Revue Magazine

Pearl

2010-09-07T07:00:19-07:00

Pitaya flower (photo by Thor Janson )

Pearls are scattered across this favored country, ready for your discovery without your needing to bother getting wet or even opening an oyster. Our pearls can be found along roadways, wildflowers of translucent white that bloom most of the year, and in our gardens, from tiny white buttons of blossoms to creamy white roses. Pearls glisten on our cobbled streets as the moon emerges after an evening shower, and as beams from colonial-style street lights twinkle in the evening mist.

Pearls are embroidered as white dot symbols on several different Indian weavings. Pearls shine in the breakers along our beaches, and in the seafoam on the sand as the waves recede. Pearls sparkle on the tall hotels downtown, when seen from the hillsides as room lights turn on. Pearls light the rolling countryside at night when seen from a plane on approach to La Aurora airport, pale strings of lights in villages and along roadways that wind through the mountains.

For visitors from areas that don’t have them, the tiny lights of fireflies in Guatemalan trees seem magical. At sundown, swirls of white herons, returning to their nesting tree after a day harvesting leftover corn kernels in the milpas, can shine like necklaces of fat pearls in the crown of the sky.

We do share with all Earth bright pearls in the nighttime skies. On a clear, moonless night in the Guatemalan Highlands, our evening and morning “stars” of Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and all the constellations are especially lustrous against the velvet night. Come to think of it, the planets almost any night in Guatemala are prettier than any of the oyster pearls in royal crowns, and every one of us commoners can enjoy them.

Wine Connection

2010-09-07T06:00:49-07:00

“Wine is bottled poetry,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. It is the special gift that one brings or the perfect complement to an excellent meal. It’s the extra dash of flavor in a simmering pot of coq au vin or the pot au feu.

Whatever the reason or the season, you can find excellent wine selections in La Antigua Guatemala; many restaurants feature extensive wine lists, as well there are always hidden and not so hidden treasures at Tienda Delicio and Epicure (deli and garden restaurant). Far from a chore, searching out a great bottle of wine in Antigua is a delightful adventure.

This month’s highlight: Ricardo Rueda’s Tabacos y Vinos features an excellent Le Petit Mouton de Mouton Rothschild. Its mid-range wine, and a personal favorite that I hadn’t expected to find is the Coppola Diamond Series from one of Napa Valley’s premier wineries. Champagne? He stocks the very good Laurent-Perriet and the Pommery, two of France’s favorite exports. For the last-minute shopper who needs a chilled bottle of chardonnay, there’s a small refrigerator full of a variety of white wines. The gift bag? It’s included and just tasteful enough, with room for an extra bottle or two.

“Mad Dog Writer” seeks that one special person. Is it you?

2010-09-07T04:55:05-07:00

Sorry girls, but this is not a thousand-word personal ad dressed up as a column. That is bad news for all you babes who cannot resist hairless middle-aged nerds with mismatched socks and a history of unmedicated bipolarity. Instead, I am seeking one special person, not for romantic companionship but to satisfy my curiosity. This individual is not marked by taste in the opposite sex that is bad, but rather by luck in the marketplace that is even worse.

That would be the one person in Guatemala who is never offered discounts (rebajas) when he (or she, but let us assume it is a guy) shops.

By consensus among everyone in Central America with something to sell, this person’s identity is secret. But it ain’t me or anyone who I have been with during my 22 years down here. Reader, if this person is you, please write me and tell me how you acquired this markedness. Your secret will be safe with me, and you will save me some lost sleep.

Probably, though, it is not you. But you still know what I am talking about. Let us say you are in Panajachel (my hometown), although you could as easily be in La Antigua, Ilobasco, or even the row of car-rental agencies near the airport that has its own parking lot.

Now Pana’s Calle Santander is clogged with more típico sellers than you can shake a medium pizza at. So you go there, spot a faja or some other cool item, and ask the price. They tell you, “50 quetzales – 45 con rebaja.”

OK, the good news is that you do not belong to that minority of one who must pay Q50 instead of Q45. Of course, the theory has been advanced that this minority does not really exist, and that such a response to faja-browsing is really a way of saying that prices are negotiable. But I do not believe it for a moment.

I have long hoped to locate the individual who is subjected to this discrimination, because doing so would be a journalistic scoop (or possibly the theme for another lame column). So years ago I queried a British expert on Guatemala, Michael Henshaw.

“Just who,” I asked him, “is the bloke who never gets rebajas?”
Henshaw usually has a quick answer, but this question gave him some pause.
“Anyone with a badge, I suppose,” he speculated.

Well, I will not explore here the significance of the badge. But for some time I have been tempted to test it. Toy badges abound. You can buy Chinese cheapo “Super-Police-Agent-Special” kits with fake pistol, fake handcuffs, and fake badge for Q9.99. See what I mean? There is a built-in discount here, too. That way, when you open the package, and the gun, cuffs and badge begin to disintegrate from exposure to the air, you can say, “whew—I could have spent Q10 for this!”

But, again, I am seeking the guy who, when he brings “Super-Police-Agent-Special” to the cashier, really does have to pay Q10. And, again, that is never me, so I guess that even if I were a little short this month, I could do the experiment thus:

I would visit every place on Santander selling Q50 fajas, and show interest. When they say to me, “Q45 con rebaja” or “berry especial price jass por joo,” I would smile and point to my Chinese-made badge. Then the seller might look at me and say, “pues, Q50!” Then I would know that Henshaw was on to something.

