Images of Guatemala
Emily Hall, who in 2020 is about to spend a year working in Guatemala, looks through her aunt June’s photos, taken in October and November 2007.  She likes this mysterious image of the Lago de Atitlan, a lake in a volcanic crater

”Guatemala, alma de la tierra’ – soul of the earth – at Santiago Sacatepéquez on November 1st, the Day of the Dead, when the Mayans release the souls of their ancestors from their graves. The souls fly on the huge paper-and-bamboo kites, which families and groups manufacture for weeks beforehand.’ Why are the girls all wearing the same clothes? wondered Emily. Is it some sort of uniform?

‘Family watching the kites fly from the cemetery, which becomes a park for the day, filled with flowers.’ Is that a grave in front of them, Emily pondered? Why is the older women wearing a cloth on her head?

‘Paper kites, each with a central message. These are too large to fly.’ Is this art, or religion, or an excuse to have a holiday and make money, and why don’t the men bother with the special costume? Emily wished she had asked when aunt June was still alive.

‘The wicked saint Maximón, in his shrine at San Andrés Itzapa. Believers bring their problems to him, and offer alcohol, cigars, candles, to solicit his support.’ Why do people trust a wicked saint? Emily couldn’t understand. Is he on the side of lawbreakers? Is it like witchcraft?

‘Saint’s day procession down the steps of Santo Tomás church, Chichicastenango. It was very noisy with firecrackers exploding. The religion here is nominally Catholic but blended with ancient Mayan rites.’ Religion was a big deal in Guatemala, thought Emily. I don’t think religion mattered much here then, but it does now, I suppose, for lots of people.

‘The Volcán de Agua from the Parque Central in Antigua, the former capital. The cathedral is on the left. Only a small part is in use, the rest is a mass of collapsed stone that has lain where it fell during a horrendous earthquake in 1773.’ It looks peaceful, thought Emily, not the sort of country where people are gunned down in their thousands every year.

‘Corrugated iron features a lot in Guatemalan housing, and armed men are everywhere, as police, security guards, soldiers.’ Emily decided that this photo hinted at the menace of poverty. She remembered aunt June saying that it was quite scary taking photos of people carrying guns.

‘Temple III in the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, in the Petén, northern Guatemala. The city was abandoned after years of drought. It is thought now that the destruction of the rainforest, to build and supply the city, reduced the rainfall. The city itself had become too large for its hinterland to support.’ Oh yes, Emily remarked to herself, I remember reading ‘Collapse’ by Jared Diamond, and he wrote about the Maya.

‘The city of Antigua is full of ruins, the result of many earthquakes. Especially severe earthquakes happened in 1773 and 1976.’ Why build with stone if it’s all likely to come crashing down, Emily asked herself, before considering that conquerors want to impress, and they had a lot of impressing to do, considering the Mayan heritage of massive stone monuments.

Emily closed the album and thought about the changes she might find when she, too, arrived in Guatemala.

To be continued

Background information

Meet the Halls, my mythical family:  Rob Hall, born on January 2nd 1970; his wife Janie (February 25th 1972); their children Emily (March 5th 2002) and Joshua (May 4th 1999). Rob’s parents are Tim (November 12th 1937) and Beryl (April 20th 1940). Janie’s parents are Shirley (April 22nd 1946) and Bill Priest (October 17th 1944).

The names and characters in this and other posts in the ‘Tales for the 21st Century‘ series are entirely fictional, but June Spears’ diary is factual, written during and just after my own stay in Guatemala in 2007.