Photos: Antigua, Guatemala
Here's a set of a few days' worth of snapshots in Antigua, Guatemala. This colonial town dates back to the 1500s, and is now frequented by American and European tourists.
Included in this set are photos from in and around the Hotel Casa Santo Domingo, an ultra-high-end resort built on the remains of a monastery that was constructed in 1547. It's the gothiest hotel in the world, for sure -- there are many crypts on the premises, full of the remains of nuns and monks.
The concierge desk is a big altar. Downstairs, mannequins are dressed up like nuns, self-torturing with ancient devices to pay pentitencia for their sins. Piped-in Gregorian Chant muzak wafts through the halls. Red macaws screech in Spanglish at guests. Impromptu Catholic masses with loud, off-key hymns en Español form every now and then in the courtyard, while bikini-clad tourists sun themselves at the pool nearby.
It's a popular corporate retreat site, too. I saw signs on conference rooms for "Save the Children," Purina, Cargill, and several big agribusiness conglomerates.
You might think the idea of a resort on an ancient holy site would upset devout Catholics here (of which there are many). And the hotel does upset some portion of the local population, but not necessarily because it's seen as a sacrilege. One local family I spoke with said that some portion of Antigua's longtime residents object to the fact that this historic site was converted into a commercial profit-making venture. "It's part of our national heritage," said the mom who shall remain nameless, "it belongs to all Guatemalans." One could also argue that businesses like this provide employment and income for residents.
Like other higher-end hotels in Antigua, Casa Santo Domingo is frequented by norteamericanos who come here to adopt children.
I spoke with several women in Antigua this week who identified themselves as US residents here to adopt through "independent" means. One woman said she was adopting her second Mayan baby, and paid her broker in American dollars for the transaction. It would appear that indigenous children born to poor women have become one of Guatemala's biggest cash crops.
The scene at Casa Santo Domingo -- impeccably manicured gardens, brightly colored birds, ancient colonial ruins, white people with Mayan babies on their backs -- is made all the more surreal by the fact that this walled compound is an oasis of opulence surrounded by poverty. Rooms for the living at this luxurious crypt-hotel range from about US$200-360 per night. That's more than some indigenous Guatemalans earn in an entire year. About 75% of the country lives beneath the poverty line, a little over half the country is literate by some estimates, and many indigenous people survive on less than $2 a day.
But disparity and proximity between rich and poor shouldn't feel alien to American visitors here. After all, back in the town where I live, it's only a 15 minute drive from Beverly Hills to LA's Skid Row.
(Tech notes: shot with ultra compact Canon SD630, organized in Apple's Aperture.)
Labels: Guatemala
9 Comments:
I spent a few days in Antigua back in 2003, and remember it as being a beautiful place - albeit one severely marked by the collision of the native population and the tourist trade. I look forward to you documenting the country further. Good luck!
Hi. I just want to comment on what you said about adoptive mothers being involved in "dubious" or "probably illegal" adoptions. You used the word "brokers", I have never heard that term used, ever- in adoptions. You might want to check out the state department to get accurate info. on adoptions in Guatemala to see how DIFFICULT it is to adopt. It is not possible to go down there and pay money and walk out with a baby. It's very, very difficult. I met many families adopting in Antigua, and believe me, no one wants an illegal, difficult adoption. Illegal adoptions would never fly with the American Embassy, and you would waste a lot of time, and money. I lived the adoption process, too, and I found it to be very painstaking. The process is rigorous, set up to make sure the things you talked about don't happen. I'm sure there are some that try to get away with things, but it doesn't work. The system is set up to be as ethical as possible and is meant to place homeless children with loving families. travel.state.gov is the site to look up adoption procedures. I hope this helps.
P.s. if you ever go back to Guatemala, you should go to Xela- it's a majestic city in the mountainous highlands. region.
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@Anonymous:
Thanks for reading. I have no doubt that the vast majority of Americans who come here to adopt do so with the best of intentions. But not everyone involved in the adoption system operates with the same ethical standards.
Guatemala is one of the three largest "sender" countries for adopted children in the world (Russia and China are the other two), and Guatemala's adoption system is privately run. Baby brokers (and I have heard the term used frequently, in both Spanish and English) pay biological mothers for their newborn children.
Given the severe lack of economic options for much of the population here in Guatemala, a country which only entered into peace accords ten years ago after a bloody, 30+ year civil war -- there's plenty of room for injustice and corruption.
The subject is one of much heated debate here, and back in the States. The US just entered this year into the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, and has yet to fully implement it.
This recent NYT article was a good read on the subject: Link.
xeni, if u drop by costa rica gimme a call at 305-8505, Id be glad to walk u around the city and suggest neat places for reviews.
fabián.
We've driven to Guatemala from the States three times in the last four years. (On a meagre retirement, we can't afford to stay stateside too much.) We lived in La Antigua for three weeks this time; I caught pneumonia, but that's another story. We usually stay at Posada La Merced, which costs US$12-35 for a room, rather than the US$175+ at the Santo Domingo. PLM is often filled with adoptors or volunteers. The adoptors all say that the process is NOT easy, and the ones I've met don't seem rich, just desperate and determined.
The baby drain is real, Mayas feel threatened, and visitors who touch or approach local children have been assaulted.
You should mention a major industry in La Antigua: language schools. With homestay (room and board with a local family), the cost may be under US$150 per week, even less in outlying communities. Many foreign visitors are here for language school: the tourists, the students, the government and NGO and corporate people, and the missionaries.
Oh GAWD, the missionaries. We've run into all too any arrogant missionaries, sent here by GAWD to convert the heathens (Catholics and traditionals) to whichever evangelical doctrine they're swinging. And they may be aided by the followers of ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, responsible for much of the genocide of the 1980s, who's now set himself up as an evangelical leader.
La Antigua is a theme park, disconnected from the rest of Guatemala. Chichicastenango, Huehuetenango, Cobán, Chajul and Nebaj, other highland cities, are rather more real. Another reader suggested Xela aka Quetzaltenango, but I've never liked the place; and just about anyone will tell you that Guatemala City sucks. Lake Atitlán is beyond the scope of this note. If you're still in Guatemala now, this is the right season to see the lowlands, before they become The Green Hell. Have fun, and don't let people cough on you.
Thanks, Ric! I stayed at Posada La Merced a few nights, also, and it's run by exceedingly friendly, attentive people. Plus they have wifi. And yes, I encountered a number of adopters/adopter-helpers there. Thanks for sharing your story, and I hope you feel better now!
Actually Lived in Guatemala for two years back in the early 80's while working for the Peace Corps or Cuerpo de Paz. Actually attended the language schools in Antigua for the first three months,
Lived in the mountains outside of Xela and I would recommend that if it is at all possible for you to get out of the main cities and into the Altiplano that you do so...
It will be hard for a tourista to gain the trust of the native people, but if you can, you will find a people who do not have any of the material wealth of our western culture, but who know more about values and how to live and be happy than many norte ameicanos will find in a lifetime.
Many children die before the age of five in this enviroment from dysentary. I wish the money that the adopters are paying would go to potable water projects and leave the children where they are!
I've been to Guatemala twice and have mixed feelings about the issue of adoptions. Yes, it is good to have orphans find homes with loving families, but it is painful to me to see it happen in a country which values family above all else.
I thought Guatemala was a glorious country with generally kind people. My first trip, everyone white besides me was adopting children. On the second, all were missionaries. Better to have tourists and students, both of which provide some with a livelihood.
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