You will be disappointed, reader, to know that I have not carried out this experiment. It smacks too closely of the scene in Take the Money and Run where Woody Allen “threatens” a bank teller by dangling a pistol by the butt (like some new father changing a diaper for the first time) and saying meekly, “uh, I have a gun.” Gringos in Panajachel spend, on average, 59 years in a state of probation to demonstrate our sanity to our Guatemalan neighbors. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, “Better not to don a fake badge and be thought an idiot, than to don one and remove all doubt.”

Admittedly, prices are more negotiable in some places than others. And that opening rebaja certainly flags those places where prices are fluid. Indeed, some visitors to Central America arrive with an appetite to do something that even has its own name in the language: regatear. Among the approximations for this in English are to bargain, to dicker over, whatever. As the son of a car dealer, I learned early in life about the verb, to grind. Literally translated into Spanish, this is molinar. Yet for car salesmen, this had nothing to do with what Sampson did with a millstone after Gazans blinded him.

Grinding was the term applied to the most persistent and intractable of bargainers. After three days in a row of wearing down the salesmen and their managers, exhausting everyone’s patience, the “grinder” was finally (or so it was hoped) ready to sign. But with the pen hovering over the contract, he withdrew and said, “I still think my Pinto with only 79,000 miles is worth another grand in trade.” That, reader, was grinding. Perhaps one of these grinders is the one person destined never to get rebajas. Poetic justice, and all that.

Personally, I do not enjoy regateando. I could wish that everything just had a good price to begin with. But if you enjoy it, more power to you. Your trip may not be complete without it. But never grind. Never forget that the faja was hand-embroidered, and it took a long time to make. The seller may be sufficiently worn down by day’s end just to give it to you—and I do mean give—for the price of a ride home on the chicken bus. But do not go that far.

And if you really are that bloke who never gets rebajas, step forward. Get it off your chest.

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Panajachel to Host the 18th Annual Cycle Messenger World Championships

2010-09-06T19:20:55-07:00

The following cities all have something in common: Sydney, Berlin, London, Toronto, New York, Barcelona, Zurich, San Francisco, Tokyo and Panajachel.

Wait a minute—Panajachel?

The commonality is that all of them, whether world-class metropolis or funky tourist burgs, have hosted, or will host, the prestigious Cycle Messenger World Championships (CMWC). This month, the event comes to Central America for the first time, with Panajachel as its terminus and center of festivities.

The idea of a lap-around-the-lake bicycle race is not new. But back then it was too easy to win the first, second, and third place honors for the very first “Tour de Atitlán” in 1992, since only three contestants registered.

More successful and better attended races followed in ensuing years, but only now has Lake Atitlán appeared on the map of international cycling competition. But this is about much more than a race.
The event is named for the “Messengers,” a global fraternity of cycling competitors and aficionados. According to the CMWC website, Messengers are “friends coming together to embrace in a courier family reunion, and building new friendships for those brave competitors participating for the first time … there is nothing that compares, as far as pinnacle achievements for a professional bicycle Messenger, than to earn the title of World Champion.”

Who pays for all this? Mostly, suppliers of bicycle accessories, one typical sponsor is Trash Bags, a maker of all-weather bicycle totes.

Who benefits? Worthy projects in the community or country hosting the event. Among this year’s beneficiaries is Panajachel’s municipal stadium, which was severely damaged from flooding caused by Hurricane Stan in 2005. Given that the stadium took another hit in May with Tropical Storm Agatha, the CMWC event could not come at a better time.

Panajachel Mayor Gerardo Higueros is understandably jubilant. “We will provide our full support, collaboration and assistance!” he says.

The main race, to be held on September 12, has a special theme: a simulation of a real workday with deliveries and pick-ups organized in a mock city core, where routing and decision making becomes as important as speed and performance.

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Documenting the Rebirth of a Bus

2010-09-06T08:09:36-07:00

La Camioneta is a feature-length documentary about the “afterlife” of American school buses and the people who make it all possible. After 10 years or 150,000 miles on the road, American school buses are often deemed no longer usable and often end up at one of the country’s many used-bus auctions. From there, a sizable percentage of these buses end up in Guatemala, where their life and their appearance are completely transformed. This is the story of the people who risk it all to bring these buses back to life.

Beginning at a used school bus auction in the States and following the bus and its new owner on their 3,000-mile journey to the highlands of Guatemala, La Camioneta documents the entire process of how a school bus is bought, sold, exported, re-equipped and, ultimately, reborn. Through a combination of vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film explores the personal, social and economic realities that fuel the trajectory of a school bus’ life.

Once in Guatemala, drivers rent the vehicles by the day and they get to keep whatever proceeds are left after paying for fuel, protection and a meager salary for a fare collector. The faster you go, the more money you make. However, there’s no governmental oversight to make sure that the subsidized buses are safe, that drivers are charging the standard rate, or that they are even operating on their assigned route. To make things worse, local gangs extort protection money, or la renta, from drivers who pass through their territory.

This is a film about consumerism, transmigration, personal expression, family and faith. It’s a story about life, death and rebirth… on the road.

La Camioneta is Mark Kendall’s graduate-level thesis film for the Social Documentary Film MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

For more information and to watch a trailer for the film, please visit: www.facebook.com/lacamionetafilm or lacamionetafilm.wordpress.com

E=MC2

2010-09-06T07:08:57-07:00

A wise mother bestowed upon her daughter a pearl of wisdom, “You have to find your own equation in life.” The pearl, encased in love and freedom, guided the daughter as she danced through life unencumbered by the equations of others.

