Anarchist Graffitti in Guatemala
There was more, that went by too fast when I was on the bus, but here are a few photos.
Thoughts on International Travel
Zunil and Chicken Buses
Like I said, traveling in Guatemala was the first time I’ve traveled outside of the US and Canada. I haven’t traveled much in countries that aren’t developed partially because I was uncomfortable being a tourist, worried about my place visiting other cultures, and because I only spoke English. I wasn’t worried about my personal safety as much as I was worried about intruding or being unwanted in other people’s areas, or something PC like that.
Guatemala is really poor. Even in the cities, there is a lack of secure work and many people are struggling. Something like 80% of the population is unemployed or marginally employed. They lack conveniences that most people in the U.S. take for granted like consistent electricity, safe drinking water, hot showers, public transportation. After a while, I realized that the biggest luxury that they do not have is privacy, though at the same time they have no expectation of privacy. In most families, people share bedrooms (no one has their own), and you can hear everything that happens in the house, and if you go to a cafe to use the Internet, someone can just glance over your shoulder to find out what you are doing. But, people are used to the way of life and do their best with what they have – what else can they do? Since they have no expectation of privacy, for example, using the internet at cafes and sharing a room with your mom are totally normal. Read the rest of this entry »
Traveling abroad: Language School
Antigua from the 3rd floor of the hostel I was staying at
So, i just spent the last few weeks in Guatemala. It was my first experience traveling outside of the United States and it was a big experience for me. I went there to learn Spanish at a language school because it seems like the right thing to do in this day and age. Especially since I live in California, but really, it’s important everywhere.
The school that I went to, the Projecto Lingüistico Quetzalteco de Español in Quetzaltenango (also called Xéla), was amazing. The school has a city location and a partner rural school about an hour away by bus. I chose the school because I know dozens of radicals who have gone there over the school’s 20-year history, and I wanted to be in a place with a political consciousness with which I could identify. The school is set up to have five hours of one on one instruction every day, with a lot of other activities throughout the week, like lectures, films, and trips to neighboring areas (like the trip to Nuevo Amanacer that I posted about previously). All of these are designed to give you access to the country’s history and current political and social situation, from people who are living it every day, or who actually experienced the historical events. It was fascinating, well organized, and an exercise in consciousness raising for me and many of the students. Read the rest of this entry »
Nuevo Amanacer, Guatemala
So, I’m in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala at an awesome Spanish language school called the Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteca. It was recommended to me by many friends, and they were right. I will write more about the school in another post.
I haven’t wanted to post a lot because I can’t upload my photos, and because I don’t have a ton of access to the Internet. Well, there are TONS of Internet cafes here but I don’t really want to spend all my time at a computer.
But, I really wanted to write about today. Today we visited a small town called Nuevo Amanacer, about 2 and a half hours by bus from Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela). Guatemala has had a long and crazy past that includes a civil war from 1960 to 1996, and prior to that, military rule for most of the country’s post-colonial period (except for a small time from 1944 to 1954, the end of which is written about in great detail in the book Bitter Fruit). I’ve been learning a lot about the country’s history and current economic crisis (exacerbated by NAFTA and CAFTA). Anyway, during the civil war, many Guatemalans, many of Mayan descent, fled the country to Mexico to avoid persecution by the military (torture, disappearance, death). The town of Nuevo Amancera was settled by people who fled to Mexico (Chiapas) in 1983 and then returned to Guatemala in 1998.
It’s one thing to read about people being tortured or disappeared (popular book of the moment: Shock Doctrine), and it’s another to meet people who have experienced this. Read the rest of this entry »
