A charter city, as described here on their website, is a city-scale special reform zone. Countries can play one of three roles in chartering a city: the host is the country providing land, the source is what country the inhabitants come from, and the guarantor is the country that enforces the charter to make sure [...]
I heard both sides of the story in Guatemala. The education I received from the University of Arizona study abroad program encouraged that. We had editors from the largest newspapers, indigenous leaders, presidential cabinet members, and business owners in our biweekly lecture series. After thirty six years of a domestic armed conflict, neither side is [...]
Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is celebrated throughout much of the Christian world, the extended holiday marking the final week before Easter. Though not a secular observance, Semana Santa is a public holiday in Guatemala. Kids take a week’s vacation from school, workers close shop for a few days, and communities celebrate this time with [...]
I recently played the part of the modern American consumer—I shopped for coffee online. Shopping was more difficult than expected because, as an outsider to prevailing coffee culture, I encountered what amounted to a new language. Arabica and Robusta. Mouthfeel and roast. Nutty, malty, woody, and winey. The single taste descriptor that resonated with me [...]
I was prompted by Jazmine’s recent blog on the recognition of indigenous rights to actually read through the UN declaration. Each point is significant, but Article 13 seems particularly relevant to the people served by Roots & Wings. Article 13 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations [...]
Quetzaltenango is the second largest city in Guatemala, after the capital, Guatemala City. It is situated high in the mountainous western highlands, and, unlike the jungles of the Petén, is fairly temperate year-round, if quite rainy during the rainy season. The people call the city “Xela” (short for the indigenous name Xelaju) and even the [...]
Today is Lunar New Year’s Eve. As with any holiday, it’s a time of starting afresh, discarding the fears and uncertainty we had in the past lunar year, taking stock of what we have accomplished, and looking forward to an even better start to the year of the rabbit. In my home country, Singapore, to [...]
Fair-trade coffee is a growing industry in the United States. According to the 2009 edition of the Fair-Trade Almanac, imports of green coffee – that is, coffee harvested using methods not damaging to the environment – “have grown on average nearly 75% a year since 1999.” While major corporations like Starbuck’s have been quick to [...]
The Wall Street Journal published an excellent article this week all about Guatemala and the booming coffee tourism business there. Visitors from all across the globe are traveling to Guatemala to learn about coffee: how it’s planted, harvested, refined and made ready for consumption each day. The WSJ article follows the process at one particular [...]
Guatemalans celebrated the New Year with major organized festivities. The streets were engulfed with locals, who watched magnificent displays of fireworks burst in the midnight skies. Locals also hoped to attract good luck with their tradition of adorning themselves in new clothes. Dancers wore decorated face masks and animated the streets with lively, rhythmic versions [...]
This past year over 2,000 children under the age of five died in Guatemala due to malnutrition. Guatemala actually has some of the highest rates of malnutrition and growth-stunting in the world, yet most people never hear about this situation in the news. Poverty, obviously, is one of the biggest causes of child malnutrition, but [...]
Though in the United States the Thanksgiving holiday means turkey, stuffing, family and football, the origins of the holiday are quite different—and often forgotten in the gluttony that ensues every fourth Thursday in November. Depending on whom you ask, Thanksgiving is either a fantastic holiday filled with good food and socializing, or a grotesque reminder [...]
Fíjese que… When you live in Guatemala, this is a phrase you will hear all the time. Fijarse literally translated means: to take notice, to pay attention. This is the literal translation but there is so much more that comes along with the phrase. The way things happen in Guatemala is different from that of [...]
I was going to write about an indigenous community outside of Guatemala, but I just finished Naomi Klein’s excellent book, The Shock Doctrine, and the systematic destruction indigenous people’s way of life is still fresh in my mind. While I don’t have the book in front of me, I do have this handy link from [...]
Language is an inseparable part of one’s culture. Why else would the French ban the word “email” from their government documents (they prefer to use the phrase “courier electronique)? To accept even a fraction of another culture’s language is to forever lose a part of your own. h Colonization – and its newer brother, neocolonization [...]