The daughter’s mother wasn’t talking about quadratic or cubic equations; she was referring to the human equation. Nevertheless, all equations have basic principles pertaining to life as much as to math. For those of us without a mathematical bent we can head directly to the root of what concerns us.

Equations have four properties that relate to the human condition. First, they are statements asserting the equality of two things; second, identity lies at the core of this state; third, equations are essentially a scale on which questions and problems can be weighed; and fourth, they consist of constants and variables. In simple terms, for us this means balancing the endless variables in life so that the solution is always equivalent to who we truly are.

Solving this master equation is our principal purpose in life. Einstein claimed, “… an equation is forever.” Since we have our entire lifetime to wrestle with it, often it does feel like forever!

We begin life with one constant—our spirit. This essence of who we are is the vital part of our equation. Everything else is a complexity of variables—the wildcards of the unpredictable that are dealt with great regularity. The aim of the exercise isn’t to ward off the variables; instead, it’s to filter them through astutely wise questions. The mastery of our equation depends on the questions we dare to ask ourselves.

Don’t get caught up on the hard numbers. Remember to include imaginary ones in your equation so that you can calculate all kinds of things which cannot be imagined without!

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My Village Lancetillo: A Photo Exhibit From Its Youth

2010-09-06T05:06:44-07:00

Celebrate the vision of young Guatemalans with the photographs taken during Project Einstein. For six weeks of intensive training in Zona Reyna Quiché, more than 70 young Maya-Q’eqchi’s learned photography, video, reporting and journalism to tell stories of their community. All photos were taken by the young people. Funds from the sale of the photographs will be donated to the Institute of Basic Education Lancetillo (IMEBCE). Exhibition is open until Sept. 17. Iglesia Santa Clara, 2a av. norte, La Antigua. You can also visit http://lancetillo.hablaguate.com/

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Guatemala NGO Network: Formerly known as La Antigua Network

2010-09-06T04:55:37-07:00

The intention of the Guatemala NGO Network is to make the site a resource that the world can use to better serve Guatemala and its people.

At a recent meeting held at La Peña de Sol Latino in La Antigua, attendees had the opportunity to hear about the work of, among others, the Reicken Foundation, Children International, Friends of the Deaf/Voces del Silencio, Funcedescri, Asociación Corazones Unidos, NAPA OT Field School and Casa Maríia Geriatric Home.

Co-Chairs Judy Sadlier and Tamalyn Gutierrez, in celebration of the one year anniversary of the web site of La Antigua Guatemala Network, announced the name change to GUATEMALA NGO NETWORK in recognition of the need to collaborate and network throughout the country and the increasingly wider geographic scope of the work of the network participants. In addition they would like to announce the appointment of Joel Arana as the new web administrator.

They encourage all who are interested in learning more about the work of participant NGOs to go to the new web address. NGOs who are interested in joining may do so directly, in either Spanish or English, from the new web address as well: WWW.GUATEMALA-NGOS.NET

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The Jewel in the Crown

2010-09-01T08:00:03-07:00

What started as a blank square in the original drawings, La Antigua’s Parque Central grew and morphed in fits and starts for 467 years to meet the needs of each new generation.

Written by Judy Cohen

My interest in the design of La Antigua’s central park was sparked in the defining moment that I focused on the shape of the planting areas, which are vaguely geometric and, like puzzle pieces, rounded at the edges. There is one puzzle piece on one side of a path and another exactly like it—or close—on the other. If I walk across the path following the straight line of the pavers, the pieces will meet.

Symmetry, they say, is harmonious and beautiful. Dropped randomly, these planting areas would be a chaotic jumble. Instead everything is measured so precisely that the effect of the rounded edges of the curbs, the wavy branches of the trees, together with the curved walkways and walking circle around the fountain, creates a small masterpiece. My first thought was that a renowned landscape architect designed it in one piece, but no—it didn’t happen that way at all.

Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (later renamed La Antigua Guatemala) was founded in 1543. This year lies in the blurry timeline when the late Middle Ages changed into the Age of Discovery. The conquistadors followed hard on the heels of Columbus to the new world, driven by gold fever and the desire to conquer. They earned their name.

Only 51 years had elapsed between the time Columbus landed and the founding of the third Guatemalan capital. The first two sites were abandoned as unsuitable. Early settlers had already learned hard lessons about natural disasters in the new country; earthquakes first, and then floods and mudslides, which destroyed the second capital. They prayed the Panchoy Valley, only a few miles away, would be far enough from volcanoes to keep them out of danger. The new location was flat, beautiful, had plenty of water, lumber, clay for adobe bricks and rich soil.

Juan Bautista Antonelli was the Italian military engineer appointed by the crown to design the new town. He used the grid system with the avenidas north, south and the calles east, west. The town plaza was placed in the center. What we now know informally as Parque Central was founded as the Plaza Mayor, Plaza Real or Plaza de Armas. It started as a blank square on Antonelli’s drawing and grew and morphed in fits and starts for 467 years to meet the needs of each new generation.

The Plaza Mayor was a busier and more exciting place in other centuries than it is now. It was the center of all public activities: entertainment, markets, public events, parades and religious ceremonies. They even staged horse races and bullfights on special occasions. Water was piped in for the horses in 1555, but there was no central fountain until 1738. And: “Every so often a military parade took place, hence ‘Plaza de Armas.’ The ladies would dress in their most flouncy frocks and petticoats, uncaring of the mud that ruined all the hems, and crowd around the Plaza in billowing skirts that echoed the surrounding arches.” —Antigua For Life, Barbara Belcher de Koose, p. 62.

