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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!

For those who don’t know, the building that appears in the photo is La Antigua Guatemala Municipal government building, simply known as La Muni. The altar shown in the foreground was installed for the commencement of the Lent season. So, there’s your answer about any real separation between Church and State in La Antigua Guatemala.

What are your thoughts regarding the separation of Church and State?

In case you didn’t know, in Guatemala we had a large influx of Germans for over a century. Regina Wagner, a Guatemalan of German ancestry, takes us through a magical and mystery tour through history in her book Los Alemanes en Guatemala 1828-1944 and she explains how the Germans were brought to Guatemala through government-sponsor campaigns, where they lived and tell us about their trials and tribulations in Chapinlandia. In her book, Regina also describes why the sudden stop occurred in 1944. Los Alemanes en Guatemala 1828-1944 is a great book and it should be in the library of anybody interested in understanding the complexity of Guatemala.

See, the Guatemalanness is complex and the mixtures just gets even richer with each new ingredient. Ha, no wonder we don’t even understand ourselves.

Did you know about this large German immigration to Guatemala?

XI Festival Internacional De Cultura Paiz opened with a energy-charged reunion concert by the two most representative bands from Central America: the Guatemalan rock band Alux Nahual from Guatemala and Éditus, the Grammy-winning jazz group from Costa Rica at Ermita de la Santa Cruz; one of the best venues in La Antigua Guatemala for concerts.

This time the Festival Internacional De Cultura Paiz will showcase a series of cultural and educational events through the entire year as opposed to previous festival which only lasted a few weeks.

There will be plenty of events in the upcoming weeks. There are two events scheduled for Saturday: the concert Bach en la Habana by Tiempo Libre and La Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Municipal and the exhibition El Universo de Carlos Mérida.

The concert could be heard from at least than two kilometers away from La Ermita de La Santa Cruz; I know because thats the distance that separates my house from La Ermita.

I was looking forward to photographing the inauguration concert of Festival Internacional De Cultura Paiz, but things just became really complicated at the end of the afternoon and I was unable to assist. Luckily for us, my friend Jennifer Lara attended and she was able to snapped a few shots with her iPhone. She was kind enough to share them with us. Thank you @ienilara.

Photo by Jennifer Lara.

Below you can can see the different events for February and March 2011.

Here’s one of the television spots that have been promoting the festival in national television in Guatemala.
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Sometimes I feel that I am capturing through my photographs a rapidly disappearing lifestyle. It’s kind of weird to photograph a colonial town that in some parts looks like when it was abandoned in 1773 and in others has changed completely in the mere five years I’ve been documenting it. That is the case for this butcher shop, which, I am sure, it will vanish in the upcoming years.

There are not many butcher shops in the heart of La Antigua Guatemala, but this one is located only one block and half from Parque Central.

Do you know where is this butcher shop located?

12. Colorful Guatemalan Balls, 11. Cathedral Spot Lights Zooming, 10. Sunday Mornings Begin with Coffee and Online Newspapers, 09. The Ages of Coffee, 08. Vive tu vida y deja vivir, 07. Antigua’s Bright Red, 06. Antigua Fragments, 05. Typical Guatemalan Breakfast, 04. A Colonial Church Within My Fingers, 03. The Cucurucho and The Photographer, 02. Moon lit cupolas, 01. Colorful Guatemala Revisited

As I have mentioned before, any “top list” is bound to be subjective and there can be as many top lists as there are people to make them. So with this in mind, I present you: my Top 12 Photos of 2010. I just selected a photo for each month of 2010 and that’s how I arrived at these 12 photos.

I am certain YOU also have a list favorite of photos or entries for 2010. Please, share with us which photos or entries were your top 12 and let us know what was your criteria to arrive at your Top 12 Entries of AntiguaDailyPhoto. Thanks for sharing your top 12 with us.

