AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

Mañana martes es día del ejército. No sé que nuevo nombre tiene ahora esta “celebración” luego de los acuerdos de Paz. Como les cambiaron a los existentes tanto e intrujeron otra docena de días festivos, seguramente es algo así como “Día del martirologio contra el sistema asesino”, o a lo mejor se puede conocer dentro de los círculos internos castrenses como “Día en que celebramos la moronguiza que les dimos a los guerrilleros”. O para los escépticos como yo “Día de feriado oficial tan importante como el día del lápiz”. Descansen, marchen o lloren. Lo que les haga feliz. (Ya, ya… se celebra el 30 de junio día en que J.R. Barrios entra triunfante a Guate luego de ganarle a Cerna la guerra.) —Juan Pablo Dardón / Continue reading… at Fe de Rata.

I am having trouble deciding whether it was serendipity, synchronicity, destiny or simply chaos that brought the chance encounter with Juan Pablo Dardón a few weeks after coming back to Guatemala years ago. Whatever the label, I am glad it happened because I gained a distant friendly voice which often times echoes exactly how I feel. The very same day, Juan Pablo Dardón also introduced me to Javier Payeras another brilliant and crystal-clear voice of our generation; the post-war generation. From there it was only a matter of time until I met all The Loud Voices of the Guatemalan Writers of the Post-War. Lucky me!

So, today is observed the Día del Ejército (Army Day holiday) in Guatemala, and tomorrow’s the Día del empleado bancario (Guatemalan Banker’s holiday); which really all it amounts to is that the banks will be closed for two days (as reported through a twitpic a few days ago).

AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com News Aside: Tomorrow is Theme day again for the City Daily Photo Community. AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com will be participating once again in Theme day, which is “Empty” for July 2009.

Also, starting in from July 2nd, AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com will be presenting the first guest collaborations. I am sure all of us will benefit from the new voices and perspectives from the guest contributors. Don’t forget to contact me if you would like to send your guest contributions.

Resistance through culture; culture through textiles; textiles as heritage; heritage as identity; identity as resistance.

What do you think?

Me gano la vida de lo que la gente me regala. —Mago Dory

I earn my living from what people give me as tips. —Mago Dory

Mago Dory will be the first entry in the Antigua Characters category. I have thought I should wait until I can do a series, but if I follow this path, it might take a long time, so instead, I will publish the Antigua Characters as I come across them and they all will be available through the Antigua Charatecters category.

Mago Dory is the performance name of magician Dory who goes from restaurant to restaurant performing his magic tricks. The photo was taken while we had some tapas with some good friends in La Antigua Guatemala. According to my good friend Nelo, Mago Dory is very famous around La Antigua Guatemala.

The other day I caught Mago Dory as he was doing this magical mystery tour of La Antigua Guatemala restaurants and posted the picture to the Twitpic feed of AntiguaDailyPhoto. If you want to see Mago Dory performance, check out this video clip captured by my good friend Norman, from ClimaYa.

Central America in the News Again: Yesterday Central America was sadly in the news again as Honduras brought back to life a long gone disease in Latin America known as military coup d’état. Honduras and CrisisHN became trending topics in Twitter even surpassing Iran.

At one point or another, we might not like El Señor Presidente (The President) or how is exercising the executive powers he was given through democratic elections, but we must follow democratic and constitutional processes to remove him or her from office. The military coups are NEVER a good option. The wounds caused by military regimes and their golpes de estado and military juntas are still too fresh in many countries in Latin America.

I leave you with Los Dinosaurios, a song by Charly García, Argentine Rock-star. Please, those who understand the lyrics, would you mind, translating and posting them in the comments. Thanks.

As mentioned before the Gravilea trees are planted next to coffee bushes to provide the necessary shade for the coffee plants. Once every two years normally, the coffee plantation workers trim the gravilea trees to keep the proper balance between sun and shade.

I hope you enjoy this muted wallpaper of the gravilea trees against a starry night. Let me know what you think of it. As always, you can download the gravilea trees wallpaper by clicking the link.

New Contributors for AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com Wanted: Starting in July, AntiguaDailyPhoto will open its doors to guest contributors to expand the rainbow of points of view and perspectives about La Antigua Guatemala. If you are interested in becoming a guest contributor, please get in touch with me through the contact form or through a direct message in Twitter to get the details.

The view above of Volcán de Agua is from our studio’s window and balcony.

I said before, in many listings for rent or sell of houses around Antigua, you often find the “panoramic view of volcanoes” among the top selling arguments.

In our home we can brag about having more than a room with a view.

Here’s the follow-up photo to yesterday’s Antigua Guatemala’s Grid from Above. If I had taken one more shot to the right of today’s picture I would have covered the entire city. That’s how small La Antigua Guatemala really is.

What landmarks can you recognize from this overview shot of La Antigua Guatemala?

La Antigua Guatemala is quite small city, or town rather. It is about 10×10 block grid. Could you believe that with three photos like today’s I can cover the entire city. Come back tomorrow if you want to see one more piece.

Even more incredible is the fact that I have published 1,164 pages, over 1800 photos, plus videos and music about this tiny town.

Okay, for today’s trivia game, describe where in the photo above are the San Francisco El Grande Church, El Carmen and Las Capuchinas ruins? Good luck to all participants!

Twitter, Twitpic and Facebook Aside: Starting today, if you begin to follow AntiguaDailyPhoto in Twitter @AntiguaDP and/or in Twitpic, you will receive photos taken just moments earlier and weather, events and news text updates through the day. Also, Erin, a loyal reader of AntiguaDailyPhoto created a group in Facebook so you can also follow the updates in Facebook. Follow the white rabbit to see the first updates. Enjoy!

