AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

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.

Every once in a while we all need a break. La Antigua Guatemala will be having such a break in a few hours since there will be a programmed power outage from 8am to 1pm on Wednesday 19 because the electric company will be doing some testing and maintenance of the power grid around Antigua Guatemala. So, don’t worry if for a few hours there are no updates in Twitter, Facebook and other social network from people living in Antigua Guatemala. I also will be disconnecting from the matrix as of now…

I know that to keep abundant richly verdant mountains in Guatemala we have to have a 6-month rainy season. But, enough is enough, ya basta; we don’t need to have a full week of constant rains. Too much rain is not good for Guatemala either since too much rain breaks the country’s infrastructure, people’s lives are at risk with so many landslides, overflowing rivers and the collapsing of some bridges.

Just take a look at the report about the state of roads in Guatemala by PROVIAL at 6am. PROVIAL, short for Protección y Seguridad Vial (Road Protection and Safety), is part of the Ministerio de Comunicaciones, Infraestructura y Vivienda (CIV) or Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing. You can request information about the state of any given road in Guatemala or follow the punctual updates by @Provial in Twitter or by dialing 1520. (more…)

The photo above was taken with an iPhone. The Mac belongs to Maf, a musician who was doing the sound for Ishto Jueves and Lady’s Night Show.

This is not the first time I show Apple stuff here, nor it will be the last. Let me explain.

Some of you know that this and all my projects are powered by Apple equipment. When I started AntiguaDailyPhoto I used to have a section on the sidebar with all the equipment that I was using to produce this humble blog about Antigua Guatemala and its people and their culture and traditions.

In a way, I have always been inspired by the passion of Steve Jobs. How can I not? Just listen to Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address below. (more…)

According to Efraín Enrique Recinos Valenzuela biography at his official website and at Wikipedia, he was born in 1928 in Xela, the informal name of Quetzaltenango City, Guatemala’s second largest city. Later on, he moved to Guatemala City to continue his studies and pretty much stayed for the remainder of his life. Efraín Recinos also worked extensively in Antigua Guatemala where you can find some his work at Santo Domingo del Cerro and at Casa Santo Domingo.

On Sunday, October 2, 2011, we said our goodbyes to Efraín Recinos, Guatemala’s most extraordinary and prolific artist. A Google search throws so much about Efraín Recinos that one may need a few days to get a glimpse of this prolific Guatemalan Picasso as described in the quoted text below.

Efrain Recinos, Guatemalan muralist, sculptor, engineer and architect, who among many other buildings designed the National Theatre in Guatemala City. On one of my first trips into the city, I saw, experienced and fell in love with his work, as it proudly embellished the many of the national buildings in Guatemala City. This was my first exposure to his work, but after much exploration throughout the city, I was surprise every time my friend Juan Pablo said, “that’s designed by Efrain Recinos too”.

To take a look at some of Efraín Recinos work and colorful anecdote, continue reading at Raising Mimo.

Here I share with you a slide show of some of his works found in Santo Domingo del Cerro. Click the four departing arrows icon inside the presentation to get a full screen slide show.

Below there’s a guided tour through the history of art in 89 portraits by Efraín Recinos who explains why he decided to realized such portraits. This tour goes by the name of Difusores Acústicos. (more…)

Guatemala’s largest photo festival Foto▸30 is a coordinated effort to have 30 days, the full month of September, dedicated to photography exhibits. As in previous years, Foto▸30 has a central theme, Nation for 2011. The photos shown here are for the set up of A 2 Caras photo exhibit at El Sitio Cultural.

This year I was invited to participate in the Alienation photo exhibit at N.O.A. art gallery in Guatemala City. I participated with two large format prints, 20″x30″, of photos previously shown here: Guatemalan Alienation and Virgin of Guadalupe Celebrations in La Antigua Guatemala.

Several of the photo exhibits will remain open for several weeks, so if you’re in Guatemala don’t miss the chance to visit them. Check out Foto▸30 website for dates, exhibit descriptions and galley addresses.

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 Political Parties Electoral law in Guatemala forbids the sale of alcoholic drinks the day before and the day after of the general elections, which happens to be tomorrow, September 11. La Bodegona, Antigua Guatemala’s largest supermarket, decided to cover up the entire alcoholic beverages section, including the giant display promotional materials as seen in the picture above and below. To be honest, I don’t know if it really makes a difference.

For these general elections most people, including me, feel very pessimistic about the process. Many people don’t feel represented by any of the candidates. Tomorrow Guatemalans will elect, as always, the least worst of the bunch for the positions of President, Vice President, Congress men and Municipal Mayors.

I will try to bring you fresh images from the voting centers. Stay tune!

INGUAT, Guatemala’s Tourism Board, has recently began promoting Guatemala to Guatemalans. Yes, believe or not, it looks like INGUAT’s campaign of Turismo Interno (internal tourism) is aimed at Guatemalans by offering economic tour packages. I just hope this is not what INGUAT is using as transportation.

