I know that to keep abundant richly verdant mountains in Guatemala we have to have a 6-month rainy season. But, enough is enough, ya basta; we don’t need to have a full week of constant rains. Too much rain is not good for Guatemala either since too much rain breaks the country’s infrastructure, people’s lives are at risk with so many landslides, overflowing rivers and the collapsing of some bridges.
Just take a look at the report about the state of roads in Guatemala by PROVIAL at 6am. PROVIAL, short for Protección y Seguridad Vial (Road Protection and Safety), is part of the Ministerio de Comunicaciones, Infraestructura y Vivienda (CIV) or Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing. You can request information about the state of any given road in Guatemala or follow the punctual updates by @Provial in Twitter or by dialing 1520.
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.
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”.
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.
Guatemala’s largest photo festival Foto▸30 is a coordinated effort to have 30 days, the full month of September, dedicated to photography exhibits. As in previous years, Foto▸30 has a central theme, Nation for 2011. The photos shown here are for the set up of A 2 Caras photo exhibit at El Sitio Cultural. This year … Read more
I don’t know if it was my imagination, but I saw a lot more people in this election than in the elections four years ago.
A finger marked with indelible ink is the proof you have voted in the Guatemalan General Elections. Above a marked finger in front of one of the voting centers in La Antigua Guatemala where elections progressed in a calm and quiet family atmosphere. It almost felt like a civic party.
The voting process was very similar to the General Elections of 2007, except for the fact that most people voted with the new counterfeit-proof new national identification card known as DPI and a few variations in the procedure. People were pointed to their voting centers by slips the were mailed a few weeks ago with the voting information or by visiting one of citizens’ registration booths made available by the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (Electoral Supreme Tribunal). At the voting centers, people were oriented by the posters with table numbers and voting registration number (número de empadronamiento in Spanish). Once the voters had the right table, they walked to the queue and waited for their voting turn. At their turn, they approached the table where they had to show their DPI or cédulas (old identification booklet). Their voting registration number was checked against the voting lists provided by Tribunal Supremo Electoral. If all checked correctly, voters were given five ballots: One for municipal mayorships, another for regional congress seats, another national congress seats, one more for Central American parliament and the last one for president and vice-president. With the five ballots and a crayon, voters walked to the voting booth and marked their election and walked back to the voting table to deposit their ballots in the urnas (ballot transparent bags). After that, DPI or cédula IDs were given back and their index finger marked with indelible ink. Basically, this was the voting process in Guatemala for 2011.
Children were also given the opportunity to simulate the election process by voting for president and vice-president. The children’s election process mimicked the adult voting process with similar ballot and erasable purple ink. Children between 5 and 17 years of age could participate. Children voting centers were located at different locations throughout La Antigua Guatemala.
I prepared a Flickr Slideshow of the Guatemalan Elections 2011 with keyframes showing the election process described above.
Please, let me know what you think of it and if you believe I have done my job at giving you a feeling for the election process in La Antigua Guatemala. I will be waiting for your feedback.
One more thing; I also grabbed a Storify chronicle of the elections prepared by selecting from the vast amounts of Twitter updates using one of the following hash tags: #EleccionesGT and #eVoto. Enjoy!
The Political Parties Electoral law in Guatemala forbids the sale of alcoholic drinks the day before and the day after of the general elections, which happens to be tomorrow, September 11. La Bodegona, Antigua Guatemala’s largest supermarket, decided to cover up the entire alcoholic beverages section, including the giant display promotional materials as seen in … Read more
INGUAT, Guatemala’s Tourism Board, has recently began promoting Guatemala to Guatemalans. Yes, believe or not, it looks like INGUAT’s campaign of Turismo Interno (internal tourism) is aimed at Guatemalans by offering economic tour packages. I just hope this is not what INGUAT is using as transportation. 😉
As the national general elections are getting closer the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE, Supreme Electoral Tribunal) is making every effort to speed up the election process, this include helping the voters know where they’re supposed to vote and providing printed slips with the address and instructions on what things are needed to vote. This TSE … Read more
I can’t wait for September 11 to arrive and not because it’s my birthday, but because that’s when Guatemala will hold general elections for President, Vice President, Congress and Mayors through out all Guatemalan Municipalities. This means that after that we can finally get rid of all the political propaganda causing all kinds of visual … Read more
I am a lucky guy! As I shared with you before, I am so lucky to have among my friends and acquaintances, movers and shakers of the Guatemalan society. Last year I introduced to Christian Van Der Henst, @cvander as his world-famously known, a Guatemalan who fourteen years ago decided to create a website, a … Read more
The Sunday prior to July 25 (Saint James Day) is the date for the Medio Maratón Las Rosas and in 2011 that was today. Once again, my dear friend Nelo provided the background information and photos which I believe were taken with his camera by a friend of his. Anyway, one thing I haven’t mentioned … Read more
As every year, there’s a book fair as part of the festivities of Santiago, Saint James, La Antigua Guatemala’s patron saint. As you might already know, Santiago de Guatemala was the former name of La Antigua Guatemala and thus Saint James has been the patron since the funding of the city in July 25, 1524 … Read more
Exactly one week ago, a few meters from where this photo was taken, two young women were waiting for the bus when a speeding truck lost control and crashed into them, killing them instantly. Their names were Aleyda (19) and Anita (20); both the most recent victims of negligence. Friends who live in Santa Inés, … Read more
The rainy season in Guatemala often plays bad jokes on planned events like weddings and cultural activities. Imagine the cultural event planner taken care of every little detail to have a successful activity outside, maybe at Ermita de la Santa Cruz or at the atrium of the Antigua Compañía de Jesús like in this case … Read more
RENAP stands for Registro Nacional de las Personas or National Registry of Persons. RENAP is the government institution in charge of replacing the old Guatemalan identification card known as Cédula for the new Guatemalan identification card goes by the name of Documento Personal de Identificación, DPI for short. The DPI is a plastic card, similar … Read more
