Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
On a more promising note, it is a well-documented fact that some Guatemalan villages
have converted to Evangelical Christianityalmost in their entirety with astounding results.
The town of Almolonga, near Quetzaltenango, is a particular case in point. Alcoholism,
whichonceranrampant(asinotherpartsofthehighlands),isnowvirtuallyunheardofand
thecityjailhasbeenclosedforyears.Itishailedasa“miraclecity”byEvangelicalleaders,
who like to point out that it was once a hotbed of cult worship for the folk idol Maximón.
The town exports its fantastic fruits and vegetables to El Salvador, including carrots the
size of a human arm, making it very prosperous.
Evangelicals these days, while still adhering to the belief in a better afterlife, are also
very much focused on making things better in the here and now. There is a growing move-
ment toward producing a generation of morally grounded political leaders with a vision
to develop the country along inclusive lines that address Guatemala's substantial needs
and challenges, though it remains to be seen if they can overcome the unfortunate legacy
handed to them by the substandard Christian leadership experienced by Guatemalans thus
far.
Guatemala's official language is Spanish, though as mentioned there are 23 other ethnolin-
guistic groups in this very diverse nation. Guatemalan Spanish is fairly clean and tends to
avoid the dropping off of the last syllables in words, a common occurrence in Caribbean
Spanish-speakingcountries.ThismakesGuatemalan Spanishparticularlyeasytolearnand
understand for foreigners, a fact attested to by the overwhelming number of Spanish-lan-
guage schools present in many parts of the country, but especially in Antigua and Quetza-
ltenango. Spanish schools are also present in Cobán, Huehuetenango, Todos Santos, San
Andrés, San José (Petén), and Panajachel, to name a few. It's also possible to learn the
Mayan languages in many of these schools.
See
A FEW
CHAPINISMOS
Literature
Guatemala's first literary figure was Jesuit priest and poet Rafael Landívar (1731-1793). A
native of Antigua, his most well-known work is
Rusticatio Mexicano,
a poem describing
rural customs of the times. Landívar was forced to leave Guatemala in 1767 when his
order was expelled from the Americas by the Spanish Crown. The country's best-known
writer is Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974), winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize in literature.
His most famous works include
El Señor Presidente
(1946), about the maniacal dictator
