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!