Lake Atitlan, Disney World, and ¨Gringotenango¨

On Wednesday morning Sister Sandra, Father Chepe and I left Ciudad Quetzal to go be tourists for a day or two. It was fun.

On the drive, we stopped at a small touristy (yet very charming) breakfast joint where the waiters said ¨Good morning¨ before ¨Buenos Dias.¨ I had waffles.

We drove through some mountainous territory to the west of the capital. After a few hours in the car, Lake Atitlan appeared on the horizon. A good many guidebooks call Atitlan ¨the most beautiful lake in the world.¨ That´s no exageration. It´s incredible.

We spent the afternoon walking around, enjoying the views, taking pictures, and buying ¨típica,¨ in the town of Panajachel. The guidebooks are right about Panajachel; it has got it all - volcanoes, a gorgeous lake, nice restaurants, pretty German tourists... After almost 3 weeks in Ciudad Quetzal, Panajachel seemed almost Disney-esque. However, just as a short drive into the suburban hell of Orlando dispells any illusions one has about the ¨Magic¨ of the ¨Magic Kingdom,¨ a short stroll away from the trendy storefronts and classy restaurants of Panajachel quickly reminds one of the reality of the country they´re in. Even on the shores of the world´s most beautiful lake, poverty, inequality, racism and violence rear their ugly heads.
We spent the night in Panajachel and drove to Chichicastenango the next morning. Thursdays and Sundays are market days in Chichi, bringing in both the local crowd to buy corn, fruit, and veggies, as well as a large handful of foreigners looking to get good deals on shirts, bags, statues, etc. I spent the morning parousing the vendors´ goods and even made a purchase or two. Although its reputation as a tourist town has earned Chichicastenango the nickname ¨Gringocastenango,¨ the people there have, by and large, been able to hold on to their customs and traditions. Even the men still wear traditional clothes (only the women do in Ciudad Quetzal), and, except for those soliciting a sale (¨Pase adelante señor¨) I heard only quiché spoken.

On the drive back to Cd. Quetzal this afternoon we talked about Guatemala´s most commonly-discussed themes: politics, religion, and soccer. Vive la France!

Menchú, the embassy, etc.

I finished reading ¨I, Rigoberta Menchú¨ last week. It´s the testimony of a young Guatemalan Indian, Rigoberta Menchú, as recorded and written by anthropoligst Elisabeth Burgos-Debray in 1982. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0860917886/sr=8-1/qid=1151623324/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-3411710-9872132?ie=UTF8)

I then read ¨Rigoberta Menchú and the story of all poor Guatemalans¨ by David Stoll. It´s a sort of exposé of Menchú´s book, and deals a lot with how international solidarity groups have made an icon out of Menchú. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813336945/qid=1151623432/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-3411710-9872132?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

In 1980, Rigoberta´s father, Vicente Menchú, was part of a demonstration in which nearly 40 protesters (students, activists, Mayan farmworkers) entered the Spanish embassy in order to gain international attention. Despite pleas from the Spanish ambassador not to enter, the Guatemalan police/army broke down the gate (and in doing so, broke international law) and cornered all the protesters in the ambassador´s office. There, a fire broke out, killing 36 (including Menchú) and leaving only two survivors: the Spanish ambassador himself, as well as a badly burned Mayan protester. That night at the hospital, heavily-armed men abducted the sole Mayan survivor, and his body later showed up on the campus of San Carlos University with a note saying that the ambassador could face the same fate.

Naturally, Rigoberta was on my mind when I rode in the back of a pickup to the capital for a rally/vigil. The vigil was to commemorate the martyrs of the 1980 massacre. The rally was to get the attention of a judge from Spain visiting to investigate Guatemalan military leaders being charged with ¨genocide.¨ It was a small gathering... Mayan women performing a memorial cermony, college students singing songs, activists presenting photos of Guatemala´s ¨dissappeared.¨ Just as things seemed to be settling down, Rigoberta Menchú herself (along with two bodyguards) showed up, She gave a short speech in Quiché and Spanish, before taking part in the memorial ceremony with the other women. It was an exciting evening... it´s not often one gets to ride in the back of a pickup truck with 9 others just minutes after seeing a Nobel winner.