In the only painting of it in the 17th century (1678), we can see the marketplace, which the city fathers had to organize into some kind of order so horses and carriages could get through. Still no formal streets.

In Europe (1400-1800) law and order was established and punishment carried out in public squares. The conquistadors brought this practice to Central America. Hangings, whippings, and the stocks were used to enforce order. Looters were hanged and people whipped for trivial offenses.

The park went through the same ups and downs as the town. If the town suffered earthquakes and floods, the plaza was neglected. In careless times, people broke the fountain, cut off the heads of the original sirenas (mermaids) designed by Diego de Porres in 1738 and threw them on the rubble heap. When the town prospered, the square prospered, too. Needed repair work was done, trees were planted and rubbish removed.

Few cities have fought as hard to stay alive as Antigua. There was an almost continual push by the forces of nature to destroy it. At the same time, dedicated and stubborn people through the ages fought to pull it back from disaster. Despite the optimistic hopes of the first settlers, Santiago (later La Antigua) was not safe from nature’s might. Between 1520 and the end of the 19th century, 50 major eruptions of Fuego occurred. In 1773 a massive earthquake hit and the Spanish king ordered the city evacuated, although it had recovered from a devastating one in 1717 and rebuilt.

Following a major flurry of building called The Golden Age, the 1773 quake destroyed the most beautiful churches, convents, monasteries and private homes in one day.

Afterward the capital was officially moved to Guatemala City, along with all the wealth that could be carried on the backs of Indians or carted away in wagons. As much or more damage, they say, was caused by salvagers as by the earthquake itself. Citizens were threatened with jail if they didn’t leave.

However, the community was never quite abandoned. From being the acknowledged capital of Central America and a bustling, vibrant church-oriented city, it lapsed back as a quiet village again and was renamed La Antigua Guatemala.

When the modern age dawned, the charming, colonial city of Antigua, for the most part, was buried under mud and rubble and forgotten. Not by everyone though. Knowledgeable people knew that a gargantuan job of restoration could restore it. Fortunately, since it was now off the beaten track and in a known earthquake area, Antigua didn’t suffer the same fate as Lima, Peru and Mexico City, where many remaining beautiful colonial homes and artifacts were destroyed to build high rises in the name of progress.

Coffee brought a degree of prosperity to the valley in the late 1800s. Dedicated people realized they also had a treasure in the colonial city lying under a lot of mud and rubbish. They began to dig it out and protect it.

The park went through a major renovation in 1936. The sirenas in the fountain were restored by Oscar González Goyri; the rusted shaft from 1738 was cleaned and restored. Water flowed once more. A series of proclamations came out: In 1940 Antigua was declared a Protected City, which saved many of the beautiful old colonial houses from being torn down. Buildings were limited to two stories.

In 1944 Antigua was protected further when it was declared a National Monument. Modern buildings were barred. However, billboards and neon signs crept in, and other debris of the 20th century littered the narrow streets.

Once more in 1976, a major earthquake struck. It destroyed most of the renovation efforts. Over 20,000 people were killed and a million were left homeless in Guatemala. In Antigua, most of the renovation and digging out was destroyed when the charm of the old city had just begun to emerge. This seemed trivial at the time.

In 1979 UNESCO designated La Antigua as a World Cultural Heritage Site. For the first time, a codified list of do’s and don’ts outlined what renovations could and couldn’t be made and what materials must be used. The neon signs and billboards were removed and overhead wires put underground.

Prosperity didn’t reach everyone. A Civil War, begun in the early 1960s, lasted 36 years. According to historian Elizabeth Bell, tourism in Antigua dropped to almost nothing during this time, and, of course, prosperity lowered for all but a few.

After the Peace Accords were signed in l996, non-profit organizations (NGOs) arrived from all over the world to help Guatemala get back on its feet.

Parque Central was an eyesore after the war according to people who saw it then. Maintenance had been put off for years. The cement benches were cracked and crumbling, and the shaft of the fountain was rusted and broken once more. No water had flowed for eight years. Fallen trees were a hazard and there was dangerous barbed wire which fenced off unsafe areas. Plus only one street lamp worked.

The Spanish schools, which started in the late 60s and 70s, were beginning to come back. Tourists were returning. The city fathers wanted to spruce the city up, and Parque Central was its heart.

Nuestros Ahijados (God’s Children) a local NGO, took on the renovation. Patrick Atkinson, its CEO, had the help and support from the Guatemalan Corps of Engineers and the Mayor of Antigua.

Mr. Atkinson used his own staff of gardeners (some blind) and the older children to dig out approximately 10 inches of topsoil. They had to remove the rubble beneath it, consisting of cement and tile, because the tree roots couldn’t get through and reach the water table.

The topsoil was replaced and wrought-iron green fences put around the planting areas. The fences had little sticks between the chain links to discourage children from swinging on them. They didn’t hurt, but were uncomfortable, also decorative.

Long cement benches—chipped and stained with urine and graffiti—were replaced with smaller ones with wooden slats and green ironwork like the fences. After 2½ years of work, the latest renovation of the park was finished in 2002.

Antigua has survived by serendipity and the tenacity of people who simply refused to abandon a lovely site. Its history reminds me of the story the Phoenix, a mythical bird of antiquity.

1940 photo of Antigua’s central park by Stein (courtesy of CIRMA)

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A Tale of Two Generals

2010-09-01T07:00:56-07:00

Rafael Carrera and Francisco Morazán

As Guatemala was positioning for its independence, these two general-politicians and antagonists might be called the cofounders of modern Central America.

