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Children, Page 2

Fire Department Equipment Demo

Los Bomberos Voluntarios (Voluntary Fire Deparment) were giving demonstration of equipment outside of the Capuchinas Ruins this weekend. It looks like the …

Independence Month Parades

Guatemala celebrates its Independence on September 15 and through the entire month student marching bands and parades are quite common. Students begin …

Tough Future!

How can we expect a better future as a country if our future is on the streets working instead of in school preparing to make a better nation?

Little Miss Sunshine

On the first day of AntiguaDailyPhoto, May 1, 2006, I shared with you a School beauty contest parade with Volcán de Agua …

Children at Playground

This photograph was taken at the entrance of El Hato village, located about 5 kilometers from La Antigua Guatemala. El Hato villages …

Mother’s Day in Guatemala

Happy Guatemalan Mother’s Day! I especially wish a Happy Mother’s Day to my own madre. As Luna McCarthy mentioned in XelaDailyPhoto this …

Nine Days of Posadas

We interrupt our regularly scheduled December comfort foods series to bring you the following special bulletin. Since yesterday night, December 15, there …

Running Away

Ya running and ya running And ya running away. Ya running and ya running And ya running away. Ya running and ya …

Guatemala’s Independence Student Parades

Most people in Guatemala often say that Guatemalans are not very “patriotic” and immediately mention how patriotic the Mexicans really are: “that’s really patriotism!” Heck I even heard an hour long radio show today discussing it.

Perpetuating A Nation

Guatemalans are not known for being patriotic; yeah Guatever! Nevertheless, we do have our patriotic symbols like El Quetzal, our most beautiful …

Mother’s Day A La Antigua

To all the visiting mothers, please, let me share with you the Guatemalan classic marimba Un vals para mi madre (A waltz …

Chepito, Let Me Show You…

I like to photograph old people. I like to photograph young people. I like to photograph people, regardless of their age, really. …

Colorful Guatemala Revisited

I am completely ruined. After having spent so much time around rich, intense colors, textures, idiosyncrasies, how could I ever live again …

Broccoli Heads

Oh, I don’t think I will ever get tired for the abundant fresh produce available in el mercado of La Antigua Guatemala …

First Steps

I love the possibilities of street photography in La Antigua Guatemala. Almost every day you can go out and come back with …

Chanin Chanin Mija

Chanin chanin mija, we don’t want to become victims of the Guatemalan Diaspora!

Day Care

Market day in La Antigua Guatemala is much more than just getting your weekly produce or enjoying a photo moment of local …

Come on Ixchel, follow me!

Last night I talked to my lovely niece who just turned eleven recently and we spoke about being 11-year old now and …

Mother and Son Bonding

Today it is your turn to do the caption for this street photo of a mother and son bonding in La Antigua …

Open Schools: Playgrounds

One important aspect of the Escuelas Abiertas school program on the weekends will definitely be the safe playgrounds and fútbol and basquet …

Open Schools: Registration

Finally something good for the communities in the rural areas of Guatemala. Escuelas Abiertas or Open Schools is a government program which …

Peak-a-boo!

Peak-a-boo! Boy, today was for sure a good day to be on a tree since the land kept on shaking all day …

Jumping Kids Show

What better way to promote physical activity than to put kids to jump to their hearts’ content.

Guatemalan Slang: Chamusca

Chamusca is the Guatemalan-Spanish word for an informal football match. All you need is a few friends, a dirt field and a …

Mother’s Safety Zone

Through our mothers’ safety zone we learn to crawl, walk, run, swim and fly! It is only fair that we assign one …

Don’t Laugh At Me!

“… Nothing became Something. For many in the community this Something is the realization that their kids, who barely had touched a book, can read something because they like it. The biggest change we see it in the problematic children, those who can hardly stay put. We let them read laying down on a carpet, aloud or in silence, right-reading or backwards, or we give them audio books, and little by little they end up reading all of them…” —Kyle Passarelli (fragment freely translated from the article Biblioteca Caldo de Piedra as it appeared in Spanish in the latest issue of Revista Recrearte)

I read to my little brother

Kids reading to kids; now we are onto something! While reviewing the wishlist for the Caldo de Piedra Library Project, I occurred …

Caldo de Piedra Library Project

Boy, do I have a soft spot for libraries! Often I highlight library projects like the Bibliobús of Probigua, which I nicknamed …

Grandma and Granddaugther doing Mandados

Grandma and granddaughter caught while doing mandados (errands). Above we can see the close relationship between the grandparents and their grandchildren which in Guatemala is one of the strongest links between humans.

Back to the Guatemalan School Year 2008

Public schools are free in Guatemala, minus some administrative fees. But, everything you need for school is not free; you need to buy a every single pencil and sheet of paper as well as any book or notebook, cuaderno in Spanish.

In the picture above, we can see parents with their children making the queues to purchase all the necessary school supplies at Librerí­a Castillo in La Antigua Guatemala; librerí­a is the Spanish term for bookstore or stationary store.

