On February 28, our group left our Spanish classes early to get a head start on our weekend trip to Lake Atitl\u00e1n.\u00a0 After a warm and humid bus ride, we stopped at a cooperative called Campesino Committee of the Highlands.\u00a0 While walking to the storehouse, Rebecca was happy to see a group of children playing soccer in an open building with a sign saying, \u201cSe prohibe jugar f\u00fatbol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once inside, many of us were surprised to see the logo of the cooperative superimposed onto chalkboard-sized, professionally printed tarps with Hugo Chavez\u2019s face and the phrase \u201cContinuemos la lucha!\u201d<\/p>\n
The politics of the coffee cooperative goes back to the Spanish, and later Ladino (non-Mayan) control of land.\u00a0 In the 1950s President Jacobo Arbenz attempted to redistribute the land in Guatemala so that the lower class could have access to one of Guatemala\u2019s greatest resources: farmland.\u00a0 The redistribution would have greatly hindered United Fruit Company\u2019s economic exploitation of Guatemala, and shortly after the United States staged a coup.\u00a0 By 1960, and all the way until 1996, Guatemala was the grounds for a civil war between the US-backed military and guerrilla fighters hoping for land reform.<\/p>\n
After seeing the cooperative\u2019s strong principles of independence and care for the land, we continued on the way to Lake Atitl\u00e1n, arriving in Santiago in time to explore the town before dinner.\u00a0 Later that evening, the town plaza was alive with vendors selling pineapple cider and atole de platano, with young men playing soccer, and with old men leaning against the wall wearing indigenous clothing and broad-rimmed hats.<\/p>\n
The next day we did a walking tour of the town and surrounding area with an MCC SALT volunteer and the president of ANADESA Community Development Organization.\u00a0 We saw the sight of the military\u2019s massacre of indigenous civilians, new houses the government built but later declared to be in a landslide zone and thus uninhabitable, and men carrying 100-150 pound loads of firewood on their backs.<\/p>\n
During the tour, I asked the president of ANADESA, Juan, why so many men in Santiago still wear indigenous clothing; in most parts of the country I had only seen the women doing so.\u00a0 Earlier I assumed since the men were out of the house more, they felt more pressure to take up Western dress and thus protect themselves from the government by appearing to be less of a target.\u00a0 Most of the groups massacred by the military during the war were indigenous. \u00a0My guess was wrong and the story much more complicated.<\/p>\n
During the armed conflict, 75% of the guerrilla fighters were Ladino.\u00a0 Although Ladino means non-Mayan, this group is often Mestizo, or mixed race, and includes those who are racially Mayan but have taken up Western traditions.\u00a0 When men changed to Ladino clothing, they were actually making themselves a greater target, but they did so because the government forced them to change when the government recruited young men from indigenous communities.\u00a0 Their alliance would then be identified by the \u201cjefe\u2019s\u201d list rather than their dress.<\/p>\n
After the massacre in Santiago, the community successfully pushed the army out the town, one of the greatest indigenous successes of the armed conflict.\u00a0 That is why so many of the men continue to wear their indigenous clothing.<\/p>\n
The view from the roof of the hotel was gorgeous.\u00a0 We were surrounded by several volcanoes, one rising right out of the lake, and a sunset beautified by the air pollution.<\/p>\n
The next day, our last \u00a0in the area, we crossed the lake by boat to spend the morning in Panajachel.\u00a0 The tourist market was down on the lake, and a few of us ventured up the crowded \u201cnormal\u201d market uptown.\u00a0 One of my own highlights of Panajachel was asking for a tortilla-making lesson at a tortilleria.\u00a0 The women guessed that they made 400 tortillas a day each; it took me 10 minutes to make one lopsided tortilla.<\/p>\n
We ended our time in a pizzeria, enjoying pizza with fresh pineapple and the shouts of people watching Real Madrid versus Athletico Madrid on the TV.\u00a0 Back in Guatemala (the nickname for Guatemala City), we arrived tired and ready to be reunited with our host families.<\/p>\n
-Emilie Raber<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On February 28, our group left our Spanish classes early to get a head start on our weekend trip to Lake Atitl\u00e1n.\u00a0 After a warm and humid bus ride, we stopped at a cooperative called Campesino Committee of the Highlands.\u00a0 While walking to the storehouse, Rebecca was happy to see a group of children playing … Continue reading Beneath the Surface of Lake Atitl\u00e1n<\/span>