AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

It’s your turn to write the caption. The most original caption will win this photo as a post card. Good luck!

This year FOTO»30, Guatemala’s Photo September, a month full of photographic exhibits has as the encompassing theme the concept Nation.

I remember what Manolo said last year when I entitled a post Perpetuating a Nation.

It [Guatemala] is a country, a republic… but a nation… I am not sure. —Manolo

Everyday I come across more Guatemalans who project a loss of identity. This is even true with the Maya people, especially the men, most of who have abandoned their traditional dress clothes in favor of a more Westernized look.

This alienation is also evident in the language where many young Mayas don’t speak the tongue of their parents. This is also true of mestizos (mixed) or ladinos who often use or mix English words into their every day talk without even realizing it or sometimes on purpose. All you have to do is look at the updates in Twitter, Facebook, Google+, et cetera to notice the abundance of English words, phrases or even entire thoughts being used for a peer audience who mostly speak Spanish.

For instance, once I came across a travel agent who handed me a brochure as he called it and when I questioned why he didn’t call it folleto (the Spanish word for brochure) he told me he didn’t know the word brochure was not Spanish. This is merely one example of the many I encounter almost everyday in Guatemala.

By the way, did you know that many Guatemalans now celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving in Guatemala?

Well, I do agree that Guatemala is NOT a nation. Furthermore, I believe Guatemalans are alienated. There are SO many examples of this alienation for sure. However, I would like to read some of your samples of Guatemalan alienation.

You’re welcome to submit as many examples of alienation in Guatemala as you can remember.

As the national general elections are getting closer the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE, Supreme Electoral Tribunal) is making every effort to speed up the election process, this include helping the voters know where they’re supposed to vote and providing printed slips with the address and instructions on what things are needed to vote.

This TSE booth is located right out side the Municipalidad (City Hall building).

You can also check online at the TSE web site to see where you’re supposed to vote. Check it. If you want to learn more about the general elections in Guatemala, visit the TSE web site.

With today’s entry we finish the handicrafts from around Antigua Guatemala series. Yes, I bet many of you don’t know we were running a series, right?

Out of these five fruits, I am sure there’s one that’s unfamiliar to many of you; we call it granada fruit. Once is ripe, you break it apart and eat the bright red seeds; they taste very citric.

Have you had granada fruit yet? If not, give it a try next time you visit Guatemala.

What better than than Guatemalan-illustrated mugs for your Guatemalan coffee or chocolate? I am sure many of you will be very happy with the one liter mug (34 oz). Don’t you agree Eric from Boston?

These Mayan ceramic replicas can be had for about Q150/$20, but DO NOT try to take them out of the country because you might run into trouble. It turns out now there’s a law that forbids taking handicrafts and replicas out of the country without first having the Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes certify that the piece or pieces do not belong the cultural patrimony of Guatemala. Click the thumbnail to see the actual steps one must take to get this certification.

I can’t wait for September 11 to arrive and not because it’s my birthday, but because that’s when Guatemala will hold general elections for President, Vice President, Congress and Mayors through out all Guatemalan Municipalities. This means that after that we can finally get rid of all the political propaganda causing all kinds of visual pollution and traffic chaos.

Check out Political groups in the streets in GuatemalaDailyPhoto.com to see how political parties rally around Guatemala City causing all kinds pollution (visual, audio and traffic). Also, Quetzaltenango and other cities political parties are using public transit vehicles to spread their political propaganda as shown in Savvy Election Advertising in XelaDailyPhoto.com a few weeks ago.

What are your feeling regarding political propaganda?

Did you know that Guatemala is the birthplace for chocolate? If not, read on.

Cocoa bean (also cacao bean,[1] often simply cocoa and cacao; Mayan: kakaw; Nahuatl: cacaua) is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter are extracted. They are the basis of chocolate, as well as many Mesoamerican foods such as mole sauce and tejate.

A cocoa pod (fruit) has a rough leathery rind about 3 cm thick (this varies with the origin and variety of pod). It is filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp (called ‘baba de cacao’ in South America) enclosing 30 to 50 large seeds that are fairly soft and white to pale lavender in color. While seeds are usually white, they become violet or reddish brown during the drying process.

The cocoa bean was a common currency throughout Mesoamerica before the Spanish conquest.

The cacao plant was first given its botanical name by Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus in his original classification of the plant kingdom, who called it Theobroma (“food of the gods”) cacao. (Source: Wikipedia)

In La Antigua Guatemala we now have some very good chocolaterías (chocolate shops); don’t leave town without paying a visit to Fernando’s Kaffee and Chocolatería Sabe Rico.

One week after I started AntiguaDailyPhoto on May 1, 2006 I pointed out how kids should be in school instead of working on the streets. The entry was entitled Tourists and shoe-shining boy.

Only two weeks later I presented you a little boy no more than 5 years old with a shoe shining box in his right hand walking the wet streets of the rainy season in Antigua Guatemala. This is what I wrote then in Antigua’s child labor:

The future of a society is with the children and their education and preparation. What kind of future awaits for Guatemala when its children are on the streets working to survive today. What kind of education and preparation will its labor force have in ten or twenty years? I posted another photo of a child at work on May 7th.

