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Gained independence from Spain in the 1820s

Authoritarian rule until Guatemala became a democracy in 1985

Civil war started in 1960 and lasted 36 years

Fear of military return to power

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Violence

Corruption

Food insecurity

Severe weather (hurricanes and droughts)

Lack of security and government services

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Guatemalan restaurant in St. Paul: Panadería y Cafeteria El Quetzal

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Guatemalan restaurant in St. Paul: Panadería y Cafeteria El Quetzal

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This restaurant serves a variety of amazing looking baked goods, like Rosca de reyes, which is eaten on Three Kings Day. Other fare includes chicken and tamales.

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1. 500,000 immigrants call Minnesota home

2. Immigrant needs are at the forefront of our economic and cultural development as a state

3. 26% of Minnesota's immigrants are from Central America

4. 77% of immigrants in Minnesota have jobs

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Guatemalan Chicken Chain expanding into MN

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Guatemalan Chicken Chain expanding into MN

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Guatemalan chicken chain Pollo Campero expanding in Minnesota, starting with Brooklyn Center in 2024

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Pollo Campero wants to grow from 92 to 300 locations across the U.S. in the next five years and has plans to add nine more locations around the Twin Cities more than a decade after the West St. Paul location opened.

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Guatemalan cultural artifacts at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

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Guatemalan cultural artifacts at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

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Idea One: Honor through Dress

Mexico, Island of Jaina
Maya
Whistle, 7-10th century
Ceramic, pigment
Minneapolis Institute of Art
The John R. Van Derlip Fund

The ancient Maya are well known for their highly developed written language, art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Today, Mayan people live in Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador.

This ceramic figure is a hand-sized whistle that was buried with an important person on the small island of Jaina (hi-nah), the site of the largest known Mayan necropolis, or cemetery. The figure's prestige dress indicates burial with an important person. The short layered skirt, decorated in blue stripes, has a long panel that falls to the feet. Neatly combed hair, feathered headdress, and earrings are all signs of an elaborate ceremony.

Characteristic physical alterations enhance the figure's appearance. Mayan boys of this time period endured physical manipulation of their facial features to obtain the arched nose and flattened brow seen in this figure, desired features for Mayan men. Babies' heads were bound and shaped to grow upward and tall, not round, to align the forehead with the tip of the nose.

What words would you use to describe this masculine figure's facial expression? His face, arms, and legs are painted red, in imitation of the prestige practice of painting the deceased with iron oxides. His feet are firmly planted and his arms crossed over his chest, showing strength and pride, perhaps to communicate that he was honored for a significant accomplishment.

This jacket would have been worn during ceremonies, perhaps with special permission from the village priest. The fancy eye-catching embroidery would remind everyone of the wearer's prestige. Guatemala, El Quiché (el keesh-ay), Santo Tomás Chichicastenango (chee-chee-cas-te-non-go).

The addition of feathers to this huipil (we-peel) (woman's blouse) indicates it is not for everyday use, but for a wedding. This huipil is unusual in that the weaver is known and identified.

Idea Two: Village Identity

Each Maya village highlighted in this feature has a unique approach to weaving or embroidery. Villagers identify the origin of these textiles through their distinctive designs and colors.

The designs on many huipiles (we-peel-ays)-loose blouses worn by Mayan women-and other woven or embroidered Mayan textiles are symmetrical, or balanced, especially from side to side. By contrast, the weavings of the highland village of Santa Apolonia are recognizable by their asymmetry. The arrangement of shapes and colors in the Santa Apolonia designs appear more random.

The design on this tzute, a head covering or all-purpose carrying cloth, is asymmetrical whether viewed from side to side, or top to bottom. Notice the three bands of designs at the top of the wrap. Then see how a single band at the bottom repeats the shapes used in the first and third rows on the top. Between is an expanse of white space. By folding the tzute, the wearer could alter the garment's appearance. The woven shapes are distinctive and unusual. How would you describe these shapes?

Guatemala, Quetzaltenango,
Almolonga, Man's Ceremonial Tzute,
20th century, cotton, rayon:
jaspé (hahs-pay) ikat (ee-cot), and supplementary weft patterning,
Minneapolis Institute of Art,
Gift of Richard L. Simmons in memory of Roberta Grodberg Simmons

The textiles of the Guatemalan village of Almolonga (al-moe-loan-gah), located nine miles from the state capital of Quezaltenango (ket-zahl-te-non-go), are recognizable by their parallelogram or zigzag patterning and alternation of colors, designs that date back to the first half of 20th century. In this man's ceremonial tzute, or head covering, the repetition of orange, green, white, and purple parallelograms makes an eye-dazzling display that creates an optical illusion.

