Before you start reading though, maybe one thing you might want to do is write a page about what you know or think you know about Guatemala or countries in Central or South America for that matter. Some questions you could answer:
How do I think the people live? Do they live in chaos, in dire poverty, in the middle of no where, on paved streets with lamp posts? Do they houses or cars or televisions or microwaves or ovens?
What do I think that they eat or better yet how do they get their food to eat?
Are their cities like the US?
What is the land like? Is it a jungle or something different?
What language or languages do they speak?
What is the history of Guatemala?
What do I think the daily activities would be for the average Guatemalan?
These are some things that I would recommend to think about before reading by very brief writing on Guatemala. I certainly did not answer all of the questions above, but hopefully, as I said, they will be revealed in later writings.
Guatemala is a country of about 13 million people. Compare that to the estimated 1 million Guatemalans in the US (about 7% of their population). The country is made up of 22 departments, something comparable to what we call a state. (Here is a link to an a map of all the departments in Guatemala. Hint, department is departamento in Spanish. http://www.inforpressca.com/municipal/mapas_web/guatemala.php). I live in the department of Jalapa, which is located in the SE section of Guatemala near the countries of El Salvador and Honduras. The area where I live I would describe as an area similar to the Eastern Front of the Rocky Mountains. The land is mountainous, is rocky, and has a lot of clay. With the physical conditions of the land as well as with the people who dress up in cowboy boots and hats and big belt buckles, I am often reminded of the Wild West you see in Western movies. The weather is usually pretty temperate ranging from 65-80 degrees during the days. Usually people are pretty surprised that I do not live in the “jungle.” The fact is there are very hot areas at lower elevations and even much more cooler areas at higher elevations. One place even boasted of having snow at the beginning of the year after a strong cold front swept through. I though, definitely have not had snow and am enjoying the current dry season which lasts from November to May each year. The land where I live is used primarily for 3 different crops: corn, beans, and coffee. The coffee is nearly all sold while the beans and the corn represent the basic diet of the people down here and represents my diet too. Before coming, being from the Midwest, I certainly enjoyed my slice of meat and thought that I would starve if I did not eat meat at least one if not twice a day. Now, I am almost a vegetarian. Here, meat is an extravagance for the small aldea (name for a very small town in Spanish) in which I live and is usually only used for holidays. Along with the beans and the tortillas (which are made by grinding up the corn) I eat all kinds of vegetables. The small aldea I live in holds about 500 families making up 3500 people. Families here are on average, quite big, with 10-12 kids. Actual family size is a bit smaller, though, for various reasons, one of them being is that sons or daughters leave to find a job in the capital city or the United States.
The history of Guatemala started as the Mayas moved into the regions of Guatemala and created their communities and centers. The prominence of the Mayas can be seen by their impressive structures throughout Guatemala. The Mayas of Guatemala and Native Americans of the US are similar in the sense that as they moved to different areas of the country, they formed separate groups with their own languages or dialects and with their own traditions. This is why today there are other languages recognized and spoken here along with Spanish.
The Spanish began to come in the 1500’s leading to a purging of Mayan culture for a European culture. Mayans lost their lands and were used by the Spanish as forced-labor workers. This enslavement continued up until the 1900’s when only then the law requiring the Mayans to work 180 (I am pretty sure it was 180 but could not find the exact number – either way it was a lot) with out pay or even without giving food. Only in the past 1-2 years was discrimination against the indigenous here made illegal.
During the 1940’s and 50’s when plans were made to begin redistributing land to the indigenous people from whom it was taken, president and the government were overthrown by a military group backed by the US. It’s a long story why this happened, but basically some of the lands were owned by US companies like Untied Fruit Company which harvested bananas. This company asked for help from the US claiming the Guatemalan government was communist for redistributing the lands. Thus the CIA for possibly this reason and more, backed the overthrow of the government.
Following this overthrow lead to civil unrest which still exists today as well as a civil war between the indigenous and the government of Guatemala. Only in 1996 an official peace and cease fire was signed.
Here are some blurbs I read that I thought would be useful on Guatemalan History. They are listed by topic
Guatemalan Civil War
The government of Colonel Arbenz Guzman attempted various land reforms in the early 1950s, but was overthrown by a US-backed invasion led by military opponents of Arbenz. The country then slid into a state of almost perpetual civil war between a series of right-wing military governments and various leftist guerrilla movements: a major figure during this period was the former general Efrain Rios Montt, a self-styled evangelist who as army chief of staff and (briefly) president during the 1970s and 80s presided over a vicious counter-insurgency campaign whose savagery was exceptional even by the standards of the era and the region. - http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Guatemala/History
“In February 1999, the country's Historical Clarification Commission blamed the army for more than 90% of the deaths or disappearances of more than 200,000 Guatemalans during the 36-year civil war. In many instances, the army committed genocide against entire Mayan villages, the report concluded. The three-member commission blamed the United States government for supporting right-wing regimes even though it knew about the atrocities being committed by the army. An earlier report by the Catholic Church revealed similar findings. During a short visit to Guatemala in March 1999, US president Bill Clinton said his country had been wrong for supporting the Guatemalan army. “ - http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Guatemala-HISTORY.html
Mayan and the Spanish in Guatemala
The Mayans were dominant through much of Central America from the fifth until the eighth century when their civilization declined and a variety of other ethnic groups moved into the region. Europeans arrived in the 15th century, and Guatemala was one of the territories overrun by the Spanish conquistador Cortés in the 17th century. Pressure on their empire during the early 19th century forced the Spanish to concede independence to their American colonies, principally Mexico, into which Guatemala was briefly incorporated in 1822. Subsequent plans to fuse the countries of the Central American isthmus were equally short lived. Guatemala enjoyed comparative stability, punctuated by brief periods of upheaval, under a series of dictators who were content to keep the country under a quasi-feudal regime underpinned by a small clique of land-owning families. - http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Guatemala/History
Below I included some links to learn more about Guatemala. The first 2 are on the history of Guatemala. The last is more on the current statistics of Guatemala.
http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Guatemala/History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Guatemala
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gt.html
PS Sorry for the short delay. The city which I was in to use the internet had its power shut off for some hours due to the national power shortage occuring in Guatemala.
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