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.
Photography 101: capture repetition. Well, photographing repetition is not difficult in La Antigua Guatemala; quite the opposite. This is a simple image of repeated arches and beam horizontal lines, I know, but thought you might enjoy it.
To me, the misaligned chair in front of the lonely desk provokes the feeling of person who just got up and went quickly somewhere; I don’t know, perhaps I am reading more than what really is there.
What kind of sensations does the image produces in you, if any?
Well, you may be wondering what SAT office means. Behind this placid view of this government building hides one of the reason why Guatemala is so poor; a beggar really if we consider that Guatemala begs money for road repairing, road building, new modern national identification card, fertilizers, schools, libraries and the list goes on and on. The picture above is the local office of the Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria, SAT for short and the equivalent of the IRS.
The SAT is in charge of collecting the taxes and to funnel this money to fund all the government needs. The SAT does such a poor job at collecting taxes and thus the government is not autarkic and needs to beg for international funds. The reasons the SAT does a poor job at funding the government are complex and it would require huge and extensive entries to cover them. Suffice it to say that most Guatemalan earn their money in the informal economy, which does not pay income taxes, like town market vendors, street vendors, convenience stores, et-cetera. Then, we have the many small businesses who do not hand out facturas (invoices) for which they are charging sales tax, yet not passing this collected tax money to the SAT. Finally, we have the big businesses and wealthy Guatemalans who have very creative accounting departments to do every imaginable thing to withhold the taxes due on their accumulated fortunes; how fortunate for them! In the mean time, it is mostly the salaried workers, the independent service providers and the honest businesses who transfer the collected sales taxes and income taxes to the SAT. As you can see, tax evasion is a huge problem in Guatemala. I don’t have with me actual figures, but I am sure that less than 20% of the population pay their income taxes.
Perhaps Edgar or Mauricio can provide the actual figures and even expand on or clarify the subject.
I don’t know who had the bright idea to rent the clean body of almost-new vehicles for advertising, but many vehicles receive a monthly quota for allowing advertisement on their cars while they drive around the country in their daily routines. I sure think they’re ugly and offensive to the eye, but everybody wants to earn a buck whichever way possible.
Even fast-food restaurant have exquisite architectonic details to make them be in harmony with the colonial architecture of La Antigua Guatemala. Maybe you remember the fountain inside the Burger King’s restaurant shown here back in April 10th.
Don’t let anybody, including me, take away the pleasure of visiting this fast-food restaurants, if your conscience/soul/principles/memories/nostalgia/health allows for it. I promise you I am NOT, by any means, the exorcist! I AM, however, the native informant.
Okay enough is enough. If you browse the Arches category you can find 22 entries and that is not counting all the arches that have appeared through the 535 consecutive days, but I have not tagged or classified as arches. Not once I have talked about the simple column that supports the arch; that is wrong if you consider that it takes two columns to support a single arch. My very dear friend JM Magaña, La Antigua Guatemala’s former conservator and the pen behind the architecture column in Recrearte magazine, could call me a near-sighted person or worst a discriminatory individual or architecture elements. We can not continue like that, no way José! We put an end to this discrimination today. There you have it above, a humble arch column close-up taken at the Municipalidad de Jocotenango.
The Amazon Wish List Side note:
I want to publicly thank Carolyn from Minnesota for being the first person to donate towards the operations cost of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo through the Amazon Wish List for LAGDP. Like many of you already know, this web site is maintained economically through your donations towards the hosting bills and my own economic resources to pay for the rest, which includes internet access, batteries, memory cards, cameras, tripods, blank discs for backups, external hard drives, computer equipment, Flickr account, books, entrance fees, restaurant bills, parking lot fees, et-cetera. I even placed some adsense ads to help unload some of the cost from my personal budget; I hope the adsense ads are not too distracting. Still, LAGDP is an economic burden, so I REALLY appreciate any help you guys send this way. Many thanks to Carolyn from Minnesota and to all the people that have donated thus far. The Amazon Wish List for LAGDP ships whatever you guys donate from the list to a P.O. Box in Miami and from there the item is taken via airborne to Guatemala City. Once there, I receive a phone call to let me know about the package. I am still responsible for the shipping charges from Miami-Guatemala City, import duties and sales tax. I know it sounds complicated, but it all works out somehow.
Here is another shot taken at the Municipalidad de Jocotenango (city hall) which shows its yellow façade and abundance of arches. Jocotenango was the community where workers and artisans (indians) lived in colonial times. Nowadays, Jocotenango still provides residence to many of the workers of La Antigua Guatemala.
Does anyone care to tell us a little more about Jocotenango?
The building of the municipalidad (city hall) is a yellow building with simple arches, lots of them. The arches provide great photo opportunities, like in this case where two women were caught by the viewfinder in one of those fleeting moments.
This is very simple image will allow us to play a creative game. Taking the two women as our characters we will write up one of many conceivable dialogues as the interaction between them. This would be similar to what we did in Opposite Ends of Life #2, which you should look at and read to get an idea. The apparent age difference could be used to set the pair as mother and daughter or sisters or simply co-workers of the newly opened Subway; it is up to you. I will submit the first plausible dialogue.
