My rant: please read and repeat to everyone you know

I have wanted to write about this for a bit now, but wasn't sure if I would be putting people in actual danger by speaking out on the internet. As many of you know, the Guatemalan government (with the assistance and funding of the US) had a civil war that went from 1960-1996. During this time Mayan communities were targeted and attacked through both political and social discrimination as well as actual killings. According to Wikipedia, "40,000 to 50,000 people were disappeared during the war and approximately 200,000 were killed."

This discrimination and blatant racism continues in many forms today. One of which is preventing the vote. What better way to keep people oppressed, impoverished and unable to overhaul a hateful system than to prevent the vote. AND THIS IS CURRENT HISTORY WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. A month from now comes elections. I have now heard two different accounts of ways in which mayan citizens will be prevented from participating- rendering the elections not free elections and not representative of the actual wants and needs of the people.

The first way is through Mayan names. The government has switched to an automized voting system and claims that the system can't register the glottal stop in Mayan names. The glottal stop is written like this ' and is the sound that in English we have in uh'oh. This means that anyone with a Mayan name such as Raina's: Ixajpub' is said to be too difficult to register in their home town. To vote they need to go to the capital, Guatemala City and register there. They will then be denied three or four times and have to keep coming back to the capital before the change can be made. Unbelievable!

The second way (that I have heard of so far) is through identification cards. Currently Guatemalans have Cedula's as their identification cards. However, these are old and not scannable so again Guatemala is attempting to update its technology. Supposedly applying to get the new card is a rapid process when you have a Ladino name such as Ana, Diego, Marcos. Yet, if you have a Mayan name the process suddenly retards to an almost stop. I've heard of cases of Mayan adults waiting over a year for the same card that takes others a month to receive. This is important because without this new card- one cannot vote.

And without the vote- one cannot affect political change. This does not mean one cannot affect change, but the political aspect matters. It matters that the laws promote anti-discriminatory practices and respect for differences. It matters that the laws respect linguistic differences, since language is so complexly intertwined with culture and identity. It matters that the laws respect a person's own history and being and don't try and erase it for "a more developed guatemala" If the point of a government is to "protect us" everyone needs their voices heard. Please mention these cases so that the other side is heard as well.

A very Tijax Day

Yesterday was a very Tijax day. Tijax is my mayan cosmological nahual (sign). Its the sign of obsidian and the picture for it is of cracking obsidian. Anyway, yesterday was Tijax.... and like the nahual two glasses broke. It was a very Tijax kind of day.

Answer: Comalapa de San Juan for el dia de San Juan

This picture is of a man filling the "globos". The paper balloon was then lit with a fire inside and flown over the heads of the crowd into the sky beyond. These globos were flown for El dia de San Juan, a HUGE festival celebrated in San Juan de Comalapa. There was a giant market, rides, comvite, globos, and decorated scenes inthe churches. There were chocobananas, granizados (essentiallya snowball with nuts and fruit in it), and a ferris wheel that not only moved quickly, but switched halfway through and moved quickly backwards. A lot of the students rode this. I chose instead to have a dance party with the teachers.

This is a picture of the comvite. Its a giant circle where a group of disguised people dance ALL day long. At the end of the day they remove their disguises. The Oso Carinoso was one of my favorite disguises. While the people danced, my teachers and the other students rocked out. We looked like weird gringos, but it was too fun to stop. I was glad that everyone joined in.

Guess where Im going tomorrow?!?

Metas

One of my classmates is studying kaqchikel because his entire family is kaqchikel- yet no one speaks it. Hundreds of live relatives, and he wants to be the first. Se lo me impresa mucho. I can't imagine what language would be my equivalent- polish, scottish, russian? Yet I know how much cultural heritage is preserved through language. Maybe I should be speaking all of the above, and Italian of course.

Mini City

I thoroughly explored Antigua today. It's small. You can walk from one end to the other in thirty minutes. In fact I have to multiple times a day since I live on one end and study on the other. Oi vey. I was hoping to exercise more here. That is a success.

Always remember...

to throw your toilet paper in the trash.

Day 1: A Comedy of Errors

I brought my host mom, Ana Luisa my family's famous ruggalah. It got through customs, but was reduced to crumby mush by the abuse of my luggage in the rain. While I was showing her the tragedy, I explained how the recipe includes "huesos". For all of you non-hispanohablantes, I told my host mom that I put bones in her gift... in front of four other family members. I had meant to warn her about "nueces" (nuts), however I clearly did not say that. Luckily, she forgave me, and even ate some that had remained whole.

This just shows how lovely she is. We have had a couple of meals together and many conversations and I feel really comfortable here. Raina and I have a nice room with lots of space, there is a patio where everyone can convene, the food is delicious, and two other students and Professor Maxwell live in the same "compound". Architecturally this place is very interesting as well. However, explanation of that requires pictures. The only downside is the parrots. If you are reading this please elicit a prayer to a god of your choosing that they shutup.

New Country New Orange

Orange in Kaqchikel is qanq'oj, and the fruit is xna'j. Kaqchikel is the language spoken by a group of Mayan people living in the highlands of Guatemala. It has ejective consonants and glottal stops with phonemic value (which for the most part we don't have in english- two exception being the [k'] in /like/ and /uh'oh/)

I am thrilled to go to Antigua, Guatemala, and I am thrilled to learn this language. This unacceptable orange will happily travel the world and transcribe her viewpoint on it for all of you happy readers out there. Who knows, maybe you will learn some kaqchikel. One thing should be noted, however. Orange is NOT unacceptable in highland Guatemala. In fact the

clothes could not be more colorful. For example here is a p'as. I think my colorful personality may fit right in. Yet, the title of this blog stays. I'm sure it'll find its reason in Guatemala as well.