It is very disturbing to me to see children working to survive today instead of being in school and have the minimum provided to them. By the way, child labor is illegal in Guatemala and school is mandatory for children under 16. As you can see, neither is enforced by the government.

Almost a year later, on May 29, 2007 I touched the issue again with All Work And No Play Makes For A Very Dull Day:

What I learned from these kids is that rock climbing is possible in La Antigua Guatemala; child labor still present in Antigua and I don’t know if ever it will be eradicated; regardless of the labor conditions, kids will find a way to play. Good for them!

How can we expect a better future as a country if our future is on the streets working instead of in school preparing to make a better nation?

Don’t you wish you can have one these adorable Guatemalan nacimientos (nativity scenes) in your own home for the next Christmas?

In my never ending quest to share with you all the different artistic manifestations from Guatemala that I come across I preset you this video clip entitled Tejido audiovisual de Guatemala by Julio Dávila also known as VJ Sine. Julio shared this video at TEDxUFM, short for TED (Technology Entertainment Design) x= independently organized TED event and UFM (Universidad Francisco Marroquín). If you’re interested in looking at photos and reading a collective summary of the event, follow the white rabbit to TEDxUFM slide show. In the mean time, enjoy the video below.

Metal handicrafts are also very popular so there are plenty of artisans around Antigua Guatemala that work with metal. Often you will also find antique metal pieces at these handicraft fairs.

Can you tell what the metal figurines to the right of the cat do as a group?

Often enough I am sharing with you examples how ingenious and creative Guatemalans are when confronted with adversity or simply day-to-day life little issues. Well, I have decided to inaugurate the Guatemalan Entrepreneurship category with these masks created from dried avocado seeds. Many people just throw away the avocado seeds while other “see” you can make something artistic and fulfilling with them. And what better place than Antigua Guatemala, home to the panzas verdes (green bellies) which is the nickname given to the antigüeños for eating so many avocados.

That’s what I call Guatemalan Entrepreneurship, don’t you agree?

Criollo or Criolla is the Guatemalan Spanish word often meaning native or garden grown. Although criollo in colonial times was the word used to label the offspring of Spaniards that were born in America (remember America means the entire Continent not just the U.S.). Nowadays, in Guatemala we use the word criollo/criolla for things that grow in an orchard or garden. For instance, the small limones (limes) are limones criollos. In the case of the Caldo de gallina criolla, it means a hen grown in the patio, garden or orchard. The gallinas criollas are usually smaller than mass-grown farm hens and the meat is darker and much more delicious. What terms are used in your neck of the woods for gallina criolla?

Bon appetite!

I found this recipe at Revista Amiga. Can anybody help with the translation?

Caldo de gallina criolla

Rinde 6 porciones
Ingredientes
2 litros de agua hirviendo
1 gallina de 3 libras
2 chiles pimiento
2 cebollas
5 tomates
5 papas
1 zanahoria
1 güisquil
1 cucharadita de aceite
1 manojo de hierbabuena
1 manojo de cebollín
sal al gusto
polvo de consomé al gusto

Preparación
En una olla grande cueza la gallina en el agua hirviendo, sazónela con sal y consomé al gusto, añada el tomate y la cebolla picados.
Corte las verduras en pequeños trozos y saltéelas en una sartén con el aceite. Añádalos al caldo y cueza por 45 minutos. Pique la hierbabuena y el cebollín, incorpórelos al caldo, retire la preparación del fuego y sirva.

Since We’re Men of Maize it’s no wonder that we also do many things with the by-products of maize. We use corn husk as candy wrappers as shown in Pump up the color; as materials for handicrafts like shown above and in Corderos de Tusa; as wrappers for tamales (chuchitos, tamales de elote, tamales de cambrai, tamales de frijoles, etc.)

Here’s a little sample from the entry We’re Men of Maize:

It is impossible to think the Guatemalan, Mexican and Mesoamerican diet without maize. From the Popul Vuh (Popol Wuj in modern spelling), the Mayan equivalent of the Bible, which states that humans were literally created from maize, to Miguel Ángel Asturias‘ novel Hombres de maíz (Men of Maize) which is one of the best novels to understand Mesoamerica and its people. Guatemala and Mexico share the birth place of maize, which was and is the most important crop in human history. The richest diversity of maize can be found in Mesoamerica!

Here’a another entry for the Color Palette category. Make sure you wear sunglasses if you decide to follow the white rabbit. By the way, I created the Color Palette category nearly 100 days after the initial posts as a way to capture photographs that were a very good samples of the colors found in Guatemala; the first post in the Color palette category was: Antigua’s colors, post #100

As we have mentioned before, if you’re planning to travel to Guatemala, pack your sunglasses if you don’t want to be blinded by the rich, brilliant, saturated colors found everywhere in the land of the Eternal Spring. Especially so, if you plan to spend time in La Antigua Guatemala’s Central Park which is the main hub for people watching and a guaranteed spot to enjoy the best of Guatemala.

Do you know why there are so many tecolotes (owls) around Antigua Guatemala? Come back here with the right answer and I will send you this colorful photograph as post card via Guatemala’s postal service with stamps and all.