Mix equal parts Washington, Bolivar and Garibaldi, add some Jefferson, a dash of Montesquieu, and a sprinkling of Zapata. Knead well and bake the mixture under the torrid skies of Central America. What do you get? Francisco Morazán.

Today this list of ingredients can be read throughout the isthmus as the legacy of the man who midwifed, and nearly preserved, a great union. Had the United Federation of Central America survived, it would rival Colombia or Argentina in size and influence.

From the doorstep of Chiapas to the Panamanian frontier, boulevards, ports, schools, bridges and even pharmacies all bear Morazán’s name. But who was he, really?
That question is as interesting as the list of enemies who ultimately sank the dream of Central American unity. One of these, Rafael Carrera, fathered the nation-state of Guatemala. Both Morazán and Carrera were gifted generals and self-made men, but they were otherwise opposites.

Carrera, born in Guatemala in 1814 (22 years after Morazán was born in Honduras), never learned to read, nor had to. During his adolescence, he wearied of herding pigs and became a bandit. His unwed mother was said to have been a servant of the aristocratic Aycinena family, among whom Rafael was begotten by a scion. This is unlikely; he was Mayan in appearance and origin, and a coin minted with his true likeness suggests some African ancestry.

The union that Morazán united and that Carrera dissolved was coextensive with the Kingdom of Guatemala, so-called, part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This kingdom never saw its kings, the Spanish monarchs; not one ever visited. The five extant republics of Central America, plus Chiapas, comprised it. In the early 1820s, all six briefly belonged to newly independent Imperial Mexico, which collapsed in 1822.

These republics did not have to fight either Spain or Mexico for their independence. But they did fight each other during the Federation period (1824-1839). Each of the five “states” had its own president, and there was also a federal president. The separation of powers between federal and state presidents would never be resolved.

These republics did not have to fight either Spain or Mexico for their independence. But they did fight each other during the Federation period (1824-1839).

During this period, Morazán was federal president three times, and at other times served as state presidents of El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica. Carrera, as a warlord, emerged as de facto ruler of Guatemala, and, for periods, of Honduras and Nicaragua.

To the extent that the union lasted anytime at all was a testament to the military and diplomatic prowess of Morazán, who consistently put his vision of unity ahead of personal ambition. This was evident in 1831 when he willingly yielded the federal presidency after an electoral defeat. True, he had ruled largely by decree during this first term, and in defeat he received as a consolation prize the Honduras presidency. But his policies were enlightened: He enacted freedom of worship, press and speech, created election tribunals, and built schools for the lower classes.

Morazán’s greatest reform, ironically, militated against the union he sought. This was the emancipation, decades before the United States did so, of the vast slave class. The states now lost much of the glue that bonded them as provinces during the colonial period: an infrastructure of roads and bridges that depended on slaves levied from the latifundios, or great plantations. With the resultant crumbling of trade and communication links, the five states began going their own way, or forming unwieldy daughter federations. At one point, El Salvador and Honduras were joined, while Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica formed another ephemeral union.

Two political parties emerged from the cauldron. Men like Morazán and his friend Mariano Gálvez (a Guatemalan state president whose image adorns the Q20 note) led the Jeffersonian “liberal” faction. Men like Carrera and the criollo general Manuel Arce, the reactionary first president of the Federation, led the “clerical” faction. This latter was an alliance of bishops and wealthy latifundio owners, plus some people of humbler origins who were blood kin to the slaves but suspicious of pluralism and Protestantism.

Carrera was one of these. We do not know if his opposition to union and democracy were driven more by outlook or opportunism, but we do know that he vowed to destroy the union, and, with his charisma and leadership acumen, he would prevail.

At the age of 31, Morazán, a lawyer by training, was named a captain in the federal army. Though he lacked military training, he quickly distinguished himself in the first of many civil wars that would plague the Federation. Soon, he was a general. His serial victories in war opened his doorway to politics, and during the short, unhappy life of the Federation, he plied both; on several occasions he was simultaneously a head of state and a field commander.

At the height of Carrera’s power during the Federation era, he controlled, while still in his early 20s, not only Guatemala as an extra-constitutional strongman, but Nicaragua and most of Honduras. But these latter two states and Costa Rica, balked at both Carrera’s tyranny and unionism, and seceded. Guatemala, governed by the clericals even when liberals held titular power, was perpetually in rebellion. Only El Salvador, the seat of the federal capital, remained faithful to the union.

In effect, Guatemala now had to achieve independence from El Salvador; but unlike the peaceful separations from Spain and Mexico, this phase would be bloody.

Carrera’s mission, to wrest the biggest chunk of the Federation for himself, was now easier than Morazán’s mission, to preserve the union. In effect, Guatemala now had to achieve independence from El Salvador; but unlike the peaceful separations from Spain and Mexico, this phase would be bloody.

One engagement took place in San Andrés Semetabaj, overlooking Lake Atitlán. Morazán was favored, but Carrera outfoxed him by scoping the battlefield terrain beforehand and memorizing it. He routed Morazán, who fled to Guatemala City and regrouped. But even there, Carrera had a trap set for him; the decisive battle took place where the San Juan de Dios Hospital now stands. The tactical genius of the erudite and progressive Morazán had been trumped by that of a former highwayman who could not read.

But Carrera could dictate, and he ordered his scribe to make known that Morazán now carried a price on his head. Morazán fled to Peru, where he was offered, but declined, a generalship in the doomed struggle of Peru and Bolivia against Chile in the Pacific War.

