La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

Calzada Santa Lucía gets overcrowded with all the stands of the 11 candidates for the La Antigua Guatemala City Hall or Muni as we call it here. They all have their booths, their chants and songs, their promises, their colors, their flyers, their visual and hearing pollution, their trash, et-cetera.

They all tell us that they will change La Antigua Guatemala and/or Guatemala. I hate how all of them over use the word change and they leave it empty-ended. Does change really equals better? I don’t know where they get they dictionaries and thesaurus. Was the change from the Clinton to the Bush administration a change for the better? Is the world better now or even the U.S?; Just put an example that may be more obvious to all of us.

Nevertheless, a change is necessary in La Antigua Guatemala’s Muni. I just hope the change will bring a better administrator and politician to the mayor’s office. La Antigua Guatemala in an urgent need of better administration (ES).

For those who are unaware that Guatemala will voting for new residents in the presidency and vice-presidency, city mayors offices and congress seats on September 9th, all I have to say is: Come on people read more Blogschapines or if you like dinosaur-blogs read La Hora, Siglo XXI, elPeriódico or Prensa Libre.

No, this stencil-art graffiti portrait of Rigoberta Menchú is not part of Banksy’s art portfolio. According to NEARsyx, our Guatemalan expert in uban art, this portrait is quite possibly the work of H.I.J.O.S. (Sons and daughters for the Identity and Justice against Oblivion and Silence), a collective of sons and daughter of the disappeared during Guatemala’s civil war. Their main objective is to bring justice and to not let Guatemalans forget the recent history; The Peace Accords were barely signed 11 years ago in 1996.

Who is Rigoberta Menchú, anyway? Well, she thought you may want to know, so she coauthored a book by the name of “Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia” (My name is Rigoberta Menchú and this how my Consciencie was Born) back in 1982. TThe book became a great success when translated into English (as “I, Rigoberta Menchú“), giving her a role on the international stage at the time of the ongoing conflict in Guatemala [source: Wikipedia]. If you have the means to buy the book, available through Amazon, you should get it if you are interested in learning a bit about Guatemala’s recent history. You can also read the entry about Rigoberta Menchú in Wikipedia. She was the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize and Prince of Asturias Award in 1998.

What is Rigoberta Menchú’s Mission, anyway? She has embarked in an impossible mission. She is running for the Guatemalan Presidency. So what, why is this an impossible mission? Isn’t she Guatemalan and thus possess the legal rights to run for the presidency? Well, yes, that is correct. But, and this is a big but, she is a woman; worst yet, she is an indigenous woman; even worst, she is an indigenous woman from the left.

See, not everything is fine and dandy in the paradisiac lands of Guatemala. Real democracy is still over a century behind. In Guatemala, a woman could not get elected as president, just yet, although it has happened several times in Latin America (even in Central America). In Guatemala, an indigenous person could not get elected as president, just yet, although it has happened twice in the American continent with Benito Juárez and Evo Morales. In Guatemala, a person from the left could not get elected as president, just yet, even though most countries in South America and even Nicaragua in Central America have elected people from the left.

Now you can see why her candidacy for the presidency of Guatemala is such an impossible mission. I guess she decided that one can be part of the problem or part of the solution; she opted for the latter. Who was it that said, those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

If you could vote in the next elections in Guatemala, would cast your vote for a woman? for an indigenous person? for somebody from the left (democrat)? would you cast your vote for Rigoberta Menchú? or none of the above?

We’re Watching You!

Believe it or not, in over 451 entries or 442 days, which ever way you prefer, not once I have mentioned that there are some public webcams in La Antigua Guatemala that you can use. I found the webcams around La Antigua and Guatemala City over three years ago, but the web site that publish their output was awkward and difficult to use, to say the least. So I pick the output of four webcams that I liked, two for La Antigua Guatemala and two for Guatemala City and put them in a webpage in the Revue Magazine website. There is still the problem that the cameras go offline often, but I have no control over that. Here is the link to the web page that collects the output of the four webcams.

By the way, if you watch the output of the webcam on the top right corner (otherwise known as the Telgua office) you could use it as a way to see your love ones if you can synchronize watches.

First of all, I want to thank all the people who got in touch just to make sure I was not under a ruin.

Guatemala was hit today at 13:29 local time (GMT -6) by an earthquake of magnitude of 6.8 (or 6.6, 5.9, 5.4 depends who you read) and duration of 49 seconds. Boy oh boy the land shook, the old houses roared for what seemed forever. Less than two minutes after the land finally stopped moving I checked Automatic Geofon Global Seismic Monitor which registered the earthquake’s epicenter just offshore, on the Pacific Ocean, with a magnitude for 5.9 (it was later updated to 6.6). In the news, they talked about numbers as high as 7.6; but one thing everyone got right it was extremely long: over 40 seconds and down here it felt even longer. According to the backlog, there have been three earthquakes in Guatemala in the last week.

I went to pick my wife at home for lunch and in my way there and back I did not see any damages. So I believe there are no casualties around the area. I haven’t got the chance to see the news for reports around the country.

The emergency services were in full alert and many people suffered panic attacks. Fortunately, no casualties have been listed around La Antigua or in Guatemala. So far so good.

La Antigua Guatemala is the preferred location for summits, international conferences, high-level political official meetings, visits of presidents and kings and queens. So it is no surprise to see the VII Summit of First Ladies of Central America, Panama and Dominican Republic being hosted in La Antigua Guatemala. The slogan for the summit is: Woman, axis of development in the family and community.

For some unknown reason to me, this summits hasn’t generated any press coverage. Checking the web sites of the two Guatemalan newspaper that I read, neither elPeriódico nor Prensa Libre had any news-bits about the agenda or anything related to the summit. It was through the old trusted google that found an article in the Guatemalan government official newspaper, Diario de Centro America, and another column in the Spanish news portal of Yahoo.

Basically, the first ladies want to promote strategies in favor of the women of the region. If you ask me, this sounds to generic and broad to be taken seriously as a plan to better the situation of women in Central America. They could’ve taken a look at my entry of Guatemalan Women & Killer’s Paradise for two concrete campaigns for their agenda: The elimination of violence against women and solid plans to end the femicides and to bring the killers to justice. But then again, this would not be a suitable agenda to discuss for some fine first ladies while drinking the best coffee of world while staying at the only five stars hotel in La Antigua Guatemala, right?

What do you think about of this sort of summit?