Guatemala English language Magazine
Poverty, population, drought and persistent repression The influx of undocumented immigrants into the United States last year reached a 10-year high of more than 115,000 and has already passed that figure this year, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Since the recession, Guatemalans represent the second-largest group of undocumented Latino immigrants after El Salvador, according to the Pew […]
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There were no video cameras, no CNN, Fox Alerts or network news. But one resident eyewitness, Juan Rodríguez, wrote down what he saw and heard. Hurricane Katrina, said to be the worst natural disaster ever to hit the U.S., blasted the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in Aug. 2005. The powerful waters of Hurricane Mitch raced through Guatemala, El […]
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“That flag is a symbol we attach our emotions to, but it isn’t the emotion itself and it isn’t the thing we really care about. Sometimes we don’t even realize what we really care about, because we get so distracted by the symbols.” —Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Though flags represent the values of that country, freedom, vigilance, […]
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With the recent “discovery” of the “El Libro Segundo del Cabildo (1530-1541) de Santiago de Guatemala,” historians lit up with enthusiasm! Guatemala’s historians continue to rewrite the past. With many libraries and collections now available in digital form, we not only have access to more information but word has it that the archbishop of Guatemala has made the church’s archives […]
Read moreThere are many “hidden” mermaids throughout town, can you find them? The most famous mermaids are those on the Fountain of the Mermaids in the Central Park originally built by Diego de Porres in 1739, inspired from the fountain of Neptune in Bologna, Italy. As reported by Dr. Miguel Torres in his recent research on the topic, there are many […]
Read moreSince 1992, much effort has been dedicated to preserving Antigua with an eye toward finding a balance between preservation and economic development. It is sometimes difficult to remember how abandoned the city truly was. After the 1773 earthquake, most residents did not want to move to muddy empty lots in Guatemala City during the rainy season. It took a royal […]
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At the beginning of time, according to ancient Mayan legend, the gods from their center spun out the cosmos, setting in place the universe. The corn god laid out the four corners and erected the World Tree in the center, from whose branches grew one of everything to come. When they became too full, the ‘fruit’ fell, scattering seeds. The […]
Read moreMermaids appear in literature much after the fountain in Central Park was built by Diego de Porres in 1738. While today we might think of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid (1836), the fountain clearly pre-dates the fairytale. In using the Spanish word “sirenas,” we find sirens originally in Greek mythology that are often portrayed in later folklore as mermaid-like […]
Read moreA late bloomer of Latin America written by David Jickling Among Latin American capitals, Guatemala City is a later comer. Most of the major cities of Spanish America were founded in the 16th century, within a hundred years after the arrival of the Spanish. In contrast, Guatemala City was established at the end of the 18th century after the destruction […]
Read moreGuatemala is home to many surprising precedents, for better or worse. Guatemala is the oldest country in the Americas, though not the oldest republic. Civilization, kindled here some 43 centuries ago, is Guatemala’s loftiest precedent. Ancient Guatemalans were the first peoples in the Americas known to engineer a sophisticated water-pressure system. They may have been the first in the world […]
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