While in exile, and bitter over the secession of Honduras, Morazán began identifying himself as Salvadoran rather than Honduran. El Salvador returned the honor by later recovering Morazán’s remains and erecting a monument to him. Yet both countries would pay him the supreme honor of naming a province in his honor.

In 1842, long after the dissolution of the union, Morazán returned from exile, this time to Costa Rica where he led a coup against Braulio Carillo, the only true dictator in Costa Rica’s history. He was rewarded with the presidency, which he used to lay democratic foundations that remain in place to this day. But within months an old friend betrayed him to a clerical insurrection. Soon he faced a firing squad, which he was given the honor of commanding himself. Morazán was not quite 50.

Carrera lived past 50, but barely. His “Presidency for Life,” stained with despotism and corruption, lasted until 1864, when he was assassinated.

Around 1890, Cuban poet José Martí lionized Morazán as “a powerful genius, a strategist, a speaker, a true statesman, perhaps the only one Central America has ever produced.” Morazán may well have been Central America’s top achiever. But Carrera may qualify as the top overachiever, rivaled only by filibusterers William Walker and Lee Christmas. Like Hitler or Stalin, he was a man of small stature and towering complexes, but one with the spunk to seize the levers of power and strike down all opponents, real and imaginary.

These two general-politicians might be called the cofounders of modern Central America. Antagonists in life, they are united in legacy as a parable of democracy and despotism that defined the region—perhaps even to the present.

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Mayan Royal Tomb Unearthed

2010-09-01T06:30:05-07:00

Front to back: Don Humberto «El Diablo» Amador, followed by his son Jenry, Lic. Edwin Román and Eliceo and Donis Alvarado.  El Diablo, El Zotz, Petén. (photo by Arturo Godoy)

In the dense jungle of Guatemala, in the Petén Basin region which is home to the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, looming pyramids, looted tombs and overgrown paths that once served as Mayan superhighways speak of an era of ancient kingdoms and powerful warring dynasties. It’s easy to die and be forgotten here for thousands of years amid the thick vines, monsoonal rains and teeming vegetation that over time buries temples, jade, textiles, bones — both human and animal — only to resurface again, sometimes 1,600 years later in a place called El Diablo, the devil.

El Diablo — named for the steep climb that feels like punishment from the devil himself — is a pyramid on the outskirts of El Zotz, around 23 kilometers west of Tikal, from where Edwin Román Ramírez, 32, Guatemalan archaeologist and co-director for the bi-national Archaeological Project El Zotz, can stand atop the steep slope and see the pyramids of Tikal in the distance.

“The trek we make every year into the jungle helps us to understand the landscape and how close these two archaeological sites were throughout history. But they were not friends,” Román tells me from an undisclosed city in Guatemala where all the artifacts from the project are stored and classified under constant fears of theft and looting.

The El Zotz Project started in 2006, first mapping and then digging on the periphery of a powerful city like Tikal to determine what happens while living under those conditions. “What we think is going on after some study of the hieroglyphs is that this is some kind of buffer state. It was a kingdom that was

between other more powerful dynasties and elected to ally itself with the enemies of Tikal as far as we can tell,” said project director Stephen Houston, who teaches at Brown University, the institution financing this collaborative project. This year brought in the biggest team yet with 80 to 90 laborers and at least 20 archaeologists — half Guatemalan and half foreigners as legally stipulated for bi-national projects — into the remote jungle for some three months.

They didn’t get far into their season when they made their greatest discovery: a burial chamber that they believe is the tomb of King Chak’ Ahk, one of the first kings of a Mayan dynasty to settle in El Zotz. The tomb was found on May 28 at the base of El Diablo where they, particularly Román, had been tunneling this pyramid, which was 40 percent collapsed and looked like Swiss cheese because of all the looting. The tomb was about nine feet deep and four and half feet high and sealed with alternating layers of mud and rock, which helped keep it airtight for well over 1,600 years.

The process of finding the tomb involved first discovering the elaborate stucco masks that had been painted red and then digging through a looter’s tunnel, which the team began to clean out. “Working in tunnels is one of the most dangerous jobs that exists. You can only see the width of the tunnel, in this case one meter, everything else is your imagination,” Román said.

Once inside they found a small building in front of this great temple which had effigies of what appeared to be the Sun God and then a smaller enclosed building which, through digging deeper, they soon discovered had caches of vessels or ceramics that contained human body parts as a sacrificial or ritual offering.

“Under that we began to uncover row after row, layer after layer of stones, and it did seem to have increasingly the feeling of a bank vault, almost as if someone had been concerned about security in this fairly unstable political zone and for the protection of whatever lay underneath,” Houston said.

One after the other, they discovered more of these caches containing body parts, fingers, often surrounded by areas of red that probably corresponded to the decayed flesh of the fingers themselves. There were teeth. In one of the vessels they found an incinerated, partly cremated baby.

“There was a lot of misery that went into encasing this tomb’s magical and protective circuit,” Houston said.

After a week or so of this very labor-intensive archaeology they reached the same level as the base of the tomb.

They carefully shaved away at the wall and slowly lowered a light bulb into the tomb. Suddenly, there was a pinprick of light reflecting inches, if not centimeters or millimeters, from the tomb itself.

“When I started going down it was spectacular to see all dark, dark, dark, and then when the light bulb was lowered all the light that projected those colors below — green, pink, red, black, brown. Then to see this chamber was spectacular,” said Román, carefully brushing sand off one of the pots found in the tomb.

I found him and Sarah Newman who was working with Román on the tomb site, in the afterglow of their find, cleaning up artifacts in a laboratory that resembled a dorm-room setting.

