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I don’t normally go by Parque San Sebastián, located on the northwest side of Antigua Guatemala, especially at lunch hour, so I was surprised to see how many people were having lunch at the park. Of course, wherever there are people eating on a public space, there will be chuchos, street dogs, waiting for whatever is thrown their way.

Normalmente no paso muy seguido por el parque San Sebastián, ubicado en el noroccidente de La Antigua Guatemala, y especial a la hora del almuerzo por lo que me sorprendió ver tanta gente almorzando en el parque. Por supuesto, dónde quiera haya gente comiendo en un lugar público, habrá chuchos esperando por cualquier bocado que se les lance.

Last week, Guatemalan blogger Iván Mendoza sent me a link to the article Street Photography: The Capture vs. The Pose; an interesting post which tries to define the difference between posed and captured photographs. Below I quote a couple statements from the article to give you an idea, but I must certainly encourage to read it and enjoy the black and white photographs that accompanied the piece.

When a subject poses to have his or her photograph taken, the subject tries to project a message about himself or herself by how he or she “poses”, by the attitude of his or her body language or facial expression.

Portrait and posed photos are contrived declares Chris Weeks in his book Street Photography for the Purist. As much as possible I aim to capture authentic and true slices of life.

Street Photography takes direct aim at this “falseness” by taking the camera into the streets to record “true” documentary moments in life. The subjects are usually unaware as they go about their lives, having no time to strike a pose to enhance or send a particular message about those lives.

With today’s photo I believe that I have captured such that image as described above; an authentic, true, uncontrived slice of life from Antigua Guatemala. What do you think?

If we are what we eat, then this is what Guatemalans are made of. The vegetables above the most often found in the Guatemalan diet.

How many of these vegetable are part of the diet where you live?

Si somos lo que comemos, entonces los guatemaltecos estamos hechos de estas verduras, las cuales son las encontradas con más frecuencia en al dieta chapina.

¿Cuántas de estas verduras están en tu dieta?

These news may come as total shock to some of you, but I figure today is as good day as any to let you know that because of Antigua Guatemala’s preservation and protection laws there can not be parking meters. Believe me that’s a good thing. However the municipal government may not agree with me since that means they lose yet another way to tax us. Well, that’s how it used to be until not too long ago when a mayor realized that the city could by law charge for parking without installing the parking meters. Nevertheless, the government officials knew that they could not pass the legislation needed if they tax the people who actually live here. I know city governments all over the world do charge for public parking to its own neighbors, but trust me when I say this could not be possible in Antigua Guatemala. Thus, they created these parking permit decals for antigüeños that go on your front windshield and pretty much exempts your from having to pay the Q10 per day for parking as everyone else. Once a year you have to go to the transit or treasure department and prove that you live here by way of showing your DPI (Guatemala’s national ID) or the title of your property, the circulation cards for your vehicles and show your boleto de ornato (decoration ticket) which is a variable obligatory tax that Guatemalans must pay every year to their local municipality. Ornato is Guatemalan Spanish for the aesthetic or beauty of town or place.

And with today’s entry we begin a mini series about the parking problems of Antigua Guatemala. Each day I will bring different issues regarding the parking situation of Antigua Guatemala.

Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas) Aside: Around Antigua Guatemala, many people keep their Nacimientos and Christmas decorations until February 2nd, Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas), which incidentally is Groundhog Day in the United States. The day after February 2nd the Christmas lights around Antigua’s Main Plaza will be pick up and put away.

Now it’s time to begin preparation for Carnival first, and then Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday.

Once again, you write the caption in a similar manner than yesterday’s Thinking Boy. What’s the little girl deliberating about?

Okay today you write the caption. What’s the little boy thinking about?

Calle del Arco is the place to be on the weekends in Antigua Guatemala if you want to listen to live music. For sure you can find live marimba music, either Maya or traditional Guatemalan songs, but sometimes you find blues, jazz or urban rock ensembles. This was the case for the past weekend.

Below you can watch a short video clip, if you can provide the name of the song, you win a post card. Good luck! (more…)

Let’s do an observation experiment. What things do you find interesting in the picture above?

One of the things about cultural and traditional events that I like is that they are people magnets and it’s so much easier to photograph people and situations that normally are difficult. Take as an example the photograph of the Guatemalan lady and the Maya man from yesterday or the ease with I was able to capture these Maya teenagers while they pay attention to the Mayan ceremony (see video clip from two days ago).

Oh what a culturally rich and diverse country is Guatemala for being such a small territory, don’t you think?

Here’s the essence of the Guatemalan dichotomy for you. On one side, those with very strong roots to their ancestors and on the other side those who want to be anything else, but themselves; fully alienated pues. On one hand, the man explaining the details and intricacies of a Maya ceremony and on the other hand the woman, after having learned the details, explaining that the Maya ceremony is very similar to what Hindus do. That’s Guatemala for you.

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. (more…)

If you want to do street photography you have to be quick and be ready at all times because you never know when and where the fleeting images will appear.

Case in point is the image above, captured on my way back home while taking an alternate route through San Miguel Escobar. As I was driving up the road, I was surprised to see a whole bunch of colorful clown running on the direction of the mobile PA system, a truck really with several speakers blasting cumbia music. Without really understanding what was going on, I grabbed my camera with a swift move and before I knew, I took just one shot from the car without lowering the windows or anything because that’s all the time I had before the colorful parade and motorcade moved away. Of course, I was not able to get the 30 or so clowns in the frame, but I was satisfied I got enough of them to be representative.

At first I thought it was a convite. Only after looking at the photograph on the computer I was able to see this was a very clever and colorful FUNdraising. I still don’t know what was the fundraising cause, but I am sure it was a success. After I tweaked the photo a little, contrast and sharpness, I realized how much I enjoy the rhythm in this image; it almost feels like everything came into place all at once. I especially like the fraction that entitled “Garrick” and I am showing as a thumbnail here.

What do you think of it? (more…)

Guatemala has taken the concept of convenience store to new levels. Tienda is the Spanish word we use in Guatemala to refer for convenience store. The original definition of Tienda is tent as I imagine the original stores were actually tents. Tienditas, are smaller tiendas, or little convenience stores, which sometimes get to be as small as a window, must of the time is just a tiny room with just a door counter. The best thing about tienditas is that they are everywhere, almost every block has at least one, but often you can find more than two. Obviously, the most often bought products at a tiendita are junk food, soda drinks, chewing gum, canned juices and cigarettes, but you can also find chocobananos and hellos (ice creams).

What do you think is the most bought item at a tiendita?

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? (more…)

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.