Deportes

It´s been a fun week. I went camping on Thursday and Friday with some youth from the Instituto. On Friday afternoon, Luis Garcia and I went to the indigenous community of Chillani to teach basketball and football to some of the youth there. Luis and I, under Chepe´s leadership, will be going to Chillani every Tuesday and Friday for a couple of hours to teach/play sports.

A quick note on basketball in Guatemala: Although I´ve earned a sweet nickname (¨El Gigante¨) I can´t claim to have much improved my basketball game since having come to Guatemala. I have, however, learned a bunch of cool new moves. For example, for moving the ball around the court, Guatemalans are very fond of the ¨two-hand-dribble.¨ Or, if that´s too hard, the ¨don´t-dribble-at-all.¨ For passing to a teammate, the ¨roll-the-baskteball-as-if-you-were-bowling¨ is second only to the very popular ¨drop-the-ball-and-kick-it.¨ My favorite move has to be the ¨turn-around-and-throw-the-ball-over-your-head-backwards.¨ The big advantage of this move is that if you miss the basket, it´s okay, because you´re facing the other direction and won´t know anyway.

I took the above picture yesterday after mass in another community, San Juaneritos. It was their dia patronal (Saint John) and the entire community showed up for mass and a neighborhood party. Father Chepe gave mass, and a community member translated what he said into an indigenous language whose name I can´t remember right now.

Assuming the bugs living in my stomach die soon, I´ll be going to Antigua and Atitlan early this week to get a feel for the country outside of the San Juan Sacatepequez area.

Oscar Duarte

Oscar Duarte
Vivo se lo llevaron (He was taken alive)
Vivo lo queremos (We want him alive)

Oscar Duarte is a social leader and activist who has lived in Ciudad Quetzal for 18 years. He has a wife and six children. He is a school principal and a board member of ASSIDECQ, a community development group whose projects range from water amelioration to the construction of health clinics and schools.

Less than a month ago, Oscar was abducted by a group of heavily-armed masked men in an unlicensed car. Since then, his status and whereabouts are unkown. The local community has taken great measures to try to find Oscar, but local and national authorities have shown a great deal of indifference regarding the matter. For this reason, the Guatemala Community Network is calling for international support in this case. Please visit

http://www.gcnetwork.ca/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=66.

http://www2.amnesty.se/uaonnet.nsf/senastezope/41B2A1EE3E2F9ED9C125718D00296EC5?opendocument

Write to your elected representatives and those in the Guatemalan government and tell them that they must denounce these acts of violence and terrorism.

Director General de la Policía Nacional Civil Edwin Johann Spirisen 10ª calle 13-92 zona 1 Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA Fax: +502 2251 9382 Tratamiento: Estimado Director General

Fiscal General de la República y jefe del Ministerio Público Juan Luis Florido 15 avenida y 15 calle “A”, Zona 1, barrio Gerona, Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA Fax: + 502 2251 2218 Tratamiento: Estimado Fiscal General

Digamos NO a la violencia

It´s Been a fun last couple of days. On Friday night, I watched a documentary on Ernesto ¨El Che¨Guevara at the nuns´ house, and talked politics afterwards with Sisters Irene and Consolacion.

I spent yesterday morning helping some students clean up ¨Parque San Juaneros¨to prepare for today´s anti-violence rally. In the afternoon I went to the capital with Chepe and was a tourist for a couple of hours. In the evening, a ¨Casas Interculturales¨ meeting was held at my house. It started at 5:00PM, and lasted until after 10 (one guy slept over, because it was too late to safely return home). I´ve been here 8 days, and have been to at least one meeting every day. Guatemala: El Pais de las Reuniones (The Country of Many Meetings).

