Guatemala: Menchú forms indigenous political party

Human Rights advocate and 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú Tum today announced during a visit to Costa Rica that she is forming an indigenous political party in Guatemala.

The goal: win power in the 2012 general elections, and rule Guatemala. Rough translation from Spanish:

“I will be one of the people involved in the development of this party, which is now at its formative point”, declared Menchú. She assured that the indigenous people of Guatemala, who are 60% of Guatemala's 12.2 million inhabitants, will look to emulate the example of Bolivia's president, Evo Morales.

Link

Technorati Tags: guatemala, indigenous

Guatemala: veladoras (video clip)

Quick video snapshot of devotional candles on an altar in a Catholic church frequented by Mayan faithful, in Guatemala. Link to video (in Flash or Quicktime).

Shot with ultracompact Canon SD630 PowerShot, and edited in iMovie on a Mac.

Still snapshots: one, two.

Technorati Tags: guatemala, indigenous, religion, video

Guatemala: Terremoto

According to the USGS, a moderate earthquake (5.9) hit Guatemala Sunday. It was centered about 60 miles southwest of the capital on the Pacific coast, and felt in the highlands. No damage reports at this time. Link to English report.

BTW, here's the organization that issues earthquake data in Guatemala -- it's their USGS, if you will: INSIVUMEH stands for Instituto Nacional de Sismologia, Vulcanologia, Meteorologia y Hidrologia, or "National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology, and Hydrology." No, they do not study Spock: the "vulcanology" part refers to volcanoes. The INSIVUMEH site seems to be on the fritz right now, but this other website shows a list of volcanoes in the country. There are many here.

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Guatemala: snapshot studies in Petén

Link to set.

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Guatemala: Medical aid for Mayan communities near Lake Atitlán

Reader Gil Mobley says,

I hope your travels in Guatemala take you to Lake Atitlán. I am a physician that helped start/re-open the hospital that serves our hemisphere's largest community of indigenous people of one tribe: the Tz'tujil Mayans of Santiago Atitlán. Prior to our assistance, the area had among the highest maternal mortality rate in the hemisphere. Check out our story on www.puebloapueblo.org, please. After a miraculous opening, the facility was destroyed by a killer mudslide just a year ago. That didn't keep us down for long, as you'll read on the website.

Because of their geologic isolation and sheer numbers, (35,000) these Mayans have held on to their ancient culture more than any other.

One of my main jobs, currently, is to recruit docs to volunteer at the hospital to help and train the indigenous docs. I sponsor a continuing medical education course for state-side docs to learn 3rd world medicine and expose service volunteer opportunities in the area. As such, I love to tell the stories of the Tz'tujil Mayas and introduce my guests to a fascinating array of culture. That's the story behind www.tropicalmedicine101.com. The docs come to learn medicine and fall in love with the people. They then become donors of meds, equipment or money or come back to volunteer their time, the ultimate goal!

Image: "T'zutujil Maya traditional first bathing of a baby."

I asked how folks who wanted to volunteer could get in touch -- drgilmob at yahoo dot com is best. He adds, "I lead non-medical group building-trips to Guatemala's highlands regularly as well. That is how we rebuilt the hospitalito. Anyone can help!"

Also on Dr. Mobley's website, this personal account of the mudslides in October, 2005, written and photo-documented by a visiting doctor: Link

Technorati Tags: guatemala, indigenous

Guatemala: Film - Killer's Paradise

Another documentary I want to get my hands on soon, this one about the increasing number of "femicides" in Guatemala (nearly 600 women killed in 2006 alone, see this previous post). Snip:

Olenka Frenkiel and Giselle Portenier (Murder in Purdah, Israel’s Secret Weapon) document the story of the brutal killings of women in Guatemala. Since 1999, more than 2,000 women have been murdered there, with the numbers rising every year. In 2005 alone, 640 women, nearly two a day, were killed. That’s one woman in every twelve thousand murdered last year, almost ten times as many, per capita, as in Britain. And in Guatemala, the murders are rarely investigated. Few statistics are kept, details rarely are logged, potential forensic evidence is often ignored or contaminated, so the killers invariably go free and no one, not even the country’s president, has any idea who they are or why so many women are murdered. The answer, at least in part, is the failure of Guatemalan authorities to pursue justice for perpetrators of abuses during a civil war which killed 200,000 people. Three generations of killers have gone free; though the country is trying to show it has changed, old habits die hard. KILLER’S PARADISE documents the story of Claudina Isabel Velasquez, a 19 year old law student murdered in summer 2005, as her family urges the authorities to investigate who killed her.

Link (via Human Rights Watch, thanks Rudy Giron)

Technorati Tags: film, guatemala, femicide

Guatemala: Film - Estrellas de la Linea

This film looks amazing -- it screened in Antigua on Saturday, but I was elsewhere. Chema Rodríguez' "Estrellas de la Linea," or "The Railroad All-Stars," documents the lives of a group of Guatemalan sex workers who work an area near the railroad that passes through Guatemala City on its way to the country's eastern and western boundaries. Snip:

All of them dream of being treated with respect, and that the violence against them will end.

In order to publicise their plight – that also includes regular police harassment – they decide to found a football team. After weeks of training, they register for a local championship. But they are barred from taking part – simply because they are prostitutes. Their disqualification unleashes some hefty controversy that has a significant effect on their lives.

“We are women and mothers first, prostitutes second”, is the pronouncement at the top of their list of demands.

Link, another link, and another link with trailers.

Technorati Tags: film, guatemala, sex