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… now you see me, now you don’t…

At the closing of the 31st of December, we’ll be saying our goodbyes to 2011 and I want to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful people who have left comments or sent feedback. I want to send a big THANK YOU to all of you who supported my efforts. A very special THANK YOU to all the guest contributors who made AntiguaDailyPhoto a richer, polyphonic resource for all things Guatemala.

We close the year 2011 with 2099 pages, 11,005 comments and 2,869,115 visits (at the time of writing).

Please, let us know what were your favorite entries, your favorite series, or your favorite photos of the year. THANKS!

Today’s theme for The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 in Antigua Guatemala will be photographic backdrops and photo stages. In the slide show below you can find find examples of the Guatemalan kitsch at its best.

As I have shared with you in previous years, in La Antigua Guatemala, religious celebrations draw together all kinds of heterogeneous people and the Feast of Our Lady of Virgen de Guadalupe is no exception. On December 12 celebrations of La Virgen de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, you can find gringa moms, indigenous mamás, ladino madres and white mamás all taking their children dressed with indigenous clothes to visit the altar of La Virgen Morena.

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

Thanksgiving is yet another holiday from the U.S. that is celebrated in Antigua Guatemala, especially by the local expat residents living in town. Because of this, often you find restaurants that cater to those who do not want to go through the ordeal of cooking the turkey and Thanksgiving dinner. Other expats just celebrate the Thanksgiving in Antigua Guatemala with family and friends. So, if you’re in La Antigua Guatemala now and want to have a Thanksgiving dinner, just look for one of the many restaurants that have just what you’re looking for.

The Guatemalan presidential elections are finally over and we can go back to building a better country and let the new President elect and his team do whatever it is that they do. Below, there’s a screen shot of the almost final results with 53.78% of the votes going to the Partido Patriota and 46.22% to the Partido Líder. You can visit the web page for Tribunal Supremo Electoral (Supreme Electoral Tribunal) for the final results.

Compared to the first voting round, today there was almost nobody there. Compare the photos from the September 11 election process and with today’s photos. Nevertheless, I wanted to experiment with a time-lapse video, so I shot 1,800 photos to create the time-lapse video of the voting center at the cultural center César Brañas. As you can see in some parts of the video, there’s almost nobody; that’s how efficient the voting process was this time. I hope you enjoy the time-lapse video, please, let me know either way.
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I am not sure whether now there are more people celebrating Halloween in La Antigua Guatemala or if I am just more aware of the alienation of Guatemalans in general. Although it is kind of difficult to use the word alienation for a town like Antigua Guatemala where most people are not locals. Perhaps, that’s why unconsciously I only photographed Guatemalans kids; who knows really. Anyway, it is what it is or as we say in Guatemala, lo hecho, hecho.

So, what’s up with the crazy and weird title I hear you asking… well, let me explain.

First the sunshine part. After 11 days of continuos rains we were greeted with sunshine and chilly winds on October 20. If Twitter had hyper-local trending topics, then the #climaGT hash tag could had been the trending topic for Guatemalans on October 20, as almost everybody was tweeting about how good it was to have sunshine again.

The apology came next as President Alvaro Colom apologized to Mr. Arbenz’s son Juan Jacobo and asked for forgiveness on behalf of the state. This apology made to several major newspapers around the world.

Here a few fragments from the New York Times article:

More than a half-century after Guatemala’s elected president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was overthrown in a coup planned by the C.I.A. and forced into a wandering exile, President Alvaro Colom apologized on Thursday for what he called a “great crime.”

The Eisenhower Administration painted the coup as an uprising that rid the hemisphere of a Communist government backed by Moscow. But Mr. Arbenz’s real offense was to confiscate unused land owned by the United Fruit Company to redistribute under a land reform plan and to pay compensation for the vastly understated value the company had claimed for its tax payments.

Mr. Arbenz “was not a dictator, he was was not a crypto-communist,” said Stephen Schlesinger, an adjunct fellow at the Century Foundation and co-author of “Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala.”

The Arbenz family is seeking an apology from the United States for its role in the coup, he said…

Good luck with that!

Last but not least, the Revolution Day part. On October 20, Guatemala celebrates its Dí­a de la Revolución (Revolution’s Day) and everybody gets the day off as it is a national holiday. If you want to know more about Día de la Revolución, follow the white rabbit to last year post.

Here’s yet another vista from Iglesia de La Merced, one of the most important churches in La Antigua Guatemala, if not the most important. As always follow the white rabbit to take a look at all the different vistas from Iglesia de La Merced.

