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This is just one of the many relaxing areas found inside the Antiguo Colegio de la Compañía de Jesús, now headquarters of the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, CFCE for short. What I like about this patio is the fountain and green area which make it a great place to have chat. There are several other patios, even a little more private if you walk towards the Café inside the CFCE.

Make you sure add this building as a must-see and must-take photos of on your to-do list for Antigua Guatemala!

Guatemala’s largest photo festival Foto▸30 was inaugurated tonight in La Antigua Guatemala with two photo exhibits: Tribu and Que los muertos hablan.

Foto▸30 is celebrating its 8th anniversary with 30 photo exhibits held through out Guatemala. If you like photography, this is your opportunity to indulge in the universe of the Guatemalan imagery. Don’t miss it, all the events are free!

Here’s a slide show to give you an overview of the Inauguration at espacioce! in the Compañía de Jesús building in La Antigua Guatemala.
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The entire property of Espacioce! or the Centro de Cooperación de la Formación Española is impressive. Yet, many never venture beyond the ruins outside to discover the impressive rows of arches that enclose a grand expanse of manicured lawn inside the Compañía de Jesús building. The first courtyard is centered around a typical Antigueño fountain that sits amid a sea of bright green grass. Rest on the benches to enjoy the soft sound of the water. Then, glance up to appreciate the rich, wrap-around, wooden balcony on the second level.

The next courtyard is outlined in yellow, with bright pink flowers perched on windowsills high above. Below the terraces and balconies are rooms filled with art or with books. Many don’t know that the cultural center hosts an extensive library.

The center hosts a free cultural movie every Wednesday and one of my favorite photo expositions – Laberintos III – just wrapped up. A few weeks ago Espacioce! hosted a flamenco show outside, in the shadow of ancient ruins.

Does anyone else take advantage of the art and cultural events hosted at Espacioce!? What have been some of your favorites?

text and photos by Laura McNamara

Boy, didn’t I tell you that the best time of the year to visit Antigua Guatemala, top city travel destination, is during the Lent period.

Not only you get the opportunity to see all the processions prior to the world-famous Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala, you also get a chance to see all the Lent decorations, attend several shows from the Festival de Cultura Paiz; but you also get the opportunity to enjoy the Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala for FREE; like the best things in life.

Well, it is the time of the year again and once again Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala will include three acts: the Jazzuv Quintet from Mexico, the Jazz and Claps Quintet from Spain and Lalsax Quartet from Italy. If you remember, last year the Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala included the Alain Derbez Jazz Trio from Mexico, the Jordi Albert Projet from Spain and the Be Little Trio from Italy.

Today’s photo are from the Quinteto de Jazzuv, an amazing educational and artistic manifestation project from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Basically the Jazzuv Quintet is formed by a main academic base and top jazz music students in the making.

To me, to take photos of Jazz concerts in Antigua Guatemala is an exquisite experience since I get to photograph musicians against 500-year ruins backdrop illuminated by delightful color spot lights while listening the best music genre and my favorite music as well. What can I say, it’s sublime!

I sorry that I am not able to include music piece, like last year, but I hope the other photos make up for it. Please, let me know what you think of the Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala and the first batch of photos from the first evening. I expect to hear you feedback.

Festival Internacional de Jazz en Antigua Guatemala 2009

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?

A couple times, I have talked about attending inaugurations of art exhibits, concerts and recitals, but I do not think I have shown you what it feels like to actually be there. Today’s photo was taken at the Inauguration of Los Desaparecidos Exhibit in La Antigua Guatemala.

This weekend is marked by two full days of art performances by Guatemalan artists to augment volume and context of the already huge exhibit about Los Desaparecidos (The Disappeared) in Latin America.

I wish you were here…

After having spent a slow afternoon going over every little piece at the “Los Desaparecidos” Exhibit (The Disappeared) now showing at the Compañí­a de Jesús Building, I needed a place to seat down and meditate. I don’t think I am going to be at peace for a while.
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This window’s vista visual style is marvelous. You get textures, flowers, reflections, translucency, easy access, just to name a few features. However, you do not get the headaches associated with ‘vista’; so enjoy!

