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It’s time for the umbrellas and you probably should buy one in you plan to visit Guatemala for the next 180 days or so. Sorry, it’s like that and there is no way around it. Heck some people, like Eric from Boston, have never seen the beautiful and dry Guatemala; can you believe that?

Mother’s Day always falls on May 10 in Guatemala. Thus, today is a holiday for mothers in Guatemala and many mamás get the day off from work.

I’d 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; maybe?!). I am glad I was able to spend some time with you recently. Let me share with you the Guatemalan classic marimba Un vals para mi madre (A waltz for my mother) and wish you a very happy Guatemalan Mother’s Day!

It’s good to see the natural drains for Volcán de Agua sort of clean since the rainy season will soon begin discharging enormous amounts of water all around Guatemala and Water Volcano is a natural formation that accumulates lots of water, thus its name, and often the excess water runs down the natural drain channels. When these drains are blocked, we end up with lahars and lots of destruction in San Miguel Escobar and Ciudad Vieja.

I was told once that in Guatemala if they are lucky coffee plantations can harvest twice a year. But, most of the time, there’s only one harvest season, which begins in February or March.

Do you know when is the other harvesting season in Guatemala?

It doesn’t matter what day of the week you stop by the public washbasins, lavaderos, you will always find the ladies doing the laundry. In the past I have talked to several of the women doing the laundry and I asked what were some of the reasons for utilizing the public washbasins even though most of them have running water at home. These are some of the answers:

• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins are more comfortable because they are larger and the water is closer.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins I get to see and talk to my friends and neighbors.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins have plentiful of free water.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins I get to see things and people, sort of free entertainment.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins provide less distractions than being at home doing the laundry.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins the temperatures are cooler and thus more comfortable.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins are my only choice since I do not have running water at home.

Everywhere in Guatemala you can find breakfast stalls similar to one shown above where the working class and anybody’s hungry can stop by to get an orange juice or licuado (smoothies) and a pan con pollo (chicken sandwich), or pan with you name it, chiles rellenos, guacamol, frijoles (beans), et cetera. The bread used to prepare the sandwiches is normally pirujo, an elongated French roll, but you can also find pan galleta and pan francés (French roll). Tostadas are usually available at these kind of desayunos on the go.

One interesting trivia is that many workers order their orange juice with raw eggs.

Some of you might recall that fresh tortillas are available three times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well, fresh bread is baked twice a day for breakfast and dinner. Tortillas or bread baked in the morning is considered old by noon. Of course, because these tortillas and bread are prepared so often and without preservatives, they go bad in a couple of days without refrigeration.

Do you know when was your bread or tortillas made?

I share with you what my friend and colleague Willy expressed about the International Women’s Day:

Willy: ¿Hoy es día de la mujer? ¿Otra vez? ¡Todos los días son días de la mujer! Los hombres nos rendimos ante ustedes a diario, libramos guerras, perdemos amigos, hacemos locuras por ustedes las mujeres… Todos los días son días de la mujer.

Willy: Today’s women’s day? Again? Every day is a women’s day! We men surrender before you daily, go to war, lose friends, do crazy things for you women… Each and every day is women’s day.

On another part of the Facebook universe, Manolo shared this interesting fact taken from the article Revealed: The best and worst places to be a woman published by The Independent:

18. Best place to leave your husband: Guam

The Micronesian island of Guam has the highest divorce rate in the world, and Guatemala has the lowest. The number of divorces in England and Wales in 2010 increased by 4.9 per cent since 2009.

I recommend reading the entire article for some interesting facts about women.

Often I have spoken about the wonderful feel-good vibe that one can sense and be part of while hanging out at the Plaza Mayor, better known simply as Parque Central, Antigua Guatemala’s Main Plaza, but I have not been able to seize the sensation in a picture until today.

If you have been to Parque Central and sat on one of the benches or just hanged there, please, share with us what vibes, feelings or sensetions have you perceived.

Sem você nem tristeza teremos
Pra nos lamentar
Sem você nem morrer de saudade
Nem mesmo chorar
Pois não há chorar

E o amor?
O amor desaparecerá.
E o amor?
Da lembrança ninguém nem se lembrará
E o amor?
Se perder ninguém mais vai no olhar
E o amor?
Palavra vazia ninguém mais namorará
Namorará
Namorara

…

Without the letter “A”

Without you we won’t even have sadness
To lament.
Without you, no longing till death
Or even weeping
For there is no weeping
And love?
Love will disappear.
And love?
No one will remember to remember.
And love?
If it’s lost, no one will be moved to move by a glance.
And love?
Empty word no one will make
Will make love
Will make love
Will make love

(From a children’s stage-play by Elifas Andreato called Sem Você não “A”, in which the letter “A” runs away from the alphabet. -Zé)

This song appears in Tom Ze’s album “The Hips Of Tradition” recorded in 1992.

In the recording of this song also participated two american musicians, David Byrne with his 12-string acoustic guitar and Greg Cohen playing bass. (source: Luis Samayoa)

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.

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?

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.

Let’s do it!

The most creative caption will win this photo as a post card mailed through post office in Antigua Guatemala. This time will close the contest after 7 captions, so get yours early on if you want to have a chance a winning. We have done this creative exercise before, take a look at the following entries for ideas and inspiration. Good luck to all participants!

• All Aboard Now
• Invent A Tour Guides Conversation
• The Cucurucho and The Photographer
• Arch-framed Women in Jocotenango
• Opposite ends of life #2