If you want to win this photo as a post card and receive it via regular Guatemalan postal mail system at your home address with Guatemalan post stamps you have to answer the following questions:

• When and under what title was this lock originally appeared in AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com?
• What was said about the key for this lock?
• What’s the name of the film that was paraphrase or referenced as the title for the original entry?

Good luck to all participants!

We continue with the repetition theme.

The Guatemalan Catholic iconography is rich in colors and shapes, like everything else in Guatemala. In the picture above, you can find wooden angels, archangels and saints. But which ones? Can you help identify the saints, angel and archangels in the picture?

By the way, an archangel is an angel of high rank. In traditional Christian angelology, a being of the eighth order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy. (source: Mac OS X built-in dictionary). Boy, I am glad to know about ninefold and the eighth order.

Now, did you know many of these Guatemalan wooden figures are considered art and are highly sought after by collectors the world over? If you don’t believe, stop by El Curandero Gallery to see some of the fine art figures they have for sale.

Same as yesterday’s photo, we repeat the repetition theme, but even more so today. Can you tell me what elements repeat in the photograph above? Some are very obvious but other not so much, can you name all the different repetitions? And for a bonus, can you share with us the name of this landmark building that is undergoing restoration right now?

Last time I talked about repetition, repetition, repetition, I mentioned that capturing repetition was very desirable in photography. Well, photographing repetition is not difficult in La Antigua Guatemala; quite the opposite. Come back tomorrow to see more repeats.

By the way, the part of the wooden beams that protrude beyond the wall has a special name, but I can not recall it right now. Would you mind filling in the name for this architectonic detail; thanks.

To play this game you simply try to name as many musical instruments as you can from the musical stand above (you might need to click on the photo to get a larger version for details). Let the game begin.

Last Saturday, while having lunch with Eric, one of the loyal readers of AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com, at the restaurant without a name where you get the best carpaccio, quiche and roasted tomatoes with basil and cheese, in the table next to us was a painter hard at work capturing some abstracts of Iglesia de La Merced. We learnt his name is Ricardo, the last name I can’t remember now, and he’s either Spaniard or Chilean, but living for over 20 years in Guatemala.

La Antigua Guatemala is an artist’s heaven and that’s why you find a large number of artists belonging the just about all disciplines of art. Why do you think La Antigua Guatemala and Lake Atitlán have become mayor colonies of artists?

On June 17th is celebrated Father’s Day in Guatemala. On my lunch break I headed for La Antigua Guatemala’s Parque Central to see if I could capture an image with the sentiment of the celebration. I was so lucky I only needed three shots to be happy with the results.

Happy Guatemalan Father’s Day to all dads out there!

Colorful Guatemala, I tell you, colorful Guatemala!

Si ni los mismos guatemaltecos logramos entender la complejidad cultural en la que vivimos… —Ale de Desde Kinshasa

Not even us Guatemalans can really comprehend the cultural complexity in which we live… —Ale from Desde Kinshasa

Oh Guatemala can be a challenge for people who come from places with muted colors, and muted lifestyles where everything is the same old, same old. Too many colors, too many textures, too many idiosyncrasies, too many situations subtle and complex enough to throw off most conservative minds from their comfort zone. But sure enough, with their limited understanding and ignorance of the complexities of Guatemala, they publish misinformation on the web as absolute truths. That was one of the main reason I began this web site over three years ago; I was sick and tired of reading misinformation and ignorance regarding all things Guatemalan.

Still, often I come across aberrations such as: Volcán de Agua is active and can be climbed to see lava and eruptions, while thinking of Volcán de Pacaya; of course, misspellings of name of places (Spanish only has 5 sounds for the 5 vowels, yet many foreigners always use the wrong vowels); or that izote is the flower of the yucca tree; misinterpretations of Guatemalan idioms, words, customs, traditions, celebration, diet, et-cetera.

Some people have stated that Guatemalans only eat rice, beans and tortillas, without checking the facts; for instance, I have over 125 entries on Guatemalan cuisine and I am sure I have not even covered 25% of the extensive and rich Guatemalan food heritage. One single trip a town’s market would prove them wrong; after all, for whom are all those hundreds of fresh vegetables, fruits and spices? Other people, without doing research first, will cast as truth that a diet based on the milpa crops is deficient. Let’s see what the scientific findings are:

Maize is grown in what is called a milpa. The term means “maize field,” but refers to something considerably more complex. A milpa a field, usually but not always recently cleared, in which farmers plant a dozen crops at once, including maize, avocados, multiples varieties of squash and bean, melon, tomatoes, chilies, sweet potato, jicama (a tuber), amaranth (a grain-like plant) and mucuma (a tropical legume)… Milpa crops are nutritionally and environmentally complementary… Milpa is one of the most successful human inventions ever created. [ed. Just a fragment on the chapter about maize). Source: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.

Oh, I could go on and on about the misinformation I come across through my Google alerts about Guatemala and its people. One can understand that some of this crap is published by naive tourists, pseudo-travel writers or even ill-informed expats. Boy, don’t even get me stated with the expats! Of course, I am making broad generalizations which are ALWAYS dangerous according to my good epistolary Guatemalan friend Ale from Congo Days, but there is enough foul information out there on the web published as “truths”. Keep that in mind whenever you discover new blogs and websites through Google.

Otros vendrán para descubrir que es más complejo, tal vez más bello y más trágico, que lo que se habían imaginado y habían escuchado. —comentario de Ale de Congo Days in AntiguaDailyPhoto

Others will come to discover that is more complex, perhaps even more beautiful and more tragic than what they had imagined or heard. —comment by Ale from Congo Days in AntiguaDailyPhoto

Can you share with us your thoughts about misinformation and ill-informed posts you have come across?

Colorful Guatemala, I tell you, colorful Guatemala!