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Maria tTulia1

Maria tTulia2

Maria Tulia3

Marias Story

I had a substitute teacher yesterday and by luck, it was the woman who was involved with La Voz Popular!

We went together to the Huelga de Dolores (waiting forever for it to make it to the Central Park) and later returned to school to practice the imperfect and preterite tenses.

In doing so, we started talking about the guerrilla movement here as well as what I had read either about toture victims in Guatemala or Burma. That is that they need to try to hold out for 3 days so that the people they have details on have time to escape.

Maria then told me her dramtic story of being captured on the Mexican side of the border and tortured. Her story is in a little book that I will bring back with oral histories of four women involved with the school. It goes a little something like this:

She and a compañera were captured and tortured for 2 days. She gave out false information. They beat her while she was naked. They also put clamps on her nipples and said they would electrocute her. (thankfully they never did, it was a form of psychological torture). All the while, her hands were tied behind her back and her eyes covered.

Then they said they were turning her over to Guatemala and placed the two of them in a helicopter. The Mexicans said they might throw her in the ocean. She thought she´d rather drown than be turned over to Guate soldiers where she´d surely suffer a long death.

But when the helicopter landed, she recognized the accents as Mexican, not Guatemalan! and was relieved

She was again tortured, but thanks to URNG organizing (the guerrillas) she and a bunch of other political prisoners were loaded onto a Cuban airline where they were fed and flown to Cuba.

After all that she went through, she returned to Guatemala and helped with the cause when they called her up to start the radio station!

Thank you Metallica

In a search for an internet store closer to my house that has a cardreader for my camera, I started talking wtih someone in a Metallica shirt. He told me that most people in Xela like pop music (isn´t that the same everywhere?) and that the last rock concert got cancelled.

He pointed me to a music store and the owner organizes the shows. I¨m gonna try to check this place out and look for other signs of Xela´s subcultures. I¨ll also take a copy of the La Plebe cds back to the internet guy.

Thank you Metallica and thank you band branding!

Night Life

Well, I finally got to see where the Guatemalteco youth are! After graduation and a party at a student´s house, Chane and I went to a dance club. The upstairs was straight and hip hoppy. Downstairs was gay and housey. Both were mostly locals with a handful of gringos.

While catching some air outside, Chane told me that dancing in the gay bar felt like home. At that instance, a dreaded guy looking for a light helped me feel at home as well!

We took a cab home at 2 am.

Your thoughts, please

One of the things my cousin said to discourage me from this trip is, "Why would I want to go to a poor country? You can´t even drink the water there." And now I¨m having some issues and I¨d like your advice.

My family is very poor. I think I mentioned that I couldn´t cook beans because she said it uses too much gas. Unlike other host families, I¨m not being doted on with lots of food and actually need to supplement my meals. The only common furniture besides the dining room table and chairs is one armchair. That´s it.

Last night, I saw the homes my friends are staying in. They are more middle class, have a TV and sofas in the living room, have fruit on the table, and one friend even has her own upstairs flat.

I´m trying to decide before Wednesday if I should 1) stick it out, 2) try to change families and perhaps join the family with the upstairs flat, or 3) stay on my own in a hostel and cook for myself.

Here´s the pros and cons and please feel free to email me your thoughts.

Move out
· I´m not a premadonna, but if I can stay in nicer accomodations for the same price, why not?
· I¨m already paying extra to feel fulfilled
· It´d be nice to have a comfortable place to study
· Right now, my impressions are only of poverty, not a very well-rounded view
· Because my mom is elderly and the students are in high school, I¨ve found it hard to make conversation, and often they don´t talk with me
· I feel like I have to tip toe around everything I do so that I´m not spending too many of her resources

Stay
· They don´t have the option to move out, so maybe I should know what that feels like
· They need the money of me staying there
· I¨m learning how she gets by with the little money she has

I´m pretty sure that I had more thoughts last night but I can´t think of them now. There is a sister business to the school, across the street, and it´s a hostel. I think I could do alright cooking for myself. But it also might be nice to be with a family where the adult is a little younger and easier for me to talk with or in a neighborhood near a cafe or park.

Would you mind telling me what you think or what I should be considering that I haven´t listed?

Buildings

At last, some photos:

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Huelga de Dolores

I planned my trip around Semana Santa, but another perk is an annual event that has been put on by the University of San Carlos (primarily in the capital and Xela) for over 100 years called Huelga de Dolores.

It started as a way for students to party after lent, but quickly became a space to do politcal satire conlcuding with a big parade of floats and street theater raising issues within the school and grater issues affecting the country.

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A professor at the school in Xela, who used to organize the Huelga, spoke to us about the history and his current disappointment with the event. The students raise money for the event through the community, and by threatening to paint over stores who don´t pay up money. This is a tradition that he says has gotten out of control and the real political issues aren´t being addressed.

At first, I kinda thought he was a curmudgeon (it was better in my day), but after seeing the parade, I have to say that he might be right. It was a bit disappointing and my highlight was a group of guys in the parade pulled me out into the street and had me jump rope. They wanted to take my picture, but it was out of batteries. Here´s all I got of them:
(will upload later)

OH, one more thing, they wear hoods and capes that look klan-like, but it the tradition comes both from satirizing the Catholic attire as well as to protect political activists during the days of stronger repression.

Eating Well

I knew I might have problems with my diet because my body is so picky about what foods it likes. It´s something that I worked a lot on in my nutrition program. I need lots of fruits and vegetables, which are not very present in Guatemalan cooking. It´s mostly beans, rice, and tortillas.

Wednesday, I felt like I had to do something because I was getting hypoglycemic before every meal and I wasn´t able to pay attention in my afternoon class.

The woman in my home is not rich. When I asked her about how to cook beans for tonight´s international potluck at the school, she said I couldn´t cook them because it would use up too much gas on the stove. But she also gives me the best food, for example she may serve me chicken while the Guatemalan students receive only beans.

So I feel funny about asking her for more fruits and vegetables.

I talked with the schools and they say that it´s only a part of the lunch meal and that it´s perfectly fine for me to ask for more veggies. (Of course yesterday´s lunch meal I found my plate half full of cauliflower! so I didn´t say anything) They also said that I may want to buy fruits and vegetables to eat as snacks in between meals.

I went to the market and bought some apples as well as some peach juice in cans. It helped a lot. But I feel funny busting out my juice during our meal together. Perhaps I can find a large jug of orange juice to share.

For this reason, I decided not to go to the beach on Saturday so that I can go shopping for food for next week.

Socializing

Last night was my first time to stay out past 7:00 at night. I saw a narrative film at the school about ’s disappeared. It’s a great movie for Alex’s friends’ Spanish movie night!

Since it was late when it finished, I worried about how to get home, but 2 men (a European and a Filipino activist from who will study here for 2 months and then volunteer at human rights organizations for a whole year) and a German woman and I walked home together with out an incident.

Indiginous not Indian

After president Bush spoke in Iximche, the Mayan priests had a ceremony to cleanse where he spoke, which is a sacred site.

Yesterday, the Cumbre de Pueblos y Nacionalidados Indigenas Abaya Yala III began (a gathering of indigenous people). They talked about climate change, natural resources, and diversity.  

I’m lucky that the gathering is happening while I’m here and can read about it in the papers. But I wonder how Guatemala was chosen to host the event and if it had any significance to hold it after Bush was here.