Even though the new Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom Caballeros, a 57-year-old industrial engineer and textile businessman, was sworn in for a 4-year term in Guatemala City in a ceremony at the Miguel Ángel Asturias National Theater, ceremonies and celebrations were held in the rest of the country too.
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
The Guatemalan Writers Side Note:
For being such a tiny banana/coffee writers republic, Guatemala does produce and export quite a few good writers. I have mentioned some of them in this site like Luis Cardoza y Aragón, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Pepe Milla, Ronald Flores. But, I have not done enough to talk about the great Guatemalan Literature written by its many excellent writers. Thanks to a comment by Coltrane_Lives about the possibility of his adopted Guatemalan daughter becoming a writer, I can point out a great Guatemalan novel written in English by Francisco Goldman, a respected journalist whose work appears often in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s (source: literaturaguatemalteca.org [ES]). “Francisco Goldman won accolades and international recognition with his extraordinary first novel, The Long Night of White Chickens, the winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts… ” (source: amazon.com). Another great contemporary novel is Ruido de fondo (background noise) by my dear friend Javier Payeras. Javier Payeras is one of the clearest and loudest voices of this generation and his poetry and prose has won the recognition in and outside Guatemala. Ruido de fondo has been reissued by the Guatemala’s Government Editorial Cultura to be required reading for High School students in Guatemala. For those who are fluent in Spanish, I leave the link to one of my favorites poems by Payeras: Soledadbrother.
We could argue that officially the kite flying season begins with the celebrations of All Saints Day and Day of the Dead on November 1st. Yet, kites start to show on tienditas and houses doorways such as shown here as early as the last week of September. The kite flying season coincides with los vientos … Read more
We are men of maize!. As I have said before, it’s impossible to think the Guatemalan and Mesoamerican diets 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 … Read more
As I have mentioned 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 … Read more
Let me introduce the famous “Tamalito de Elote.” Made of corn, it’s one of the simplest ones when it comes to its ingredients. No over the top sauce or meat, no luscious herbs but instead the purest taste of corn. If you’ve ever heard of Men of Maize (“Hombres de Maíz” in Spanish), a novel … Read 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 … Read more
Since We’re Men of Maize it’s no wonder that we also do many things with the by-products of maize. We use corn husk as candy wrappers as shown in Pump up the color; as materials for handicrafts like shown above and in Corderos de Tusa; as wrappers for tamales (chuchitos, tamales de elote, tamales de … Read more
A simple image with lots of green and a touch of red, similar to our beautiful Quetzal; Guatemala’s ultimate symbol for freedom. A simple image inspired on Miguel Ángel Asturias‘ poem Tecún Úman. Below, the first five paragraphs of the exquisite poem. Tecún-Umán, el de las torres verdes, el de las altas torres verdes, verdes, … Read more
Café Santa María is quite possibly the most popular comedor in Antigua Guatemala nowadays. I eat there at least twice a week and often I come across acquaintances and friends from all walks of life. La Antigua’s Geeksquad even have met there a couple of times. By the way, the reason so many people from … Read more
We are men of maize! It is impossible to think 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 … Read more
Many Guatemalans might regard thrillers and serial killers films as light and interested pieces of fiction because we are confronted with ultra violent headlines in newspapers like Nuestro Diario and Al Día, sensationalist rags that, like mirrors, show us every day how savage we can be. Ironically, Nuestro Diario boasts the largest circulation of any … Read more
The “strong winds” begin making their way to Guatemala; Vientos fuertes would say Miguel Ángel Asturias. With the vientos fuertes also appear the barriletes, kites, and giant kites which help to reunite the dead with the living during the celebrations of Día de los difuntos, Day of the dead. What do you know about the … Read more
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 … Read more