Ephemerides Aside: In Guatemala, October 12 is a national holiday known as Día de la Raza or Day of the Race. October 12 is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as Día de la Raza in many countries in the Americas, as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad and Fiesta Nacional in Spain and as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various countries since the early 20th century. SEE MORE…

If you want to have a laugh, read The War of the Worlds, a humorous parody based on the original “The War of the Worlds” (October 30, 1938) radio show The Mercury Theatre on the Air as it was broadcasted. On a date like today’s, in 1492, Two Worlds Collided and the rest is, as we say, living history!

Weather Aside: Any protests or celebration of October 12 were marred by a tropical depression which brought heavy and constants rains which in turn caused landslides and overflowing of rivers. That’s the reason for now showing an Oct. 12 related photograph. (more…)

Even Google celebrated Guatemala’s Independence 2011 with a Doodle.

Also, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent their congratulatory remarks to the people of Guatemala:

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Guatemala on the 190th anniversary of your independence this September 15.

As Guatemalans the world over celebrate this special day and honor the heroes of Guatemala’s independence, we stand with you in celebration. Americans have long enjoyed the beauty of Guatemala – from the ancient ruins of Tikal to the stunning volcanoes that surround Lake Atitlan – as well as the warmth and hospitality of the Guatemalan people. Your rich culture, diversity of languages, and traditions steeped in history are a special part of our region.

During my visit last June for the Central American security conference, President Colom and I renewed our commitment to building strong democratic institutions, promoting the rule of law, and expanding economic growth and opportunity to our nations’ citizens.

On this historic day, I send best wishes to all Guatemalans – in Guatemala, the United States, and around the globe. We look forward to deepening the ties between our two countries as we work to build a safer, more prosperous and democratic future for our peoples.

In La Antigua Guatemala, it was students parades all day as usual.

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.

I don’t know if it was my imagination, but I saw a lot more people in this election than in the elections four years ago.

A finger marked with indelible ink is the proof you have voted in the Guatemalan General Elections. Above a marked finger in front of one of the voting centers in La Antigua Guatemala where elections progressed in a calm and quiet family atmosphere. It almost felt like a civic party.

The voting process was very similar to the General Elections of 2007, except for the fact that most people voted with the new counterfeit-proof new national identification card known as DPI and a few variations in the procedure. People were pointed to their voting centers by slips the were mailed a few weeks ago with the voting information or by visiting one of citizens’ registration booths made available by the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (Electoral Supreme Tribunal). At the voting centers, people were oriented by the posters with table numbers and voting registration number (número de empadronamiento in Spanish). Once the voters had the right table, they walked to the queue and waited for their voting turn. At their turn, they approached the table where they had to show their DPI or cédulas (old identification booklet). Their voting registration number was checked against the voting lists provided by Tribunal Supremo Electoral. If all checked correctly, voters were given five ballots: One for municipal mayorships, another for regional congress seats, another national congress seats, one more for Central American parliament and the last one for president and vice-president. With the five ballots and a crayon, voters walked to the voting booth and marked their election and walked back to the voting table to deposit their ballots in the urnas (ballot transparent bags). After that, DPI or cédula IDs were given back and their index finger marked with indelible ink. Basically, this was the voting process in Guatemala for 2011.

Children were also given the opportunity to simulate the election process by voting for president and vice-president. The children’s election process mimicked the adult voting process with similar ballot and erasable purple ink. Children between 5 and 17 years of age could participate. Children voting centers were located at different locations throughout La Antigua Guatemala.

I prepared a Flickr Slideshow of the Guatemalan Elections 2011 with keyframes showing the election process described above.

Please, let me know what you think of it and if you believe I have done my job at giving you a feeling for the election process in La Antigua Guatemala. I will be waiting for your feedback.

One more thing; I also grabbed a Storify chronicle of the elections prepared by selecting from the vast amounts of Twitter updates using one of the following hash tags: #EleccionesGT and #eVoto. Enjoy! (more…)

The Plaza del Apóstol Santiago is located a few hundred meters from the Cerro de la Cruz mirador (look out point). It is easy to miss it if you don’t know it is there. In the middle of the plaza you’ll find the monument to Saint James Apostle.

On July 25 La Antigua Guatemala celebrates the Saint James Apostle Day with all kinds of festivities.

Why is Saint James the patron saint of La Antigua Guatemala? Well, the previous name for Antigua Guatemala was La Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, or The Very Noble and Very Loyal City of Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala.

