collapsing the time-distance among different time periods so that they co-exist all at once. Am I making any sense?

When I grow up, I want to have a kitchen like that; wouldn’t you?

«Luna de Xelajú», “Moon of Xelajú”, has to be the most popular Guatemalan waltz played on marimba and quite possibly the most famous Guatemalan marimba song. “Xelajú” (pronounced shay-lah-HOO) is the old Mayan name for the Guatemalan city Quetzaltenango, still often popularly called “Xelajú” or “Xela”.

Now, I wonder why nobody has made such a song about La Antigua Guatemala’s moon; which is, if I may say so myself, just as enchanting and inspiring. Since Xe-la-jú is a three syllable word, the same as An-ti-gua, could we pretend the song also applies to the beautiful and enchanting Antigua Guatemala, right?

Anyway, in my never ending quest of bringing you the contrast of the ‘Old’ Guatemala versus the ‘New’ Guatemala, I share with you two new versions of Luna de Xelajú. The first rendition of Luna de Xelajú is by Malacates Trebol Shop. The second version of Luna de Xelajú is performed by the group Abracadabra. Next, you will find the lyrics for Luna de Xelajú in Spanish and English right below. Last but not least, you can watch and hear the Marimba of Bellas Artes performed Luna de Xelajú. Enjoy!

Luna de Xelajú lyrics in Spanish:

Luna gardenia de plata,
Que en mi serenata,
Te vuelves canción,
Tú que me viste cantando, me ves hoy llorando,
Mi desilusión,

Calles bañadas de luna,
Que fueron la cuna de mi juventud,
Vengo a cantarle a mi amada,
La luna plateada de mi Xelajú,

Luna de Xelajú,
Que supiste alumbrar,
En mis noches de pena,
Por una morena de dulce mirar,

Luna de Xelajú,
Me diste inspiración,
La canción que hoy te canto,
Regada con llanto de mi corazón,

En mi vida no habrá,
Más cariño que tú,
Mi amor,

Porque no eres ingrata,
Mi luna de plata,
Luna de Xelajú,

Luna que me alumbró,
En mis noches de amor,
Y hoy consuelas mi pena,
Por una morena que me abandonó…

Luna de Xelajú lyrics in English:

Moon, silver gardenia,
In my serenade,
You turn into song,
You who saw me singing, now see me crying,
My disillusionment,

Streets bathed in moonlight,
That were the cradle of my youth,
I come to sing to my beloved,
The silver moon of my Xelajú,

Moon of Xelajú,
You knew how to shine,
In my nights of grief,
For a sweet looking dark-haired girl

Moon of Xelajú,
You gave me inspiration,
The song that I now sing,
Watered with the tears from my heart,

In my life there will not be,
More love than you,
My love,

Because you were not ungrateful,
My moon of silver,
Moon of Xelajú,

Moon that shone,
In my nights of love,
Now you console my grief,
For a dark-haired girl who abandoned me…

(source: Wikipedia)

As almost every first of the month, AntiguaDailyPhoto is joining the City Daily Photo community in the orchestrated global effort to show you “wood” as a theme day. I opted to show you Maximón effigies made from wood, now holly wood really since Maximón is worshiped by the Maya people of Guatemala. Below, an introduction to Maximón from Wikipedia.

The origins of his cult are not very well understood by outsiders to the different Mayan religions, but Maximón is believed to be a form of the pre-Columbian Maya god Mam, blended with influences from Catholicism. Maximón may also be called San Simón. Originally, he was believed to be a Catholic priest who had looked after aboriginals during early 1600s.

Where Maximón is venerated, he is represented by an effigy which resides in a different house each year, being moved in a procession during Holy Week. During the rest of the year, devotees visit Maximón in his chosen residence, where his shrine is usually attended by two people from the representing Cofradia who keep the shrine in order and pass offerings from visitors to the effigy. Worshippers offer money, spirits and cigars or cigarettes to gain his favour in exchange for good health, good crops, and marriage counseling, amongst other favours. The effigy invariably has a lit cigarette or cigar in its mouth, and in some places, it will have a hole in its mouth to allow the attendants to give it spirits to drink.

Maximón is generally dressed in European 18th century style, although with many local variations. In Santiago Atitlán he is adorned with many colourful garlands, while in Zunil (where he is known as San Simón) he has a much more intimidating style, with his face obscured by dark sunglasses and a bandanna.

The worship of Maximón treats him not so much as a benevolent deity but rather as a bully whom one does not want to anger. He is also known to be a link between Xibalbá The Underworld and Bitol heart of heaven (Corazón del Cielo). His expensive tastes in alcohol and cigarettes indicate that he is a very human character, very different from the ascetic ideals of Christian sainthood. Devotees believe that prayers for revenge, or success at the expense of others, are likely to be granted by Maximón. (source: Wikipedia)

Video of What Would Maximón Do? courtesy of Kara Andrade of NewMaya.org:

Like many firsts of the month, AntiguaDailyPhoto is participating in the theme day of the City Daily Photo community around the world. To see how others in the City Daily Photo community have interpreted today’s theme please click here to view thumbnails for all participants around the planet.

The venerable colonial pila from Guatemala is often in my focus, don’t you agree?