Virgin of Guadalupe Celebrations in La Antigua Guatemala

In La Antigua Guatemala, religious celebrations draw together all kinds of heterogeneous people and the feast day of Virgin of Guadalupe is no exception. In the day of La Virgen de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, you can find gringa mamas, indigenous mamas, ladino mamas and white mamas all taking their children dressed with indigenous clothes to visit the altar of La Virgen Morena. In many cases you have grandmas and the whole family taking part of the visit to Virgin of Guadalupe inside Iglesia de la Merced.

Giant Kite and Guatemalan idiosyncrasy

This picture is like a summary of the Guatemalan Idiosyncrasy. First we have the giant kite with all the Mayan motifs, which for a long time represented the pagan rituals as the dominant catholic church used to call them. Anything that represented non-christian religious rituals was denigrated and prosecuted under the pagan label

I’m Ready to Fly!

With November come the strong winds (Vientos fuertes would say Miguel Ángel Asturias). With the strong winds come the kites. With the kites come the celebrations of the day of the dead and all saints day. With the day of the dead celebrations comes the fiambre, the food to share with our dead. Stay tune for background information on the kite flying rituals and its me

Umbrella Time is Now Officially Over

Okay with this last photo of people carrying umbrellas we can now declare the rainy season of 2007 officially over. Okay everyone, you are welcome to the most beautiful weather in La Antigua Guatemala; come on over now!

You’re Not Dead Until You’re Forgotten

Guatemala’s real culture is syncretism and thus death plays an important role in traditions and culture. Guatemala is the real ‘melting pot’ and the final product is called mestizo. A mestizo is an individual that comes in many shades of brown and she is made up from a combination of AmerIndian, European, African, Asian and Arab. Syncretism and mestizism go together well and that is why there is no conflict with including some or many Mayan rituals, including death rituals, in a everyday Catholic or Christian service. Obviously, a single entry is not enough to describe such a complex human being, but we have to start somewhere and since Patsy Poor mentioned that recent studies showed that the U.S. will be brown (mestizo) in 50 years. 😉

I am not conTigo

There are three cell phone companies in Guatemala (4 according to Wikipedia). Tigo is the mobile phone brand of Millicom International Cellular. Claro mobile telephone operator is owned by the Mexican group América Móvil, which in turn is the umbrella name for the mobile telephone division of Telmex, owned by Carlos Slim (estimated fortune of US$67.8 billion). Carlos Slim’s empire also owns the Guatemalan National Telephone Company, Telgua, and Telgua’s division of cellphone Claro brand. Movistar is the mobile division of the Spanish transnational Telefónica telephone company. Believe it or not the Telmex/América Móvil and Movistar/Telefónica are probably bigger than AT&T.

Guatemalan Fair: The Pine-needle Processional Carpets

The making of these processional carpets is such a community-forming and bonding activity since in the process participate many, if not all, of the neighbors and family members. These traditions, festive calendar dates and special celebrations mark very strongly what makes a normal human being into a hard-core Guatemalan. You break the link or access to these experiences and you only have a person that was born in Guatemala; a fact as worthless as the fact of having had a pair of boots once.

Guatemalan Fair: The Ferris Wheel

Ferris wheels are another element of the Guatemalan fair. There is at least one Ferris wheel, but more often two or three of different sizes. The Ferris wheel is known here by these names rueda de Chicago(Chicago Wheel), rueda de la fortuna (wheel of fortune) and vuelta al mundo (around the world). Fairs are made up by all kinds of ambulant stands. Fairs are like accordions, they grow or shrink depending of the size of the community or town. All these photos belong to the San Pedro Las Huertas, a small village just outside and belonging to La Antigua Guatemala. At the end of July, La Antigua Guatemala will have its massive fair in honor of Saint James or Santiago.

Fine for a Family of Four

This reckless image can be seen often in La Antigua Guatemala, where motorcycles are fast becoming the most popular vehicle (thanks to …

Striking stripes

Thanks to a comment by Sarah from San Antonio Daily Photo, I noticed the opposing stripe patterns weared by this couple on …

Guatemalan Adoptions

I was lucky to capture this couple and their new baby just taking a rest and enjoying the beautiful light and atmosphere …

Guatemalan Cowboy Kid

Okay, enough of guns and cowboys. I leave you with an interesting portrait a little cowboy kid. Children always represent the hope …

Pick your color #1

Okay, welcome back from an ease going weekend. It is Monday and you want things to be mellow, so I am not …

Run Lolo, Run

Hurry home, run rapidly, the witches are watching. Lolo, you must put on your costume to go out for trick-n-treating. It is …

Transnational: Health for all

Dr. Simi is Mexico’s transnational Farmacias Similares (Similar Pharmacies) mascot. Farmacias Similares has made their business to take generic medicine to the …

What are they looking at?

Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias, Nobel Prize in literature, wrote a book called Week-end en Guatemala (that is the title in Spanish). …

Antigua’s child labor

The future of a society is with the children and their education and preparation. What kind of future awaits for Guatemala when …

Tourists and shoe-shining boy

Kids should be in school. In Guatemala there are laws for everything you can imagine, including laws against child labor. Yet there …