Welcome to La Antigua Guatemala’s blogumentary through daily photographs and descriptive narratives of a Spanish Colonial Town embedded between coffee plantations, flower farms and volcanoes.
According to the legend, each November 1st the God-world releases the souls of the dead from the underworld and for 24 hours the spirits are free to visit their live families, whom must provide a warm welcome, otherwise the spirits can cause harm to the crops and harvests. It is for this reason, that the live must built kites the cleanse the air and the atmosphere of bad spirits and vibes, so they can welcome their dead relatives. (free translation on the fly)
Today, for a mere random act, I ended up in Jocotenango and because we’ve talking and learning about jocotes, I remember to take a snapshot of the jocote monument at the entrance plaza in Jocotenango. The jocote monument is the giant jocote on top of the white pedestal, right after the flowers.
I am sure I was also influenced by all my recent readings of Rex’s presidential decrees. Rex, alias Rafael Romero, is the democratically elected president of Mulamala who also claims Jocotesburg (Jocotenango) as his birth place. Warning: before you head over the Mula que es uno (Mulamala) to read all the official presidential press releases, be aware of three things: (1) you need to have a great command of the Spanish language. (2) you need to have a large Guatemalan Spanish vocabulary at your disposal. (3) you need to have a lot of patience or understanding of the Guatemalan culture. (4) you need a handle on Guatemalan slang. (5) Rex’s language can be as colorfully offensive as the script for Pulp Fiction (that’s if you understand Spanish fairly well.) End of warning.
By the way, I have no idea why my minds tends to remember the most obscure trivia; like the fact the Rafael Romero was born in Jocotenango. Do you know why our memory works that way?
Camotes en miel could be translated as sweet potatoes in syrup or in preserves. Camotes en miel is also another popular dessert for the Day of the Dead (Día de los difuntos) in Guatemala. Camotes en miel, unlike jocotes en miel, can be found in La Antigua Guatemala year round.
Jocotes (/hoe-ko-tes/) or red mombin are often eaten raw, but you can find them as often in tasty preserves. Jocotes en miel or red mombin in syrup (literal translation of miel would be honey, but in this instance it means syrup or almíbar in Spanish) are prepared as dessert to take to the cemetery on Day of the Dead or Día de los difuntos. The idea is to take foods that are prepared in advance and that do not need heating up or that spoil quickly. That’s why you take fiambre, and whatever fruits are in season prepared as dessert.
To turn any fruit to en miel (in syrup), basically you have to slowly boil it down into a syrup made from water, cinnamon, clove, and panela. Panela is an unrefined food product, typical of Central and South America, which is basically a solid piece of sucrose and fructose obtained from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane juice.
Come back tomorrow for the camotes en miel. By the way, I take orders… Q2 for the serving , I do deliveries!
I became contagious with the regular twitter updates about gasoline prices going down in Guatemala, so the very next time I went to the gas station, I took my own shot of the “low” gasoline prices. The prices for fuel in gas stations, as you can see on the board, are around Q28 for regular, Q29 for super and Q27 for diesel. Just two weeks ago, the prices were Q10 above the current prices, so it is normal to assume the current gasoline prices as “low” even though before the price of oil began its unprecedented hike fuel prices were around Q20. As a historical perspective, let me share with you that when Mr. Bush took office in 2001, fuel prices were around Q11. At one point at the end of September 2008, fuel prices reached the Q40 at some gas stations. Minimum wage salary for a day in Guatemala is about Q45.
The Gasolina Aside:
Gasolina, a New Film by Julio Hernández Cordón
Gasolina is the name of the opera prima of Julio Hernández Cordón, a film maker from Guatemala. Gasolina will begin showing in movie theaters in Guatemala City on October 31st. My wife and I were invited to the premier of Gasolina last Thursday at Cinepolis theaters in the Miraflores Mall.
Shortly after we arrived in Guatemala in late 2001, we went to see a short film festival at one of the cultural centers in Guatemala City. It was there that we were introduced to the work of Julio Hernández Cordón through a short film (about 3 minutes) entitled KM 31. The best short film we saw at the time. We were hooked on Julio’s work and since then we followed his work and life events and even became acquainted. So it was no surprise to hear that when Julio Hernández Cordón began looking for funds for his first full-feature film, forty plastic artists donated their work in order to raise funds. Then came the awards for Gasolina. First it was an award by Cinergia, a Central American film festival. “Finally, in 2007, Gasolina was awarded three prizes in the San Sebastian Film Festival which made postproduction possible. Gasolina is a film from a country with neither a cinema law nor a film institute.” as stated in the dossier. If you want to learn more about the film Gasolina, please download the About Gasolina Film bilingual PDF file (300 kb).
Below you can read the synopsis taken from the Dossier of Gasolina:
Three teenagers: Gerardo, Nano and Raymundo, spend their spare time stealing gasoline to go joyriding. So, we face a story whose characters travel in one of their mother’s car without a fixed destination, just to entertain themselves. Each stop is a crash with reality that puts their friendship to the test, showing that teenage friendships have a thin line that separate betrayal, deception and a kamikaze-like solidarity. Gasolina is an intimate story that shows that youth, country and future are defined by extremes.
Film Poster
It is my pleasure to recommend that if you are in Guatemala on the 31st of October 2008 or afterwards, to go see Gasolina, which will be showing in the following movie theaters: Cinepolis, Próceres, Magic Place, Capitol, Tikal Futura and Santa Clara in Guatemala City and Villa Nueva. In the mean time, I leave you with the trailer of Gasolina.
Perhaps, Julio and his friends will stop stealing gasoline to go filming “Polvo” (his next film) around Guatemala if they can make enough money from Gasolina. Best of luck to Julio, Pamela and the filming crew.
I figure that when one decides to name something is the set it apart from the rest, right? So, why would name a school Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta (Mixed Co-ed Rural Oficial School)? Come on, it is like naming your kid ‘John Doe’ (no offense to John Does of the world). Those four words are so generic that it could literally be the name of any and all the schools outside Guatemala City. By the way, this photo was taken at the main plaza of San Pedro Las Huertas, a small village that belongs to La Antigua Guatemala.
On the other hand, Fire Volcano is very punctual. Fire Volcano began releasing gases and lava onto the sky, which to me, this activity means no other thing but the commencement of the dry season. The dry season is the best weather, in my opinion, and the best time to visit Guatemala. The light is just magical and enchanting; if you are a photographer you better start preparing your luggage and camera bags.
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