Th Guatemalan Spanish word of the day: caña or vara are the words used in Guatemala for reeds. Often one gets to read only the negative news from Guatemala as the mass media is mostly interested in broadcasting the sensationalistic stuff. Not here, not today. Just as often, I try to bring to your the … Read more
Don Alejandro, 78, has four cuerdas [1/6 of block equals 1 cuerda] on communal or municipal land where he grows maize and beans. He works on his milpa or maizal field from April through October. Harvest time is November for the maize and December for the beans. This photo was taken on the outskirts of … Read more
Here’s another photograph of the harvesting of coffee berries in Antigua Guatemala for the #RealGuatemala series. The freshly cut coffee berries being pulled by the tractor to the beneficio so they can undergo the next step in the process of producing one of the best coffees in the world. I have a few questions for … Read more
Alright, we will finish the first part of the Real Guatemala series with portrait of two police officers who were deployed during Semana Santa, Holy Week, to keep everyone “safe.” Only a few times during the year we get the opportunity of seeing so much policías on the streets of Antigua Guatemala, but never as … Read more
The land belongs to those that work it with their own hands. —Emiliano Zapata La tierra es de quien la trabaja con sus manos. —Emiliano Zapata One more addition to the Real Guatemala series. The campesino, the fieldworker, is an ever-stamp in the daily life of Guatemala we see then going to work the fields … Read more
Of course, we can not leave out the albañiles, construction workers, from a series about the Real Guatemala. I don’t know if everyone is building or rebuilding their houses because it seems there are albañiles everywhere you look. Here for instance, we’re looking at the almost finished salón municipal, municipal ballroom, in Ciudad Vieja. Watch … Read more
Of course, these ladies who prepare us our daily tortillas can not be missing in series about the real Guatemala. Here we see the clay comal ready to receive the uncooked corn cakes to be turned into fresh tortillas. Below the comal we can see the fire and the ever present pot with frijoles (black … Read more
Here’s a Guatemalan idiom for your ever-increasing Spanish vocabulary: “zapatero, a tus zapatos” Ne sutor ultra crepidam — “Let the shoemaker venture no further.” Another idiomatic translation might be: cobbler, stick to thy last. Used to critize someone who opines about a subject without knowing it. (source: Wiktionary) What other translation can you offer for … Read more
We continue our series Real Guatemala series with a photograph of a grandmother from Ciudad Vieja buying the eggs and salchichas at la tienda to prepare el desayuno for those going to work or school. Do you know what else would be served at breakfast for the typical Guatemalan home?
These women from Ciudad Vieja are wearing what I would consider the typical dress code for rural Guatemala women, except, of course, for the typical Guatemalan traje or corte worn by indigenous women. Here they are going to their mandados. How do you like the Real Guatemala series thus far?
We continue the Real Guatemala series with some Spanish words for your ever-increasing Spanish vocabulary. First acólitos, that’s the closes translation for acolytes, although the most often used word is quite possibly monaguillos for alta boys. The interesting thing about the photograph is that I see two girls and I thought altar boys were always … Read more
Today we begin a new mini series: The Real Guatemala. Claudia she was bringing back some long lost memories from her dear Guatemala, in her own words, “No helmets, no amber alerts, no Wiis, just a plastic ball or if lucky a real soccer ball, I feel one component that I loved of living down … Read more