On January 21, Under the name of Subida por la vida, there were over 8,000 people climbing Volcán de Agua (Water Volcano) to form the largest heart in the world at 12,335 feet as part of campaign to bring awareness and to reduce domestic violence. The event will also be a party with music and foot ball matches (the real McCoy) in different venues in Antigua Guatemala. Subida por la vida also stands as manifestation for Peace where Guatemalans want to demonstrate and let the world know that we want peace and we will not tolerate violence any longer.

Here’s the complete program of activities and below is the complete description of the event in Spanish and some maps of the event.

Volcán de Agua, Guatemala
El 21 enero 2012, vamos a reunir a por lo menos 8,000 guatemaltecos en una cadena humana de las faldas a la cima del icónico Volcán de Agua. De esos 8,000 participando en la cadena, 1500 llegarán primero al cráter para formar el corazón más grande que el mundo haya visto desde 12,335 pies. El evento será seguido por una fiesta de celebración en el estadio en Antigua para todos los participantes y para las estrellas nacionales que apoyen. La celebración incluirá un partido de fútbol con personalidades y un concierto con El Tambor de La Tribu y El Viento en Contra ya confirmados.

Para promover la campaña “Rompe el Ciclo” que está inspirando un cambio generacional de actitud en contra de la violencia doméstica, y ultimadamente para reducir los niveles de violencia en Guatemala. Para darle a la juventud de Guatemala un dramático estímulo de energía, unidad y determinación de llevar un cambio positivo a Guatemala. Para recaudar fondos para ayudar a las víctimas de violencia doméstica. Cada participante pagará Q50 y una obra de caridad será elegida a través de un voto democrático en la página de Facebook de Rompe el Ciclo desde 22 Noviembre 2011. Para crear una espectacular imagen positiva de Guatemala que alcanzará a los medios globales.

Subida por la vida Volcan de Agua climb stands for:

• Over 8,000 people climbing Volcán de Agua
• 1,500 people forming the largest heart in the crater of Volcán de Agua at 12,335 feet above sea level
• Awareness campaign against domestic violence
• Large manifestation for Peace
• Fundraiser to help the victims of domestic violence
• A party for Peace
• To create a huge positive image of Guatemala
• To bring people together to bring a change in attitude and to have fun

As in previous occasions, our dear friend and dare-devil adventurous reporter Nelo Mijangos took upon the challenge to document this Walk for Life, with pictures and in this opportunity with a GPS track so we can get real data of the climb of Volcán de Agua as experienced on the Subida por la Vida event. Below you will find photos and a map with the actual route walked by Nelo.

I also took photographs of some of the activities put on stage by the organizers of Subida por la Vida around Central Park and Calle del Arco. I know, my day was not nearly as though as Nelo’s, but what can I say, someone has to cover all the cultural events as well.

I also recorded several videos; here’s the first one I am sharing with you about the Maya ceremony asking for blessings from the Gods.

I never realized how much people die every day until I lived in a town where almost each death is announced by the PA system installed on the church on the main plaza. Through these announcements and the funeral processions and motorcades I have encountered I also learned that the grieving is also a communal event. When I stop to pay attention to the PA announcements often the name of the passing person is giving and the address where the mourning will be held and everyone is invited to assist.

These expressions of the strong community relationships forged through constant interactivity are often foreign to me since I have lived most of my life in big cities where often these community relationships rarely happen. I don’t know if I’m making any sense because I don’t think I have been able to seized these feelings and emotions into words. Am I?

How are deaths, funerals and mourning treated where you live?

New President and Congress Aside: On January 14 at 14 hours the transfer of presidential powers will be held in Guatemala City where Otto Pérez Molina will receive the Presidency of Guatemala from Alvaro Colom. Before 2 p.m. new Congressmen and women will also take their seat at the new Congress. I believe this is also the first time a woman will be the Vice President of Guatemala; Ingrid Roxana Baldetti Elías is that woman.

As I said before, it is impossible to think of 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!

Many of the dishes of the Guatemalan cuisine are based on the milpa crops. The term milpa refers normally to a maize field, but it is so much more. In a milpa field there a dozen crops at once: maize, avocados, multiple kinds of squash, chiles (hot pepper chilli), beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, camotes (sweet potatoes), jicama (a tuber also known as sengkwang, yam bean, singkamas, Mexican turnip), amaranth (also called pigweeds) and mucuma (a tropical legume). “Milpa crops are nutritionally and environmentally complementary.” said Charles C. Mann in his book 1491. H. Garrison Wilkes, a maize researcher at University of Massachusetts in Boston is quoted in the same book, “The milpa is one of the most successful human inventions ever created.”

Interested gender aside: I believe that every time I have made a reference to Hombres de maíz I have used pictures of women. So, that’s why I am entitling today’s entry as women of maize.

What better way to start the new year than with a brand new clay comal to cook the best tasting tortillas. A comal like the ones shown above will set you back Q30/$2.75 if I recall correctly. Sadly, clay comales are disappearing as most tortillerías now are using metal comales with gas instead of leña (logs) which was used with the traditional terra-cotta comal. On the post Making Guatemalan Tortillas you can see the new comal being used in many tortillerías versus the traditional comal as shown on the post How to make the perfect Guatemalan Tortilla.

If you have had the opportunity to try tortillas made with each kind of comal, which one do your prefer? Do you think there’s a difference in the taste?

Here’s a simple Nacimiento made from corn husks to celebrate Navidad. As I have described before, with the Feast for the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, people begin putting up their Nacimientos (Nativity Scenes); a tradition that was brought to Guatemala by Santo Hermano Pedro de Betancourt and then spread to the rest of America (the continent).