Santiago was a very popular name for the conquistadors to use as they rechristen the new lands of the American continent. If you check the entry for Santiago in Wikipedia, you will there are over 60 cities and towns throught the world that carry that name and that is a very short list since you could probably find about 60 towns with the Santiago name, just in Guatemala. But why was Santiago such a popular name for the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors?

The remains of Saint James the Greater are said to be buried in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain). Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and is related to the reconquista in the role of moor-slayer. His burial town, Santiago de Compostela, is considered the third most holy town of Catholicism (after Jerusalem and Rome). The pilgrimage to the grave of the Saint has become the most popular pilgrimage for Western European Catholics from the early middle ages onwards; making him one of the patron saints of pilgrimage. (source Wikipedia)

The Saint James Trivia Side Note:

The name “James” in English comes from “Iacobus” (Jacob) in Latin. In eastern Spain, Jacobus became “Jacome” or “Jaime”; in Catalunya, it became Jaume, in western Iberia it became “Sant’Iago”, which developed into Tiago in Portugal and Galicia; Tiago developed into Diego, which is also the Spanish name of Saint Didacus of Alcalá. James’s emblem was the scallop shell (or “cockle shell”), and pilgrims to his shrine often wore that symbol on their hats or clothes. The French for a scallop is coquille St. Jacques, which means “cockle (or mollusk) of St James”. The German word for a scallop is Jakobsmuschel, which means “mussel (or clam) of St James”; the Dutch word is Jacobsschelp, meaning “shell of St James”. (source Wikipedia)

As I said last year, in Guatemala we could and should write the Manifesto against Convenience. Why you ask? Well, can you believe that we still observe holidays and celebrations on the date they were created. Mother’s Day on May 10, Father’s Day on June 17, Santiago de los Caballeros on July 25 (Saint James), et cetera. In Guatemala holidays and festivities are not celebrated on the weekend unless that’s date a holiday falls.

Today, for instance, in Guatemala we celebrate Día del padre, Father’s Day. The photo above was taken for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on December 12, a day when many fathers celebrate with their sons and daughters by attending mass service.

When is Father’s Day celebrated where you live?

Also, I am also sharing with you a video of the song “Viejo, mi querido viejo” by Piero, which is played very often today in Guatemala. If you’re walking around in Guatemala, it’s quite likely that you will overhear it.

Happy Guatemalan Mother’s Day!

I especially wish a Happy Mother’s Day to my own madre. As Luna McCarthy mentioned in XelaDailyPhoto this morning: Mother’s Day always falls on May 10 in Guatemala, as opposed to many countries where it falls on the 2nd Sunday of May.

Today is also a holiday for mothers in Guatemala, so moms get the day off from work. There are numerous traffic reports in Twitter about how light the traffic is today in Guatemala City. Some even wonder if all the traffic is actually generated by the working mommies. Follow the hash tag #traficoGT to read all the reports.

Mother’s Day observed in AntiguaDailyPhoto in previous years:

In 2010, I cherished memories of my mom and I eating POPS ice cream when I was a kid. Although, in general, I don’t like sweets, I have never passed up the opportunity to eat ice cream; now I know why. I would like send a very special Gracias to my own mother for teaching me how to be a fairly decent human being (most of the time; I think!). I am glad I was able to spend some time with you recently.

In 2009 we had a contest to win a signed 4×6 post card with Guatemalan stamps to the first person that could correctly tell what Mayan language the Mayan mothers speak.

In 2008, I showed you an indigenous mother helping her son to overcome his fears in the entry Mother’s Safety Zone.

In 2007 I posted a very long entry showing you three kinds of Guatemalan mothers: the cowgirl mother, the urban rocker mom, and the indigenous mamá in the entry May 10th: Mother’s Day in Guatemala. I also touched the subject of inter-country adoptions which was it was hot topic back then. That’s no longer an issue, but if you want to go back in time to read about those three kinds of moms and the adoption issues, follow the white rabbit.

I read this tweet about the Earth Hour (Hora del Planeta):

@AndyStalman: Mas que apagar las luces habría que encender las conciencias! #HoraDelPlaneta

Which I roughly translated to “Instead of turning off the lights we should turn on the consciences.”

I thought, why not do both. I mean it certainly can not hurt to turn off the lights for one hour and perhaps the idea behind these kind awareness campaigns is to turn on the consciences.

So, with these thoughts in mind, I share with you another free wallpaper from Antigua Guatemala to use on your laptop or desktop computer, sort of something to tickle your own thoughts about it. Enjoy! and feel free to share with as many people as you like.

Here’s an overview of how Earth Hour was observed in La Antigua Guatemala last year.

Is Earth Hour observed where you live?