Labor & Libertas in Guatemala

Labor & Libertas: Work & freedom. This stained glass window was in the Guatemala City Palace. I've been thinking about labor & libertas - a lot of the indigenous people here seemed to have freedom through their work - in the past - working the fields, weaving, making tortillas. But after 36 years of war and 200,000 dead or disappeared - mostly indigenous people - things have changed. The men have stopped wearing their traditional costume because of office discrimination. (Here is a picture of David wearing a traditional Mayan men's outfit - he's also getting "married")

We went from Guatemala City to a tiny little mountain town where indigenous culture still thrives - there were woman grinding coffee beans (the woman also collect the coffee beans because they have more delicate fingers and pay more attention to detail than men do!), making tortillas, girls as young as 5 weaving beautiful blouses or scarves, and all sorts of cool things.

In addition to Mayan traditions like tortillas, Guatemala seems to have a tradition of parades: a parade for everything!

And fireworks almost every day - not the colored kind you can see but the noisy kind that smell smoky and make you think Guatemala has entered another war and is taking the first shot outside your window!

Also, I like the weather here- mostly in the 70s which means you can grow any veggie any time of the year- seriously, how cool!?

This is a banana tree growing in my Spanish school - yes, there are other exotic trees like oranges and one I believe is an apricot (it's hard to tell because you normally buy them shriveled up in a plastic package from Wal-Mart in the states.) We felt the effects of Hurricane Whoever that is rushing towards Mexico - so SO much rain, but at least we are safe and not blowing away.