Now, if you can tell exactly how many pilas, washbasins, have appeared in AntiguaDailyPhoto since May 1, 2006, I will mail you a post card made from the washbasin photo you choose. Good luck to all players!

Last Friday night at 7 p.m. AntiguaDailyPhoto guest contributor and professional photographer Arturo Godoy, Kara Andrade from HablaGuate and I attended the conference La verdadera estructura del Calendario Maya, or The True Structure of the Mayan Calendar, given by Mayanist David Stuart. Dr. David Stuart refuted the modern visions of the end of the world of the 2012 Mayan Calendar as false and lacking any base in the old Maya civilization. The conference was centered around the Mayan Calendar from a new perspective based on the latest research done by Dr. Stuart of the true internal structure of the Mayan Calendar. This was the first time Dr. Stuart gave this conference. In other words, the 2012 Mayan Prophecy is a hoax!

Luckily, Kara Andrade, a new media journalist, took notes and broadcasted them in real time at the new citizen-based and contributed journalism HablaGuate web site as Demystifying 2012; follow the white rabbit if you want to read her notes of the conference. Arturo Godoy and I, on the other hand, took the opportunity to document the conference through photographs. Okay, I will you guys in a little secret, the entire conference was video-taped and the audio recorded by both Arturo and Kara; hint, hint, if you bug them long enough, they will provide links for the video and audio.

This was also my first time at Casa Herrera, a wonderfully restored colonial house. I was delighted with the results of the restoration and I promise I will make the time come back and photograph the entire house and so a series about it.

For now I bring three snapshots taken with the aid of the fish eye attachment donated by Michele and Eddie from Toronto through my Amazon Wish List. Let’s thank them both for their continued support!

Here’s a little overview about Casa Herrera:

The Casa Herrera is a research, conference and teaching facility located in the heart of La Antigua Guatemala that focuses on the varied and inter-related disciplines that contribute to the study of Pre-Columbian art, archaeology, history and culture.

Since 1977, The Maya Meetings at Texas have been at the cutting edge of research into the culture of the ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America. This annual conference draws scholars from a wide spectrum. (source: Facebook Casa Herrera page)

Basically Casa Herrera is The Mesoamerica Center of the University of Texas at Austin.

David Stuart speaks about the myth of 2012 by hablaguate

The Maya represent a culture that demonstrates how tradition and technology can thrive together. This Maya woman, dressed in the traditional Mayan falda – or skirt – fills the tank of her scooter at a local gas station: Guatemala truly is the “Land of Contrasts.” I love what it symbolizes… progression without losing the rich attributes of the past.

text and photo by Laura McNamara

Have I told you how much I love the dry season in Guatemala (November through April)? Well, I do for so many reasons, like the dry season is also the cooler, even chilly, time of the year. The quality of light is superb and thus the sunsets are incredible almost every day. Because all the winds blowing from the big white north, the skies are clear and the volcanoes are bare naked (without the fluffy clouds). And Volcán de Fuego begins its relentless activity sending smoke signals several times through the day. I believe this picture encapsulates quiet well the reasons why I love the dry season.

So, what are you waiting for, pack your luggage and come to La Antigua Guatemala before the rains come again!

Guatemala’s National Registry of Persons, Registro Nacional de las Personas, RENAP began retiring the old Guatemalan identification card known as Cédula back in September 2009. The RENAP only has until December 31, 2010 to switch the old identification booklet documents since by law the cédulas will be rendered invalid and useless on January 1, 2011.

The new Guatemalan identification card goes by the name of Documento Personal de Identificación, DPI for short. The DPI is a plastic card, similar to the driver license, with three levels of security and a chip with a microprocessor. The DPI will also incorporate the Códico Único de Identificación, CUI for short, which will be an universal unique identification number, the equivalent to the Social Security Number.

Of course, turning all the paper records into digital files for +13 million people is a colossal undertaking; one with still many wrinkles. So for now, the process of switching the old cédula for the new DPI is taking over two months with long lines forming around many of the RENAP offices. Such is the case of the RENAP office in La Antigua Guatemala, although if you go to Jocotenango or Ciudad Vieja, there are no lines.

If you’re interested and let me know in the comment area, I will explain the process of actually acquiring the new DPI.

I don’t know about the rest of Guatemala, but in and around La Antigua Guatemala it seems there is at least one procession every week. The picture above documents the San Pablo, Saint Paul, procession from two days ago in San Pedro Las Huertas.

I am completely ruined. After having spent so much time around rich, intense colors, textures, idiosyncrasies, how could I ever live again in places with muted colors, muted lifestyles, where everything is the same old, same old.

How could I? How could you?

In La Antigua Guatemala we are so lucky to be able to get excellent coffee just about everywhere. Cafetenango in Finca Filadelfia is such a place where one can drink an amazing coffee grown, harvested, dried and roasted in the premises. At Cafetenango there are baristas on site who like to draw all kinds of figures over the milk foam. I really like the views available from Cafetenango with all three volcanoes, Agua, Fuego and Acatenango, breaking away from La Antigua’s skyline. If you come to Finca Filadelfia for the Antigua Canopy Tours, make sure you make time for coffee; you won’t regret it.