The big ¨Ronda Por La Vida - Ciudad Quetzal Sin Violencia¨ rally is today. At about 9 AM, two huge groups of drum-banging, whistle-blowing middle school-aged kids converged in Plaza La Quetzal to march together to San Juaneros for the festival. There, they´ve been dancing, reciting poetry, painting, singing, acting, etc. all day, and things won´t settle down until about 8 this evening. I´d write more, but I want to get back to San Juaneros and eat some more tostadas.

Alla hay...

Nothing too exciting to report in the last couple days. I´ve been helping Luis organize some activities in La Economica, and working at the school. In the evenings, I´ve been going with Hermana Consolacion (the Mexican nun) to different meetings. This weekend I´ll be busy helping Padre Chepe and Luis prepare for Sunday´s big anti-violence rally in San Juaneros (a nearby neighborhood). When I tell people I´m from the United States, I generally get one of three different reactions: 1) They frown* (see below) and so ¨ooooohhhhh...¨ 2) They smile and say ¨ooooohhhhh...¨ 3) They tell me that they have a cousin who has a washing machine (this has actually happened on two seperate occasions). Speaking of washing machines... here, I don´t have one. My first attempt at washing my own clothes (see above picture) resulted in somewhat soapy underwear, but I have since much improved my technique. *There is a lot of ´anti-american´sentiment in Guatemala, and it has its reasons. From 1944 to 1954, Guatemala prospered under democratically elected presidents Arévalo and Árbenz in what is known as the ¨Golden Decade¨. Unlike in previous times, these years were characterized by a focus on domestic and popular social initiatives (like land reform). In 1954, Árbenz´s government was overthrown by a CIA-supported proxy army, plunging the country into what would become a very bloody 40-year civil war. The memory of this ¨intervention¨is fresh in the minds of many Guatemalans, particularly those who lost family members at the hands of (U.S.-funded) military and paramilitary forces in the 70s and 80s.

¨El Norte¨

A couple months ago my friend Will and I watched the film ¨El Norte,¨for a Spanish class we were taking. It´s about a pair of indigenous Guatemalans who flee to the United States to escape violence. The film was entertaining and interesting, but we both commented on it´s ¨inauthenticity.¨ That is, we thought the film exagerated the poverty, the violence, and the traditional ways of indigenous people in Guatemala. We were wrong.

The poverty here is real. There are homeless and hungry children, and 40% of the population is unemployed.

The violence was (and still is) very real. Police carry shotguns. Father Chepe says he knew over 100 people who ¨disappeared¨during the war. Doors are made of metal, windows are covered in bars, and people don´t go out at night.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of my visit so far has been my interactions with indigenous people. Over 40% of the country consider themselves indigenous, and much more in this area. The women wear very traditional dress, and many speak non-Spanish languages. Tortillas are made by hand, as is just about everything else. Tragically, there is a pretty direct correlation between ethnicity and wealth. As in many other countries, whites (the descendants of the colonists) are at the top and the indigenous are at the bottom, struggling to get buy on the leftovers of the wealthy.

In response to the massive inequality here, the church has taken a central role in the effort to initate social change. The parish organizes studies, workshops, festivals, meetings, etc. all aimed at ¨realizando el reino de Dios¨- bringing about the kingdom of God. To Chepe, the nuns, and the parishoners, this means ending poverty, stopping violence, and eliminating all sorts of injustice. This is difficult, of course, in a situation with so many obstacles. The government is generally uncooperative, people are divided religiously (about half the country is evangelical, the other half is Catholic), and many of the initiatives taken by the parish go directly against the interests of the powers that be.

todavia estoy vivo

Hola amigos!
I´ve now been in Guatemala a good 80s hours. I spent Saturday meeting new people, and getting accustomed to the new settings. Sunday morning I went to a community anti-violence meeting as well as an evening mass in a small church that belongs to the parish. Monday, Luis Garcia (a community youth leader I´ll be working with a lot this summer) and I spent all morning putting up posters for an anti-violence festival that is going to happen this weekend. This morning, I spent 5 hours helping teach english at the Instituto.

