Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and
Hombres de Maíz
(1949, translated as
Men of Maize
), about
the Mayan peasantry. One of the characters in the latter is a guerrilla warrior by the name
of Gaspar Ilom, a name that Asturias's son Rodrigo, influenced by his father's writings,
would appropriate as a pseudonym while leading one of the guerrilla factions comprising
theGuatemalanNationalRevolutionaryUnity(URNG).Otherofhiswell-knownworksin-
clude
El Papa Verde (The Green Pope,
1954, about the United Fruit Company) and
Week-
end en Guatemala
(1968, about the 1954 coup that ousted Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán).
Modern Guatemalan authors of note include Francisco Goldman, author of several nov-
els, including
The Long Night of White Chickens,
which takes place mostly in Guatemala,
The Ordinary Seaman
(1997), and
The Divine Husband
(2004). Arturo Arias is another
modern-dayauthorknownforhavingwrittenthescreenplayforthemovie
El Norte
andthe
book
After the Bombs,
chronicling the Arbenz period and the aftermath of his overthrow.
Víctor Perera has written several excellent topics on Guatemalan culture and history, in-
cluding
Unfinished Conquest
(1993) and
Rites: A Guatemalan Boyhood
(1986).
Visual Arts
Guatemala's rich history in the visual arts dates to pre-Columbian times, with the painting
of exquisite murals and the carving of stelae by the Mayans. The colonial period also left a
substantial artistic legacy, mostly by anonymous artists. An exception is the work of Tho-
mas de Merlo (1694-1739), whose paintings can still be seen in Antigua's Museo de Arte
Colonial. Sculptor Quirio Cataño carved the Black Christ of Esquipulas in 1595, now an
object of much veneration for pilgrims from all over Central America.
More recently, Kaqchikel painter Andrés Curruchich (1891-1969) pioneered the “prim-
itivist” style of painting from his home-town in Comalapa, Chimaltenango. The currents
of
indigenismo
ran strongly throughout the 20th century and were marked by an often-ro-
manticized portrayal of indigenous culture, as evidenced by the murals found in Guatem-
ala City's Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, which are the work of Alfredo Gálvez Suárez
(1899-1946). Also in this vein was sculptor Ricardo Galeotti Torres (1912-1988), whose
works include the giant marimba sculpture found in Quetzaltenango and the Tecún Umán
statue in the plaza of Santa Cruz del Quiché.
Perhaps Guatemala's best-known visual artist, Carlos Mérida (1891-1984) was a con-
temporary of Pablo Picasso, whom he met while studying painting in Paris between 1908
and 1914. His
indigenista
art predates the work of Mexican muralists the likes of Diego
Rivera by about seven years and sought to unify European modernism with themes more
specific to the Americas. Mérida's work exhibits three major stylistic shifts throughout the
years: a figurative period from 1907 to 1926, a surrealist phase from the late 1920s to the
mid-1940s, and a geometric period from 1950 until his death in 1984. Many of his works
can be seen in Guatemala City's Museum of Modern Art, which bears his name. Mérida's
murals also grace the walls of several Guatemala City public buildings.