L-R: Ronald Flores, Ana Marí­a Rodas, Javier Payeras, Julio Serrano, Francisco Alejandro Méndez

As I have shared with you, last Saturday I went to listen to the Guatemalan writers of the post-war in a dialogue they held about Contemporary Central American Literature. Those of us who attended were lucky enough to listen to the opinions and positions of Francisco Alejandro Méndez, Julio Serrano, Javier Payeras, Ana Marí­a Rodas, Ronald Flores, Allan Mills and Juan Pablo Dardón. Except for Ana Marí­a Rodas (the lady in the picture above) who belong to writers’ generation of 1960-1970, all the other Guatemalan writers and poets belong to the post-war period.

The Guatemalan civil war began after a successful overthrow of the freely-elected Guatemalan government by the CIA coup “Operantion PBSUCCESS” in 1954. The Peace Accords were signed by the end of December 1996, after the death and disappearance of more 200,000 people.

So, in the forum on Saturday there were two generations of Guatemalan writers, each with its own style and specific issues to write about. Ana Marí­a Rodas and Mario Roberto Morales belong to the war years and thus they find it very difficult to understand the very prolific post-war generation and the subject-matter they choose to write about.

I like reading both generations of writers, but I most definitely identify with the post-war writers and their disenchantment with the right and left wings and the war and its aftermath as a whole. Anyway, I do not want to bore you with all the details of the dialogue between the writers. Suffice it to say, it was a great evening and the dialogue continue afterwards in a local restaurant in Central Park. As to not bore you with all this dry writing, I prepared a mini photographic chronicle. If you click at the photos below, you can get more details and background information from the titles of the photos.

If you guys want me to write a little review about some of the Guatemalan writers of the post-war period and all their incredible novels and poetry, please, let me know. I will be more than happy to comply. In the mean time, if you can read Spanish, please visit the blog of Allan Mills to get an literary overview of the night.

Photographic Chronicle of the Diálogo sobre Literatura Centroamericana Contemporánea

The last presentation in the three-day Festival de Jazz en Antigua was the Jordi Albert Projet doing a tribute to Chet Baker and billed as a collaboration from Spain. Ironically, two of the musicians of the trio are from Guatemala. Alejandro Álvarez and Victor Arriaza {ñ} are part of the Guatemalan Jazz band called Imox; which is quite possibly the best example of the young jazz movement in Guatemala.

The chilly winds from up north came back to La Antigua Guatemala and thus made more sense to listen and watch to the jazz performance of the Jordi Albert Projet Chet Baker Tribute from L’Espresso Café across the street from the atrium while drinking a cup of the best coffee in the world and eating a very decent plate of Linguini al Pesto. Sacrifices, that’s what I do for you!

My respects and greetings to all the women on the International Woman’s Day!

Tonight it was the turn for Be Little! Trio which is composed of Luca Calabrese, Massimo Minardi and Francesco D’Auria. Be Little! is a jazz trio from Italy and their music takes you through the roads of improvisation of jazz with the help of rare instruments and the guitar, drums and trumpet.

Below you can see the flyer promoting the Festival de Jazz en Antigua; like always, if you click on it you can see an enlarge version.

Honest, I don’t mean to brag. But I have to say sometimes life can be pretty good in La Antigua Guatemala. Let me explain. In La Antigua Guatemala, sometimes you get access to free events like music concerts, photo exhibits, plays, paintings exhibitions, et-cetera.
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These Indigenous people came from Santa Clara La Laguna, Solola, to sing and collect some money from the good Samaritans visiting or living in La Antigua Guatemala. Everything was fine until the Municipal Police decided this was too exotic and this kind of activity may seemed too third world.

I find the singing of the indigenous people extremely haunting and touching, even though, they are singing evangelical hymns. To me this singing has another layer of pain and denouncing which is above the meaning of the words they sing; something much older and more mystical than the religious hymns brought by the European Christianity.

I don’t know, maybe I hearing more than what really is there… what do you think?

No, this is not the Stairway to heaven; gosh I am so full of clichés. Honest to god, I am devoid of original thoughts. Everything in my head is a reference or quote to something else. For instance, I see the number 9 and I can only think of Revolution 9 from The Beatles.

One important aspect to highlight about this series about the library is the fact that the guts of the library are contemporary industrial furnishing inside a colonial 16th century building and yet there is harmony between the anachronistic elements.

So it took us about a week to finally enter the Multimedia zone at the Compañí­a de Jesús Library, as Lessie suggested. Now I would be extremely happy if the film section had the complete works of Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and Emir Kusturica for starters. Or better yet, I would be in film-heaven if they only had the 1001 movies you must see before you die. Sometimes I wish I was a Slacker.