About Guatemala

Traveling in Guatemala meant something special for me because of the opportunity to meet the Mayan-indigenous culture, which still represents the majority of the population in the country. I realized, and also experienced, that it’s not easy to get involved in this traditional life, because in touristy places indigenous people look at me as “gringa” (foreigner with money) and the more distant places are supposed to be dangerous.

I was lucky, I heard about some crazy people who decided to step over the difference between the “modern” and the “old” world. They are trying to connect these with the objective of spreading peace in all the places where the Guatemalan civil war was very bloody.

The project is called “Caminata de Amor por la Paz?. It’s being done by people mostly from the Guatemala City, but also some foreigners have joined them (like myself, who stayed with them for two weeks). These people walk around villages and towns of Guatemala visiting schools and doing workshops with the children. The objective of these classes is to show children different kinds of art, like music, dance, painting, murals, theater, etc. which the kids would otherwise never be able to experience and therefore manifest their potential talents.

Unfortunately some selection has to be made, since there are a lot of children in the many schools of Guatemala and there isn’t enough time, people and means to reach them all; so Caminata visits only Pronade schools. Pronade is an organization which supplies the money for the school to the committees of parents, who take care for schools and control their teachers. Pronade also sponsors this the project.

The Caminata is planned to take seven months. It started on February 28th on the border with Mexico, in a place called Gracias a Dios, and it’s supposed to end in the border with El Salvador, in a place called Garita Chapina. At the moment, after a three- month Caminata through Huehue and Quiché, it reached Quetzaltenango.

They were many problems on the way, they varied from losing mules (which, together with two horses, help carry the equipment), to threats to be lynched and sicknesses. However, the program is still bravely carried on because they feel it’s important to spread their message to live in a happy, peaceful, socially equal, multicultural place.

I joined Caminata in a little village near Rio Grande and stayed with them until San Francisco de Alto. During this time I had the opportunity to see something very different to what I’m used to. We crossed little villages in the wild, filled with the big shining eyes of curious people still connected with the nature, living in a kingdom of cornfields. These were the most loving people I ever met, they gave us a place to stay, sometimes even invited us into their kitchens or cooked for us. And the children…they were the most beautiful beings I saw, so happy and pure, sometimes shy but very willing to play and to learn. Even though I was very different from their culture, language (Quiché) and way of living they didn’t make me feel like a stranger.

I hope that Caminata will help establish the peace in the country, that people will change their weapons and sticks for instruments and colors, so that they could live in peace and harmony.

This article was published by Alja Bulič
from Ljubljana, Slovenia.
She visited Guatemala during march-may 2005