New Year’s Eve Celebrations in La Antigua Guatemala:
There are many things that make New Year’s Eve similar yet different than Noche Buena. Christmas Eve is celebrated with the family at home or at your parents’ home; New Year’s Eve can be celebrated anywhere: a discotheque, a park, the beach or La Calle del Arco and Parque Central will be the popular venues in La Antigua Guatemala tonight. New Year’s Eve is less religious than Christmas’ Eve and there are many more parties to go to.

There is a particular song which is played at every single party and danced to… El Año Viejo. There’s a fragment of the song below to get you started singing. Further down, I leave you the most famous version of El Año Viejo by Tony Camargo. This song is quite possibly the most-often-played track throughout Latin America on New Year’s Eve.

My best wishes to everyone and please have the happiest New Year Celebration Ever!

Yo no olvido al año viejo (I don’t forget the old year)
Porque me ha dejado cosas muy buenas: (Because it left behind good things for me:)
Me dejó una chiva, (It left me a goat,)
Una burra negra, (a black donkey)
Una yegua blanca (a white female horse)
Y una buena suegra… (And a good mother-in-law…)

Guatemala’s a pyromaniac hell or paradise, what is it?

I remember reading earlier this year a tweet from Xeni Jardin, one of BoingBoing’s editors, that she was not impressed with the 4th of July fireworks display in unknown city in the U.S. because after having witnessed the non-stop burning of firecrackers, fireworks and every piece of a pyromaniac’s fetish in Central America she was spoiled.

I say that you have live it to believe Xeni’s declaration. In the meantime, I share with you two video clips of the fireworks burnt in one section of Guatemala. Remember, to get an idea of the magnitude of the burning of the fireworks, you have to multiply by 360° in every street of every colonia, village, town and city in Guatemala. So, if you decide to witness the burning of firecrackers and fireworks in Guatemala, make sure you bring earplugs; these are not included. (more…)

These plastic balls are the most popular and thus the most often seen balls in Guatemala. They are very inexpensive and very disposable, sometimes only lasting one chamusca game. Chamusca is the Guatemalan-Spanish word for an informal football match. Often, all you need is a few friends, a dirt field and a colorful fútbol ball to build life-long relationships. Of course, these plastic balls are very dear to us since they are part of what defines us; they are part of our treasured memories.

As a photographer I was very excited when I saw these colorful balls hanging from the ceiling a shop recently. You know how much a love color and repetition.

I also love ephemerides and this morning we had the opportunity to witness one ephemerides which only happen every 486 years. That’s is a full Moon eclipse during the Winter solstice, which makes the longest night of the year even darker during the duration of the eclipse. I took some photos of the eclipse, but I did not stay out for the duration of it. However, my dear friend Nelo did and he’s sharing his photos of the full Moon eclipse sequence as seen from La Antigua Guatemala.

So here I am sharing a slide show about another ball, a different kind of round ball, one we can all identify with: The Moon.
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We interrupt our regularly scheduled December comfort foods series to bring you the following special bulletin.

Since yesterday night, December 15, there have been sightings of Joseph and Mary’s quest for shelter around the streets of La Antigua Guatemala. María and José are walking around Antigua Guatemala, knocking on people’s doors to ask for posada. 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…

#$%&/()”!¡?¿… We just received this video feed from our diligent multimedia reporter Kara Andrade. (more…)

At the end of the mass service for the Feast of Out Lady of Guadalupe while I was trying to get out of the atrium my wife, who was just outside the atrium’s barred fence, pointed out how captivating and alluring was the image of the Christ figure being put down from the cross and all the careful hands over its body. I turned around and walked a few steps to a get the photograph above. The imagery of the Christ and all the careful hands bring the body down was a more authentic enactment than the eucharistic celebration we had just attended. Perhaps that is so because I am visual person.

After reviewing the series of photographs, I don’t know why I associated the above image with the video of Losing My Religion from R.E.M.; perhaps you can help me find out why. I will be looking forward to your comments.

P.S. I was told by clergyman that this Christ figure was also used for the canonization of Hermano Pedro de San José Betancurt on July 30, 2002 by Pope John Paul II.
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