AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

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…)

As every year, on September 14, people from all over the Guatemala begin a marathon to go to another part of the country to get the flame for the Independence Torch back in their communities. There are many places the have a torch where other people from other towns can light their torch to bring back to their own communities. Of course, there are favorite destinations to get the Independence Flame and La Antigua Guatemala is one of them. All the different torches in different locations throughout Guatemala and their respective marathons build a web of people running in all different directions at the same time. It is traffic nightmare and it is better to stay home on that date, unless you are running for your community to fetch the light for your torch.

I was at Centro Histórico (Downtown) Guatemala City last night, past midnight with some friends and colleagues doing a tour through all the photo exhibit inaugurations when we saw people still running with the torches.

As in previous years, I have prepared a slide show of the things I saw around the torch set at the Municipalidad building. This time I also recorded a video clip of the beginning of some of the marathons.

I hope you enjoy them and let me know your thoughts.

Don’t you wish you can have one these adorable Guatemalan nacimientos (nativity scenes) in your own home for the next Christmas?

In my never ending quest to share with you all the different artistic manifestations from Guatemala that I come across I preset you this video clip entitled Tejido audiovisual de Guatemala by Julio Dávila also known as VJ Sine. Julio shared this video at TEDxUFM, short for TED (Technology Entertainment Design) x= independently organized TED event and UFM (Universidad Francisco Marroquín). If you’re interested in looking at photos and reading a collective summary of the event, follow the white rabbit to TEDxUFM slide show. In the mean time, enjoy the video below.

Watching the world-famous mime Tamagochy yanking smiles and laughs from the audience formed around his “maleta de la alegría” (happiness suitcase) I thought of the wonderful song “Garrick” composed and sang by the extraordinaire Guatemalan artist Gaby Moreno. You do remember Gaby Moreno, right? I shared a Gaby Moreno song and video with you in the Nostalgia Triggers post.

Below you will find the lyrics and video for the song Garrick by Gaby Moreno who was inspired in the poem Reir llorando (Garrick) by Juan de Dios Peza.

Can anybody help translating the lyrics for Garrick?

GARRICK

Yo vi la función
Fui testigo de aquella ovación
Eran mil, talvez más
Sin sospechar jamás
Sufrían del spleen
Escapaban de un ocio sin fin
El remedio infalible
Era ver al gran Garrick

Marionetas saltan y las ponen a bailar
Empieza la comedia y todos ríen sin parar
Ja, ja, ja, ja

Al poco tiempo un señor
Ante un médico se presentó
Su mirada oscura y triste decía
Que moría por morir
Siguió una larga interrogación
Y al ver que nada le causaba emoción
El médico exclamó
Tu mal se ha de extinguir
Al ver al gran Garrick

Marionetas saltan y las ponen a bailar
Empieza la comedia y todos ríen sin parar
Ja, ja, ja, ja
El hombre sonrió
Con ojos húmedos:
“Yo no me curo así…
Yo soy Garrick!”

Every Saturday and Sunday the city closes 5a avenida norte, better known as Calle del Arco, to all traffic. Only allowing people to walk through the street. This group of a father and his sons made the experience very festive and lively. Throughout the whole street you can hear the soul of this city flowing through this music.

Do you have a local spot where you like to hear music?

text and photo by Zach Olson.

As I said last year, in Guatemala we could and should write the Manifesto against Convenience. Why you ask? Well, can you believe that we still observe holidays and celebrations on the date they were created. Mother’s Day on May 10, Father’s Day on June 17, Santiago de los Caballeros on July 25 (Saint James), et cetera. In Guatemala holidays and festivities are not celebrated on the weekend unless that’s date a holiday falls.

Today, for instance, in Guatemala we celebrate Día del padre, Father’s Day. The photo above was taken for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on December 12, a day when many fathers celebrate with their sons and daughters by attending mass service.

When is Father’s Day celebrated where you live?

Also, I am also sharing with you a video of the song “Viejo, mi querido viejo” by Piero, which is played very often today in Guatemala. If you’re walking around in Guatemala, it’s quite likely that you will overhear it.

The other day while I waited for the fresh and hot tortillas to come out of the comal I noticed an orange peeler, the typical kind found in Guatemala and I could not help myself and snatch a photo with the iPhone, my new notebook dairy. As I took the shot with the iPhone a rush of memories came down on me about school days and having peeled oranges with powder pepitoria (squash seeds) and chile and laughing, laughing a lot with my friends. It is interesting and amazing to me what things trigger the memory and the nostalgia feelings.

What’s the most unusual nostalgia/memory trigger you have come across?

El otro día mientras esperaba que salieran las tortillas frescas y calientitas del comal me detengo a ver el pelador de naranjas, el típico encontrado por toda Guatemala, y decidí tomarle una foto con el iPhone, mi nuevo cuaderno de apuntes. En el momento que tomé la foto, se me viene encima una lluvia de recuerdos y nostalgia de las naranjas con pepitoria y chile después de clases con los amigos y las risas, muchas risas. Siempre me ha llamado la atención que nos detona los recuerdos y sentimientos de nostalgia.

¿Cuál ha sido el detonador de recuerdos más inusual con que te has topado?

In my humble opinion, I believe that La Antigua Guatemala is among the best places in the world to live, don’t you agree? I mean you get some of the benefits of living in a big city while retaining the colorful and peaceful aspect of a little town embedded in the highland of Guatemala.