One important aspect of nacimientos is that baby Jesus is missing from the scene since his actual birthday is on December 25th. In the mean time, the quest of shelter by Marí­a and José begins; these celebrations are known in Guatemala as Posadas.

Feliz Navidad a tod@s!

Beginning on December 15, there are sightings of Joseph and Mary’s quest for shelter around the streets of La Antigua Guatemala. María and José figures are carried around Antigua Guatemala, knocking on people’s doors to ask for posada (shelter). Our eye witness reporter has been able to gather the following information regarding the quest for lodging:

Every home has a nativity scene and the hosts of the Posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood children and adults are the pilgrims (peregrinos), who have to request lodging by going house to house singing a traditional song about the pilgrims. All the pilgrims carry small lit candles in their hands, and four people carry small statues of Joseph leading a donkey, on which Mary is riding. The head of the procession will have a candle inside a paper lamp shade. At each house, the resident responds by refusing lodging (also in song), until the weary travelers reach the designated site for the party, where Mary and Joseph are finally recognized and allowed to enter. Once the “innkeepers” let them in, the group of guests come into the home and kneel around the Nativity scene to pray (typically, the Rosary)… This according to Mrs. Wikipedia Enciclopedia de Quiensabe.

We will update you with new information as soon as our on-site reporters finish their ponche and tamales…

I took over one hundred photos for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but by and large the portrait of this tender Guatemalan Guadalupano is my favorite. Follow the white rabbit to look at the photographic slide show of Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

La Antigua Guatemala remains as one of the few places where you can meet with hundreds of people willing to Burn the Devil and the bad spirits in a cleansing ceremony through the purifying power of fire. The idea of the La quema del diablo celebration was to get rid of the devil, the bad spirits, the bad vibes and anything negative that may interfere with the celebrations of Nacimientos (Nativity Scenes), Posadas (Quest for Shelter [Español/English verses]) and Christmas celebration which begin officially with the Feast for the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th.

Photos by Leonel [nelo] Mijangos – EnAntigua.com

Here’s another day trip away from regular school day. Boy, when I was a kid anything to get me away from a regular school day, especially if it was for a theater play, concerto, or philharmonic recital, even visits to museums were good. So I guess a visit to a church is just as good when you’re a kid, even if it isn’t politically correct for the adults.

Because I am a politically correct person I will say that Guatemala is one of major recycling centers for things discarded in the good old U.S.A. I will say that Guatemalans give a second life to things dumped by estadounidenses (Unitedstatians) and Canadians to a lesser degree.

I have talked about this “recycling” in the following entries:

• Haves and Have-Nots: Recycling the World Over
• Chicken Buses are The Second Life of School Buses
• From Blue Bird to Green Quetzal

By the way, Paca is the term used in Guatemala for bale or large package normally shipped in a palette, which is the way these second hand or discard clothes make their way into Guatemala and other countries in Central America. Paca is also the name used for stores that sell paca clothing.

As every year, on September 14, people from all over the Guatemala begin a marathon to go to another part of the country to get the flame for the Independence Torch back in their communities. There are many places the have a torch where other people from other towns can light their torch to bring back to their own communities. Of course, there are favorite destinations to get the Independence Flame and La Antigua Guatemala is one of them. All the different torches in different locations throughout Guatemala and their respective marathons build a web of people running in all different directions at the same time. It is traffic nightmare and it is better to stay home on that date, unless you are running for your community to fetch the light for your torch.

I was at Centro Histórico (Downtown) Guatemala City last night, past midnight with some friends and colleagues doing a tour through all the photo exhibit inaugurations when we saw people still running with the torches.

As in previous years, I have prepared a slide show of the things I saw around the torch set at the Municipalidad building. This time I also recorded a video clip of the beginning of some of the marathons.

I hope you enjoy them and let me know your thoughts.

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.

Can anybody help me understand why a country with a +55% population of indigenous Maya hires European-looking models to dress as Maya indigenous women?

Please help me comprehend what’s wrong with our indigenous women that Guatemala’s Tourism Board hires light-skin ladinas and white women to represent our women?

I need help understanding what’s wrong with the other 45% of the population? Don’t mestizos, ladinos, blacks and whites fit the “Guatemalan profile”?

Please, do not get the wrong idea, not all Guatemalan women wear the colorful Mayan textiles and the Guatemalan society is so much more complex than this cartoonish image which is being promoted by the Tourism board. If you don’t believe, take a trip through the Guatemalan Women category to see the full rainbow of possibilities.

The basket business could easily be another series about the ambulant food vendors who make a living selling all kinds food from a canasta (basket). These canastas can be used to carry and/or sell all sorts of things like tortillas, atoles (thick drinks), panes (bread), dobladas, tostadas, beef stews, fruits and vegetables, flowers, or tamales like in the picture above.

What other things have you seen in these baskets?

The chicken bus barely stopped while crossing over 4a calle oriente; the main artery that becomes the exit to Guatemala City. A traffic cop was there. Furthermore, the bus pilot blasted the horns. Lastly, the bus parked in front of the Cathedral, next to the Main Plaza. Three traffic violations in less than 20 seconds. Before 60 seconds had elapsed three traffic cops were on the scene and a National police woman. Sixty seconds later six traffic cops were there, the chicken bus pilot argued that he was not from here and so he didn’t know he could not blast the horn as he does everywhere else. He claimed the same for entering the main square and not stopping at 4a calle oriente. A little over half dozen passengers came down to argue in favor of the pilot. Of course, the ambulant typical textile vendors got on the act to see if they could sell anything. In less than 3 minutes we had 8 traffic cops, 3 National police officers, a pilot and his helper, almost a dozen passengers, a few ambulant vendors and several passers-by pedestrians and a bicycle rider doing much about nothing; except, of course, for one traffic police agent writing up one traffic violation.

You gotta love Guatemala where much is done about nothing!