Libellus! (Little Book)

Hi Ariel!

Sorry for the long delay in communication! We’ve been doing a lot of traveling and I neglected to find a good time and place to write. But now we’re back in San Marcos and things are a more settled, so here is an update:

-Two weeks ago Kirk and I left La Cambalacha to do some traveling around the country, to get a broader perspective on Guatemala outside of the tiny town of San Marcos, with the intention of returning here to finish our volunteer work. We made a big loop northward and visited both big cities and small rural areas. Our itinerary was thus: Antigua, Lanquin, Semuc Champey,  Flores, Tikal, back to Flores, Rio Dulce, Livingston, Guatemala City, then finally back to San Marcos.

-in Flores, we met a German archaeologist named Mareike who was doing her PhD work in modern Mayan art, and had written her master’s thesis on Tikal (an ancient Mayan city in the rainforest of El Peten, northern Guatemala. Guatemala began marketing it as a tourist destination in the 1970s, and even though it’s still not fully excavated it’s extremely accessible.) We went with Mareike to Tikal and the ruins of Uaxactun (a military rival of Tikal). She gave us incredible lectures on Mayan history, the iconography on the temples, the structure of the pyramids and the social / political structure of ancient cities like Tikal. I have many notes. I also managed to convince the night guard (with very basic Spanish and some extra quetzales) to let us spend the night on top of Templo IV (the tallest pyramid in the complex). It was incredible, if I can sum it up in a word.

- in Livingston, on the Caribbean coast, we immersed ourselves in Garifuna culture, which is a mix of Afro-Caribbean and Guatemalan culture. I became friends with a local named Luis, whose family is descended from the African slaves that were shipwrecked there, and he taught me a lot of the garifuna language, which I have written down safely in my notebook. Garifuna is only spoken in Livingston, in a couple of towns on the coast of Honduras, and in Cuba.

- The rest of the trip was an education in what it means to be a tourist in Guatemala. It’s a very strange culture and I don’t like it. During the times when I was traveling and not doing anything very specific, I read a lot from a book I found in Antigua called Voices From the Silence: Guatemalan Literature of Resistance, which descriptively paints the picture of Guatemalan social and political history since the Spanish Conquest. It was hard to enjoy myself and read this book at the same time.

-Back in San Marcos, at La Cambalacha, I am starting up again with my Spanish lessons and with teaching classes. I helped two students, Diego and Juana, to write a short skit in English for Teatro en Ingles, which I hope they will be able to perform next week. I am having very intense discussions with my Spanish teacher about Guatemalan politics, the state of the Mayan people, the problem with capitalism, the tourist industry, and life in general.

I am overwhelmed with knowledge and I don’t quite know what form to put it all in. I am thinking about writing a series of essays when I get home, but much of my knowledge is experiential and not solidly researched in terms of academic texts, so I almost want to make this a writing contract and just write about everything narratively. Any advice about how to put it all together would be most appreciated, since the learning here spans many different subject areas. (Maybe that would be a more productive discussion when I get home, too).

Okay. I apologize for the lengthiness. I’ll keep in touch!

Blythe

Hi Ariel!

I’ve decided it’s too monumental of a task for me to describe in a single email every aspect of my time here, so I think I’m going to do it in installments. There is so much to write about, with only one computer shared by about 20 people so I can’t in good conscience take up the computer for three hours at a time. For right now I’ll write as much as I can about my observations of the town we’re in, then eventually move on to La Cambalacha, art and theatre, what I understand about the economic situation, and personal social and cultural adjustment.

San Marcos La Laguna

San Marcos is one of many towns situated on the border of Lake Atítlan here in Guatemala. It is a tiny little town with a mix of inhabitants. It is a haven for “hippies with a purpose” (so says my guidebook), and said hippies color much of the “downtown” area and especially near the lake. Much of the economy here is based around New-Agey tourist attractions: masseuses, alternative therapies, retreat centers, energy cleansings, hotels that cater to the youthful and the spiritually minded. At first this arrangement seems to make sense; the natural environment is extraordinarily beautiful, the weather warm and usually sunny, fruit trees, enormous colorful insects, the Mayan women wearing bright traditional dress, music usually being played somewhere, generally blissed-out looks on the faces of anyone who isn’t a local. If there is any place more condusive to embarking on a spiritual journey towards finding yourself / ultimate enlightenment, I don’t know where it is. The town is nestled in a valley at an altitude of 7,000 feet, surrounded by tropical forest, and around the lake rise three (active, I believe) volcanoes, the tops of which are always surrounded by clouds. At night the forests light up with thousands of fireflies, and the moment the sun goes down the churches erupt in (off-key, but well-intentioned) singing of evangelical American hymns translated into Spanish and sung with all the gusto of a Mayan chant (which is a good sound for Mayan chants but not necessarily for English hymns). The mornings greet us with a cacophony of tropical birds (and, more recently, the very loud construction of our French neighbor’s two-story bungalow). It’s a remarkably beautiful place to live and work. The inhabitants of San Marcos are extremely diverse and come from all over the world. There are the indigenous Mayans whose economic situations vary from poor, self-employed artisans (selling flutes, jewelry, bread, tablecloths) that cater to tourists, to fruit and produce sellers (the majority of whom are women), to small business owners (tiendas) to city employees who are paid a livable wage (although it varies month to month) such as policeman (all four of them), city administrators and secretaries, etc; to teachers, doctors and other professionals. My own existence here as a visitor (I consider myself a visitor rather than a tourist because I am actually working here, not going on three month meditation retreats, sunbathing all day and “finding my energy” in various hotel bars) puts me into contact most with the Mayans living in poverty – those on the street who petition me for money for all sorts of things. Gabriela Cordón, the director and founder of La Cambalacha, says that unfortunately there’s no avoiding the fact that, as outsiders and especially as Americans, we are viewed largely as big dollar signs. Part of the amazing thing about working at La Cambalacha is that it provides an opportunity, to some extent, to break down those barriers through daily contact with local kids and teenagers, teaching but also learning. They are very patient Spanish teachers.

All right, there are about four people waiting to use the computer (as it is Sunday and everybody’s day off), so I’ll send this off to you and hopefully be able to get the next installment to you soon!

Hope all is well and sunny in Olympia,

Blythe