As the national general elections are getting closer the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE, Supreme Electoral Tribunal) is making every effort to speed up the election process, this include helping the voters know where they’re supposed to vote and providing printed slips with the address and instructions on what things are needed to vote.

This TSE booth is located right out side the Municipalidad (City Hall building).

You can also check online at the TSE web site to see where you’re supposed to vote. Check it. If you want to learn more about the general elections in Guatemala, visit the TSE web site.

I can’t wait for September 11 to arrive and not because it’s my birthday, but because that’s when Guatemala will hold general elections for President, Vice President, Congress and Mayors through out all Guatemalan Municipalities. This means that after that we can finally get rid of all the political propaganda causing all kinds of visual pollution and traffic chaos.

Check out Political groups in the streets in GuatemalaDailyPhoto.com to see how political parties rally around Guatemala City causing all kinds pollution (visual, audio and traffic). Also, Quetzaltenango and other cities political parties are using public transit vehicles to spread their political propaganda as shown in Savvy Election Advertising in XelaDailyPhoto.com a few weeks ago.

What are your feeling regarding political propaganda?

I am a lucky guy!

As I shared with you before, I am so lucky to have among my friends and acquaintances, movers and shakers of the Guatemalan society. Last year I introduced to Christian Van Der Henst, @cvander as his world-famously known, a Guatemalan who fourteen years ago decided to create a website, a resource really, to help others learn about the web and the Internet in general in in Latin America and Spain. MaestrosDelWeb has become a must-see reference in in the Spanish-speaking world.

Today they celebrate their 14th anniversary and I congratulate Christian and his team for helping and sharing everything they know. Believe or not, AntiguaDailyPhoto is what it is today in part to the ton of advice I have receive from MaestrosDelWeb through the many talks I have had with Christian over the years. Today’s picture serves as my public acknowledgment of @cvander supports for AntiguaDailyPhoto. By the way, that’s my iPhone case which was designed by another good friend, Norman Ávila from ClimaYa.

Let’s all thank Christian for his invaluable support and constant advice to always keep improving AntiguaDailyPhoto!

The Sunday prior to July 25 (Saint James Day) is the date for the Medio Maratón Las Rosas and in 2011 that was today. Once again, my dear friend Nelo provided the background information and photos which I believe were taken with his camera by a friend of his. Anyway, one thing I haven’t mentioned in previous years is that the half marathon Las Rosas is a running party. Looking at the video and photos from last year and the photos from year, I noticed the big smiles and the happy atmosphere all around this event. Just look at the smiling faces below!

According to Nelo, this year the running route was modified because there were complains that the half marathon was not 21 kilometers exactly. Nelo created a GPS track and his result was 20.98 km. As soon as he uploads the GPS track, I will link to it from here. The old man on the first picture below is over 75 years old and even though he runs slow, he always finishes his races. To me that’s the most important goal of a marathon.

photos by Lester Marroquín

The starting line from Medio Maratón Las Rosas 2010

As every year, there’s a book fair as part of the festivities of Santiago, Saint James, La Antigua Guatemala’s patron saint. As you might already know, Santiago de Guatemala was the former name of La Antigua Guatemala and thus Saint James has been the patron since the funding of the city in July 25, 1524 first at Tecpán, then 1527 in Ciudad Vieja and 1541 in what we call today Antigua Guatemala.

So the actual date for the Saint James patron day is the July 25, but the activities begin about three to four weeks earlier and normally go beyond a week after the 25th. This week, for instance, the book fair stands were set up at Parque Central.

If you’re looking for good offers on Guatemalan books in Spanish and English this is your chance. Also, Guatemala’s International Book Fair, FILGUA, is also happening this week in Guatemala City.

Tomorrow will be the world famous half marathon Las Rosas. Follow the white rabbit to see images and information from the Half Marathon Las Rosas from last year.

Exactly one week ago, a few meters from where this photo was taken, two young women were waiting for the bus when a speeding truck lost control and crashed into them, killing them instantly.

Their names were Aleyda (19) and Anita (20); both the most recent victims of negligence.

Friends who live in Santa Inés, the village just outside La Antigua Guatemala, on the road to Guatemala City, have been lobbying to get speed bumps on this stretch of road since there have been many accidents and over and over again they were told that it was not possible because COVIAL, the governmental agency in charge of the roads in Guatemala, would not allow it.

A week after the tragedy, the Municipalidad or COVIAL, who knows really, began installing a series of speed bumps to force drivers to slow down and prevent further accidents and deaths. Ironically, they first built two, not one or three, but two. That’s why I say these speed bumps have proper names: Aleyda and Anita. Another irony is that fact that in Guatemala we used the word túmulo for speed bump, which actually means tomb or burial mound.

Why is it human nature to wait for a tragedy before taking action to prevent accidents or catastrophes?

Guatemala in the news aside: Once again Guatemala became trending topic in the social media and news networks because of the killing of Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral; one of Latin America’s most admired folk singers. You can read the rest of the story at The Washington Post for full details.