Violence is a big problem here. The 40 year Civil War is over (peace accords were signed in 1996), but muggings, gang-warfare, etc. has gone through the roof. Ciudad Quetzal is particularly bad... whenever I tell someone I´m living there they say ¨be careful.¨ Since January, there have been an average of 20 reported assaults per day on area buses.

In response to this violence, there is a lot of grassroots community organizing. Luis is working with several different schools, organizing ¨encuentros culturales,¨where kids get together to play soccer and chess and make crafts. Luis´friend Polo takes care of a church park called ¨La Economica,¨where young people can come play basketball or soccer for 1 quetzal per group (about 12 cents).

Yesterday Chepe brought me and two nuns to a ¨encuentro espiritual,¨in the community of San Juan, in downtown Guatemala City. There, they gave a talk in response to the criticism that ¨comunidades eclesiasticas de base,¨are good at social and political organization but lack spirituality. ¨For a proof of our spirituality,¨said Chepe to a very receptive audience, ¨you need not look further than the martyrs (referring to the 1000s of Guatemalans who were killed during the war for being politically active).¨

I think I´m the tallest person in Guatemala right now. And for some reason, being tall is hilarious to Guatemalans. Young people in particular can´t help but laugh when they see me. I´m glad that I´m providing entertainment, and for the time being I´m enjoying my role as Goliath. The only question I´m asked more often than ¨What´s your name?¨is ¨Do you play basketball?¨ Oh, if only they could meet Eric Keen...

The picture to the left is taken about 50 meters from the house I´m staying in. The Instituto is up on the mountain, and the house is on a side street to the right.

In Guatemala

I made it safely to Ciudad Quetzal, and have had a great last 12 hours. Father Chepe met me at the airport and we spent the day visiting some of the sites I´ll be working at this summer (El Instituto, a couple of churches, etc.).

Across the street live a group of nuns from Italy, Ecuador, and Mexico. They´re great. The first question one of them asked me when I arrived was ¨Have you heard of Oscar Romero?¨ The second question: ¨Have you heard of Che Guevara?¨ When I said yes, the response I got was ¨Well, what are we supposed to do? You´re already a revolutionary.¨

At La Economica chruch, I attended a meeting of some Mormon and Catholic leaders trying to organize a cooperative anti-violence mural for the area´s youth. The Mormon challenged me to a basketball game. He was beating me so badly after ten minutes that he allowed me a teammate. I still lost 21-4 (all four points were scored by my friend Luis).

Once I get the hang of the whole internet-in-other-countries thing, I´ll try and upload some photos. In the meantime, I´m going back to the house to eat more bananas.

In Sewanee

I'm leaving tommorow for Guatemala, though I won't arrive until Saturday thanks to a 9.5 hour layover in Chicago. I've spent the last week in Sewanee with 15 other students from around the country who are also doing Lilly internships this summer. We've been busy listening to speakers (John Dear S.J., Rev. Becca Stevens, some Sewanee theologs, etc.), having small discussion groups on things like "vocation," and "personal boundaries," going to twice-daily prayer services, and playing Trivial Pursuit 90s Edition, which happens to be the most difficult game ever invented.

http://www.sewanee.edu/lillyproj/lsdi.html
http://www.trivialpursuit.com/trivialpursuit/boardgames_90s.html


Yesterday we visited the site of what used to be the Highlander Community in Monteagle, Tennessee. In the 50s, the "Highlander Folk School" played host to civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. In 1958, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke there, despite a bombing threat by the KKK. The School had literacy and agriculture programs and trained civil rights and anti-war activists.

http://www.highlandercenter.org/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eleanor/sfeature/images/fbi_large/fbi_kkk.gif