News

Antigüeños contra la delincuencia

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Antigüeños Contra la Delincuencia by Leonel -Nelo- Mijangos

Los antigüeños ya estamos cansados de tantos hechos delictivos que están pasando en nuestra amada ciudad mientras tanto las autoridades no se les ve nada. Éste es un espacio dedicado a promover la seguridad en nuestra querida Antigua Guatemala. Antigüeños contra la delincuencia, Antigua Against Crime¹, is a peaceful movement promoting a crime awareness campaign … Read more

Antigua Boulder Challenge Detail

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When is boulder not a boulder? When a boulder is for a climbing competition. Such was the case today when there was a man-made boulder climbing challenge right in front of Palacio de los Capitanes. There were be 14 competitors from Guatemala, 10 men and 4 women, 8 from El Salvador, 5 from Costa Rica … Read more

Guatemala Breaks Guinness World Record

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How many people can you fit inside a bus? The chicken bus Guinness World Record of how many people you can fit in a bus was broken today at Jocotenango, Sacatepéquez, Guatemala with 221 people inside the chicken bus, two chickens and lots of Gallos (beer). The previous record of 209 people was held by … Read more

Guatemala Takes Baby Steps Towards Justice

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Preparing for a Mayan Ceremony by Rudy A. Girón

Flyer of public hearing of retired general Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.This morning Guatemala is taking baby steps towards justice by having a historic public hearing of retired General Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. The retired General Efraín Ríos Montt will be responding to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity done during his year in power between 1982-1983. This is just one more baby step to bring reconciliation and justice for the Guatemalan armed conflict which happened between 1960 and 1996 and was sparked by a coup orchestrated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état which produced over 250,000 victims, 45,0000 disappeared persons and over one million of displaced people.

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Volcán de Agua Climb: Subida por la vida

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Subida por la Vida by Nelo Mijangos

Subida por la Vida by Nelo Mijangos

Subida por la vida logoOn 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.

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Antigua’s Photo Club: Let’s do it!

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I often report on the Club Fotográfico de Antigua Guatemala because I am of the funding members and because many people visiting Antigua Guatemala have interest in photography and many want to connect with other passionate photographers. Also, I report often because I am still amazed how an idea that formed back in 2009 with … Read more

Hector’s Restaurant No. 1 at TripAdvisor

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Today was a day full of news. First of all, I learned from my friend and ADP collaborator Guy Howard that Hector’s Restaurant made to the number one position at TripAdvisor for their restaurant listings of Antigua Guatemala. Of course, that’s no news to you guys since you have already since many of the dishes … Read more

Gifts for the Poor

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Honestly, I don’t think anybody does more for the poor (yes, the poor and not the underprivileged, less fortunate nor any other euphemism one can come up with) of Antigua Guatemala and surrounding areas as Asociación Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro. From the permanent free or heavily discounted (symbolic price) medical consultations offered by … Read more

Fair Trade Fair in Antigua Guatemala

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On November 11, 2011 (11.11.11 for short) the Feria Nacional de Comercio Justo y Solidario Guatemala 2011 opened its kiosk on the arched hallway of Palacio de los Capitanes Generales to promote exchanges for a better world the brochure declares. The national fair trade fair will remain open until Sunday at 3pm, so if you’re … Read more

Guatemalan Presidential Elections Are Now Over

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Guatemalan Presidential Elections Are Now Over

The Guatemalan presidential elections are finally over and we can go back to building a better country and let the new President elect and his team do whatever it is that they do. Below, there’s a screen shot of the almost final results with 53.78% of the votes going to the Partido Patriota and 46.22% to the Partido Líder. You can visit the web page for Tribunal Supremo Electoral (Supreme Electoral Tribunal) for the final results.

Compared to the first voting round, today there was almost nobody there. Compare the photos from the September 11 election process and with today’s photos. Nevertheless, I wanted to experiment with a time-lapse video, so I shot 1,800 photos to create the time-lapse video of the voting center at the cultural center César Brañas. As you can see in some parts of the video, there’s almost nobody; that’s how efficient the voting process was this time. I hope you enjoy the time-lapse video, please, let me know either way.

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The Complex Guatemala’s Presidential Election Scenario

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Guatemalans are complex people. We don’t like simple things; thus whenever we can make the simplest things complex, we do. I am sure that if one could combine Dante’s Inferno and Kafka’s The Trial as a possible scenario, Guatemalans would still think is too simple. Let me explain. Tomorrow Guatemalans have a simple presidential election … Read more

Paying Homage to Photographer Ricardo Mata

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Homenaje a Ricardo Mata by Rudy A. Girón

This morning two photo clubs, Antigua’s and Guatemala’s, got together at Casa Santo Domingo to pay homage to photographer Ricardo Mata who about 54 years ago called on 10 of his colleagues to form the first photo club of Guatemala.

It was a rare opportunity to see members of both photo clubs at one place to share our passion for photography and to pay a tribute to Guatemala’s most prolific photographer and world traveler. He shared with us this morning that he had travel and photographed 94 countries. I regret not procuring a copy of a thorough biographical sketch by writer and long-time friend Carmen Matute of Ricardo Mata. Heck, even Ricardo Mata declared he would love to have a copy of the biographical sketch since he said there were more information there than what he has available in his own archives. Talking about archive, Ricardo Mata’s photo archive is in the millions of images, most of them slides. See the video below to take a peek at his archives.

The Club Fotográfico de Guatemala also held its monthly photo contest and I had the honor to be one of the judges. All in all, it was awesome feel-good event; the kind that you never read about in the news, but happen very often in Guatemala.

Homenaje a Ricardo Mata by Rudy A. Girón Homenaje a Ricardo Mata by Rudy A. Girón

Here’s a video of Ricardo Mata narrating how the funded Guatemala’s first photo club thanks Nelo Mijangos.

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An Apology and Sunshine for Revolution Day

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So, what’s up with the crazy and weird title I hear you asking… well, let me explain. First the sunshine part. After 11 days of continuos rains we were greeted with sunshine and chilly winds on October 20. If Twitter had hyper-local trending topics, then the #climaGT hash tag could had been the trending topic … Read more