They would then carry all these artifacts to a small, windowless room, which had shelves up to the ceiling filled with labeled plastic bags containing more artifacts.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh my God!’” Newman said, almost giggling, joking that it was downhill from here in her professional career. “My second thought was, ‘What are we going to do with all of this?’ There were many things that as archaeologists we just don’t know how to deal with.”

When they opened up the tomb there was the chill of almost semi-refrigeration as if the layers of riverbed, swamp mud and stone had served to protect the tomb. Once they opened it the rotting began again and both Houston and Román remembered a distinctive rotting smell of putrefication inside. Time had been suspended for 1,600 years until now. There was an urgency to things now.
“Royal tombs are found very seldom in any part of the world. So that when the tomb of the pharaohs is discovered it’s something that revolutionizes Egyptology… A royal tomb is a quantum leap beyond any kind of grave,” said Houston.

It also sets a milestone for the recent field of archaeology in Guatemala, which dates back 30 years to Juan Pedro Laporte, who created the field at the School of History at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC); he passed away this year. There are now around 140 graduates in the field of archaeology from both Universidad del Valle and USAC.

Finding the tomb also has a personal significance for Román — a way of doing politics in his life that involves working and studying his ancestors and “studying the past in order to give it to fellow Guatemalans and say, ‘Look how great our past was, imagine what our future can be if we work together.’ For that reason I will always come back to Guatemala, to share what little I know with the younger generation.”

Photos by Arturo Godoy

T.E.S.S. Unlimited

2010-09-01T00:11:14-07:00

Making a difference
Tessa de Goede is a 27-year-old Dutch woman who came to Guatemala three years ago. After doing volunteer work in several countries she found out that helping children with cleft lips was the work that touched her the most. “It’s just a feeling I have inside when I see a baby with a cleft lip. I just need to help.” In La Antigua she started working in the hospital as a volunteer. Seven days a week she helped the nurses and took care of the babies. She realized that, if she really wanted to make a difference and help the babies with cleft lips, she had to win the trust of the nurses and doctors. For them, of course, she was in the beginning just a “volunteer.” But time passed by and Tessa kept working and showing her willingness. After a year of volunteering in the hospital she knew a lot of people, found out how things worked and saw the difference she could make. Just a year after she stepped into the hospital she started her own foundation: T.E.S.S. Unlimited.

From one thing to another
With her foundation she raised money and paid for surgery of babies with cleft lips. She also found out that a lot of children can’t get surgery because they are underfed, as the deformity makes it difficult for them to breast-feed. And so she started the milk project: giving milk to underfed children to help them gain weight. Meanwhile, she started giving English lessons at a primary school in Santa Catarina and asking volunteers for their help.

Centro Educativo T.E.S.S.
Nowadays T.E.S.S. Unlimited is helping people in the fields of cleft lips and education and is offering volunteers the opportunity to add value to people’s lives. By opening her own education center in San Gaspar (a little village 10 minutes from Antigua), Tessa is able to provide education five days a week. “The classes have a maximum of 12 children, so we really can add quality,” Tessa explains. Guatemalan teachers help children with lessons and homework four days a week. Volunteers from several countries take care of English classes, and on Wednesdays they come up with fun ideas for creative projects, such as making candles, creating fruit smoothies and singing songs.

For the adults there are three special programs at the moment: English, sex education and tae-bo. “It’s amazing to see how volunteers come up with their own ideas and are getting people involved,” Tessa says. She is happy with all the help she is getting. Even though she already has achieved a lot in a short amount of time, she still has dreams for the future. “One day I hope to have my own cleft-lip center, specializing in the help and surgery of children with cleft lips.” Tessa is a shining example of one person making a huge difference!

If you are interested in volunteering for T.E.S.S. Unlimited visit the website www.tessunlimited.nl or send an e-mail to: info@tessunlimited.nl

Who signed Guatemala’s Declaration of Independence?

2010-08-31T23:30:56-07:00

In reviewing my ancestry, I found that my great-great-great-great-great grandfather, John Witherspoon (New Jersey), signed the Declaration of Independence of the United States. Perhaps that is why I became more interested in who signed the Declaration of Independence of Guatemala on September 15, 1821.

The 18th century brought rising commerce and an emerging merchant community in Guatemala. The Free Trade Act of 1778 authorized new merchant guides (consulados de comercio) with their own courts. These later became the principal builders of roads, bridges and ports until 1871. The Crown-appointed superintendents for Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Chiapas, and Guatemala remained under the direct administration of the Captain General in the capital. The 1773 earthquake, which triggered moving the capital from what is now La Antigua Guatemala to Guatemala City, also had its economic and political consequences, not to mention the changes in the cochineal market, causing financial hardship. Other changes came with the Economic Society (Sociedad Económica) of Guatemala. Founded in 1795, it promoted “ways to improve the economy, the arts, education, and industry. It supported the new newspaper, Gazeta de Guatemala, and sponsored classes in political economy.” (See A Short History of Guatemala by Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr.)

The 19th century brought more change. The promulgation of the Constitution of 1812 by the Cortes of Cádiz restored the Economic Society and created three legislative councils: Guatemala, León (Nicaragua) and Ciudad Real (Chiapas). New 1816 taxes imposed by Spain—after heavy rains —were not welcomed. By 1820, free trade became a leading issue.

By now, the Spanish Empire was no longer as powerful and Britain had become a major economic influence. Leaders emerged but as Woodward states well, “the tendency of the Guatemalan elite not to directly run for elected office, but instead to work through middle-sector politicians was a tendency that would only grow stronger over the next two centuries.”