The people and organization involved in the creation of the Antigua Guatemala Brand want to take advantage of some of the unique and enchanting features of La Antigua Guatemala to easily promote and market the colonial city under one brand; similar to a product. The Antigua Guatemala Brand is, in other words, a touristic marketing and promotional tool. It will be interesting to see how effective Antigua Guatemala Brand becomes as well as to see the different manifestations of it in the promotional campaigns.

I will not bore you with all the glory details of the event. Suffices to say, that there were speeches, folkloric dances and marimba music. The event lasted a little over four hours. I am taking advantage of newly acquired skill to compress most of it under one minute through the use of a time-lapse video made from 525 photos taken through the night. Enjoy!

Also, below you can watch the 15-minute photographic presentation with nearly 250 photos from AntiguaDailyPhoto.com projected over a giant screen hanging next to Palacio de los Capitanes as part of the event. I am sure many of you will remember some of the photos here.

Last but not least, here’s a sample of the Antigua Guatemala brand so you can see the proposed logo and color palette.

What do you think?

Okay, enough I say; it’s been way too long since I gave away free wallpapers; since December 23, 2010 to be exact, it was the Christmas present from AntiguaDailyPhoto. Honest, I should give away free desktop/laptop wallpapers at least once a month, don’t you agree?

Download the three free wallpapers from Antigua Guatemala from here:

1. Yellow wall
2. Chipped wall
3. Zapote wall

Enjoy and share them with your family and friends. Moreover, if you want to download all the free wallpapers I have shared with you previously, feel free to browse the Wallpapers category and if you like what you see, share this link with your family and friends as well.

Also, it is time to feed the Only in LAG category and what better way to do it than with a Cucuruch’ants procession video produced by Guy Howard and his wife, which they entitled “Cucuruch’ants.” Enjoy!

The Municipal Band Friday recitals is another reason why Parque Central is my favorite part of town. What can I say, I am a melómano; which is your Spanish word of the day.

What is your favorite part of La Antigua Guatemala?

Without a doubt Ermita de La Santa Cruz is one of the more dramatic and enchanting venues in La Antigua Guatemala. Especially after it gets dressed up with spot lights and projecting imagery on the façade.

Below you will find two more behind the scene images prior to the concert of Bach en La Habana by Tiempo Libre and Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Municipal. You will also find a video clip about Tiempo Libre’s Bach in Havana new album.

If you were in La Antigua Guatemala this weekend you might get a chance to dance to danceable marimba music at Parque Central as part of the Valentine’s Day celebration. There will be marimba ensembles from different regions of Guatemala. The marimbas will begin playing at 3 p.m. at Antigua Guatemala’s main plaza.

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XI Festival Internacional De Cultura Paiz opened with a energy-charged reunion concert by the two most representative bands from Central America: the Guatemalan rock band Alux Nahual from Guatemala and Éditus, the Grammy-winning jazz group from Costa Rica at Ermita de la Santa Cruz; one of the best venues in La Antigua Guatemala for concerts.

This time the Festival Internacional De Cultura Paiz will showcase a series of cultural and educational events through the entire year as opposed to previous festival which only lasted a few weeks.

There will be plenty of events in the upcoming weeks. There are two events scheduled for Saturday: the concert Bach en la Habana by Tiempo Libre and La Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Municipal and the exhibition El Universo de Carlos Mérida.

The concert could be heard from at least than two kilometers away from La Ermita de La Santa Cruz; I know because thats the distance that separates my house from La Ermita.

I was looking forward to photographing the inauguration concert of Festival Internacional De Cultura Paiz, but things just became really complicated at the end of the afternoon and I was unable to assist. Luckily for us, my friend Jennifer Lara attended and she was able to snapped a few shots with her iPhone. She was kind enough to share them with us. Thank you @ienilara.

Photo by Jennifer Lara.

Below you can can see the different events for February and March 2011.

Here’s one of the television spots that have been promoting the festival in national television in Guatemala.
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Coffee spawns a new industry around Antigua Guatemala: Coffee tours. It was only a matter of time before the coffee plantations open their doors to tourists interested in learning about the worlds favorite drink. Off course, coffee tours was only the beginning and soon enough the coffee plantations started offering horse and mule rides, bike rides, mountain trails, coffee tasting, birding and canopy tours.

What’s next? Probably photo tours to take advantage of all the photographic opportunities inside the coffee plantations. Check out the photographs captured by members of the Club Fotográfico de Antigua (Antigua’s Photo Club) in a recent photo tour inside Finca Filadelfia, which became a photo exhibition entitled Con sabor y aroma a café shown in La Antigua and in Guatemala City. Con sabor y aroma a café was even covered by Guatemala’s national news networks.

Guatemala’s a pyromaniac hell or paradise, what is it?

I remember reading earlier this year a tweet from Xeni Jardin, one of BoingBoing’s editors, that she was not impressed with the 4th of July fireworks display in unknown city in the U.S. because after having witnessed the non-stop burning of firecrackers, fireworks and every piece of a pyromaniac’s fetish in Central America she was spoiled.

I say that you have live it to believe Xeni’s declaration. In the meantime, I share with you two video clips of the fireworks burnt in one section of Guatemala. Remember, to get an idea of the magnitude of the burning of the fireworks, you have to multiply by 360° in every street of every colonia, village, town and city in Guatemala. So, if you decide to witness the burning of firecrackers and fireworks in Guatemala, make sure you bring earplugs; these are not included. (more…)