Backpacker girl
Mami, Jhon Daniel is not answering his cel phone…
Skeptic mother
Ay mija! I’m telling you I don’t like this boy. What kind of name is Jhon anyway?
Backpacker girl
Má… I told you already, we kids don’t have a saying about what kind of names you parents chose for us.
Skeptic mother
Mija, still Jhon is so pretentious and foreign… Juan Daniel sounds better to me. Anyway try to call him again.
Backpacker girl
For sure I will not name my first son Jhon, I rather use Cristhian Jeovani. Gosh! he doesn’t answer.
Skeptic mother
See, Cristhian Jeovani is más bonito (prettier) and sounds better too.
Backpacker girl
Okay mami… Jhon Daniel just answered and he said that he couldn’t respond his phone before because he got the job at the new pizza stand on the drive thru of Pollo Campero.
Skeptic mother
Va pues, at least he’s good enough to get a job!
What is your reading of the photograph above? What sort of story can you invent for the scene above?
I have said that I really enjoy being in this building so many times that you might actually believe that I work for the PR department of Agencia Española de Cooperación International in La Antigua Guatemala. I do not, just to get it right out in the open. However, I do check out books sometimes and read magazines from Spain from the Biblioteca (library) from time to time.
Honestly, I just cherish the atmosphere of the building. On the other hand, one thing I really want to do is sit on the bench in the corner, in the other side of the fountain, for lunch and read Un paseo en primavera (ES) by Ronald Flores. I could really get on the shoes of the protagonist, a tourist guide, since I’ve been told by Maggied that I am her personal tour guide. Just wait Maggied, I am preparing your invoice. Interestingly enough, the one thing I did not want to be was a tourist guide, nor I wanted for this site to become a touristic guide; it seems I have failed at both.
A simple old and weathered arched doorway in Calle de Chipilapa. Believe it or not, there’s a matching window photo belonging to the same house… can you tell us under what name or date was published?
Have happy hunting for an old matching window and great weekend everyone!
The Compañía de Jesús Building has to be one of my favorites building in La Antigua Guatemala. It is beautifully restored with so many gorgeous details like arches, wood floors, wood arches and columns, fountain, gardens. The Compañía de Jesús Building is under the care of Cooperación Española NGO, Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional in Spanish, which converted the building into a cultural center and library. On Wednesdays at 7 p.m. they show Spanish films. The library is among the few that allows to check out the materials there. In the atrium of the Compañía de Jesús Church Ruins are presented every month classical, jazz and world music recitals as well as all kind of cultural activities. Almost all the activities are free. How could I not love this building; I get my cultural fix here.
I feel I have not done justice to the beauty of this building through the photos presented thus far. I promise I will make the time to go there one afternoon and really take better photographs. Stay tune!
Theme Side Note: Tomorrow La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo will be participating in the Theme Day of the Daily Photo City community (over 250 cities around the world). The theme chosen for tomorrow is the view from your bedroom (window) of your town or city. Come back mañana to look at what I see each morning from our window and to check out the bedroom window view of other daily photo bloggers around the world.
On Fridays, between 4 and 6 p.m., you can seat on one of the benches in Parque Central and enjoy of a live-music concert performed by the Municipal band. I leave you with tiny video clip below so you can a feel for the music.
It is not unusual to come across monks or nuns in La Antigua Guatemala. This morning as I was driving past the San Francisco El Grande Church, I spotted a classic post card of Antigua Guatemala, so I parked, I prepared for the shot and waited for tourists or Antigüeños to appear. I had done three takes when the monk came into the viewfinder and so the shot was resolved.
La Antigua Guatemala is based on the time-tested Spanish grid of Streets and Avenues (see this map to get an idea). Streets are divided between oriente or east and poniente or west (although poniente means sun setting point). Avenues are divided as usual sur and norte. So you have all the basic elements for street names and numbers, the basis for addresses, yet if you ask for directions here, people will tell you: “it’s next door to Doña Luisa“, “Go to la Calle del Arco and ask there”, “it’s right across the street from where the Subway restaurant was located”, “go to Posada del Ángel, it’s on the same block.”
I can imagine the lady in the green shorts pointing to oriente and telling the other two: it’s over there! Just walk a few blocks until you get to Nicolas restaurant, what you are looking for is three house up.
How are directions give in your little niche of the world?
The first time I published the arches reflected on the water tank at Tanque de la Unión Park in La Antigua Guatemala, there were many people who really liked the photo. There were even some Guatemalans who said the reflection was done in Photoshop. Now you can take the statement either way: you can feel proud to know that you’ve snapped a shot that people think you spent many hours in the digital lab of Photoshop or you can take it as a put down on your photo-taking ability. I am glad I am very competent in the Photoshop department, heck I could even argue that I excel in the skills of Photoshop since I started working in version 2 and I use the program in a daily basis.
However, I must admit, photos I publish in Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo are Photoshop-free. I do minor color-casting removal and I improve the contrast when needed in Apple iPhoto (my light photo library manager). I do not retouch the photos in Photoshop for two reasons: 1. I don’t have the time to do retouching (sometimes I barely have time to keep up with that blog as it is) 2. I cheat by taking many shots of the same subject at different angles and settings so I will have a better original to begin with (this is a time-honor procedure called bracketing).
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