In March 1821, Brigadier Gabino Gainza arrived from Chile and assumed temporary command. Mexico’s Agustín de Iturbide’s Plan de Iguala had been implemented and many feared a civil war.

On Sept. 14, 1821, Brigadier Gainza hastily called for a meeting. The following morning, representatives from the government, City Hall, Catholic Church, University of San Carlos, Commerce Council, Law Board and other groups were invited to meet at 8 a.m. at the National Palace (now located where the Parque Centenario is in zone 1). They approved the Declaration of Independence, but the vote was 23 to 7.

The Fathers of the Guatemala Independence are called “Próceres de la Independencia.” They were Mario de Beltranena, Mario Calderón, José Matías Delgado, Manuel Antonio de Molina, Mariano de Larrave, Antonio de Rivera, J. Antonio Larrave, Isidro del Valle y Castriciones, Mariano de Aycinena, Pedro de Arroyave, Lorenzo de Romaña, Domingo Diéguez, José Cecilio del Valle, Pedro Molina and Brigadier Gabino Gainza. Alas, María Dolores Bedoya was the first to shout “independence” after the declaration was signed.

Brigadier Gainza continued as chief executive and governed until June 23, 1822. Guatemala was annexed to Mexico on Jan. 5, 1822, but great opposition emerged and three comandancias were created: Ciudad Real (Chiapas and Los Altos), Guatemala (Guatemala and El Salvador) and León (Honduras, Nicargaua and Costa Rica).

The first Congress met on June 14, 1823, and the annexation to Mexico was deemed null. After further discussion, the Declaration of Independence was formally approved on July 1, 1823, and Dr. Pedro Molina became the President of the Junta del Supremo Poder Ejecutivo. The abdication of Iturbide in March 1823 led to a declaration of absolute Central American independence on July 1, 1823 and the provisional junta with little authority took over.

September 2010 in Revue Magazine

2010-08-31T23:00:29-07:00

One of the treasures recently uncovered at El Diablo (photo by ArturoGodoy.com)

The tomb was found on May 28 of this year. Co-director for the bi-national Archaeological Project El Zotz, Edwin Román Ramírez, believes it is the burial chamber of King Chak’ Ahk, one of the first kings of a Mayan dynasty to settle in El Zotz. The tomb contained caches of elaborate stucco masks and ceramic vessels as well as 1,600-year-old body parts.

Writer Kara Andrade gives us the inside story of this rare and important discovery, with some excellent images from on-site photographer Arturo Godoy. Godoy’s photograph on the cover is the head of a lidded fragmented vessel that has been nicknamed the “Dragon Head.”

September 15 is Guatemala’s Independence Day, and we offer two articles on this subject. Elizabeth Bell and Dwight Wayne Coop cover different angles of the history of Guatemala’s struggle for freedom.

Judy Cohen brings us the backstory of La Antigua’s Parque Central. From a blank square on the original town drawings 467 years ago to today’s recently refurbished make over, the park has been through a series of changes.

Panajachel is hosting the 18th annual Cycle Messenger World Championships, which is a pretty big deal, and the whole scoop is on page 92.

There is plenty more to read and see inside this issue, including some great cultural events listed in DateBook.

We hope your September is filled with fun adventures and we wish Guatemala a very Happy Birthday!

—John & Terry Kovick Biskovich

A Cure for Cobblestones

2010-08-25T04:55:54-07:00

Transitions creates 10 years of mobility in Antigua

Transitions Foundation, an Antigua-based organization dedicated to supporting and empowering Guatemalans with disabilities, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its wheelchair workshop. The workshop offers employment opportunities, currently to nine people with disabilities, and produces affordable and custom-tailored wheelchairs and mobility devices for those in need.

History
The workshop was rented from Raphael Alvarez in 1997 as a dream that was made a reality two years later by a group of Canadian Rotarians, carpenters, electricians and craftsmen. A Rotary International matching grant provided the funding in 2000 for technical training by Whirlwind Wheelchair International and San Francisco State University and for the purchase of the tools and equipment. Full-scale production began later that year and in 2010 Transitions is on target to make 200 chairs. More than 40 people, the majority of whom are Guatemalans with disabilities, have been trained in the workshop over its 10-year history, helping thousands of clients to achieve mobility and independent lifestyles.

Visiting friends
Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are tapping into the workshop’s experience in production and innovation this summer to perfect and construct the internationally recognized Leveraged Freedom Wheelchair design. In August 30 chairs will be produced for local trials, making Antigua the incubator of groundbreaking innovation. Transitions is also hosting a student from Stanford University who is researching prosthetics in resource-scarce countries. The Transitions Prosthetics and Orthotics Clinic is a blossoming program that changed the lives of 36 patients in 2009.

Our needs
The organization’s North American founder, John Bell, retired in March 2010, leaving the management in very capable Guatemalan hands. A $50,000 fundraising initiative was launched in April to usher the foundation through the transitional phase. To date $40,000 has been raised with high hopes of reaching the goal in August and providing stability moving forward.

Tours and Volunteering
Individuals and groups are encouraged to contact Transitions for more information about the wheelchair workshop tour schedule and weekly English Night activities. English Night offers local Guatemalans with disabilities the chance to practice their language skills and gain a cross-cultural perspective. It is also a great opportunity for Spanish students to wrap their mind around the vos form and other modismos.

Contact
For more information about Transitions, please visit www.transitionsfoundation.org or contact Andy at communications@transitionsfoundation.org

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