A unique practice in the village of Nahuala (nah-wall-ah) intentionally allows the dye from silk threads bleed onto the white base fabric. In this cofradia huipil (co-fra-dee-a we-peel), the red from the expensive silk thread has bled onto the white fabric. By allowing the thread to bleed, the wearer is showing that she has an expensive item, woven with silk thread.

Idea Three: Shapes and Patterns

Look at the shapes and patterns on your clothing. What do you like about them? Why do you think a clothing designer might have chosen these particular designs?

Look carefully at the geometric patterning on the lower portion of this huipil. Notice the alternating patterns and combinations of green, lavender, black, light blue, blue, green, turquoise, purple, red, magenta, yellow-green, and white. The shapes include triangles, interlocking vertical zigzags, diamonds, and parallelograms. The wearer of this huipil would have earned admiration and attention as she walked through her village.

Woven and embroidered Mayan textiles are full of shapes and patterns. Typically, geometric shapes indicate an older design, and more naturalistic shapes indicate a newer one. Many newer textiles, however, use geometric designs as a reference to the traditions and history of Mayan art.

The village of San Antonio Aguas Calientes (which means "hot waters") is near a volcano. The women there are among the most prolific back-strap weavers in Guatemala, producing textiles for local, regional, and even international markets. This huipil is an example of marcador (mar-kah-door) double-faced (or reversible) weaving, a technique that originated in the 1930s. The artists used European sources as a basis for the designs of flowers, fruit, birds, and leaves on the shoulders. Because of their complex and difficult-to-make designs, the marcador huipiles from San Antonio Aguas Calientes are expensive. People there and in other villages consider these high-status symbols. The blue velvet edges on the neck and armholes may indicate that this huipil was sold and worn in a different village.

This huipil is made in the older style of complex geometric motifs in the village of San Antonio Aguas Calientes. It features zigzags, triangles, diamonds, trapezoids, parallelograms, and dots, separated by bands of plain weave for contrast.

Idea Four: Designs as Symbols

The clothes you're wearing might bear a design, like an animal print, flowers, or soccer balls. Are the designs symbolic of something else? What do they say about you?

As in many cultures, the sun was and is a powerful symbol of energy and creation for the people of Guatemala and Mexico. This ceremonial stone spindle whorl features sunrays above a beaming sun face. A spindle whorl is set atop a wooden stick to form a tool; it is used to spin natural fibers into thread for weaving and other textile production. The spinner, most likely a woman, set the spindle in motion by spinning the stick between her hands, or in a ceramic bowl made for the purpose. The whorl provides the weight necessary for the fibers to spin around each other and lock together, resulting in thread. This particular spindle whorl, however, seems to be too heavy for that task; instead, it may have been used in ceremonies, or perhaps buried with a weaver or person of high rank.

The act of spinning can refer to the Mayan goddess Ixchel (ee-shell), who is considered the goddess of weaving and associated with the beginning of the world. So not only is a spindle whorl a tool, it is also a symbol for the creation of the world, birth, and weaving. It might have served as a reminder that the sun, spinning, and weaving all produce something, and are all connected.

These pants were once worn with a ceremonial jacket and would have made a powerful statement about the wearer's importance. The intricate circular design evokes the sun and is surrounded by a profusion of plants.

Idea Five: Wearing a Work of Art

The ancient art of textile weaving is thought to originate in the even more ancient art of basket-making. Both employ the primary technique of a base fiber (the warp) intertwined with a working fiber (the weft). Hats such as this one from Chiapas are woven using the same concept as basket-weaving.

Weaving is a time-consuming art, and this hat would have taken many days to make. First, the artist gathered the palm fibers and prepared them for weaving. While weaving, he would have shaped the fibers into the form of a human head. The huipiles and other clothing in this feature would have taken six to eight weeks to make, woven on a portable back-strap loom.

Think about your favorite outfit. Where did it come from? How do you think it was made? How long do you think it took to make? How do you feel when you wear it? Do you think it is a work of art?

This jaunty hat, with its shiny ribbons, would bounce as the wearer walked, calling attention to the rest of his outfit. Its main purpose was to guard from the sun's rays, but the artist has added a colorful pompom and streaming ribbons for a festive touch. Wearing this hat, the owner probably felt proud and confident.

Guatemala, El Quiché, Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, Skirt, from a complete costume, c. 1965, Cotton, silk; jaspé (ikat), Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Richard L. Simmons in memory of Roberta Grodberg Simmons

Related Activities

Who are the Maya?

The ancient Maya are well known for their highly developed ancient written language, art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Research the ancient and contemporary Maya. Where do the Maya live today? As part of your research, visit Maya Adventure here, a Web site developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota, which includes a section on the textile arts of the Chiapas Maya

Check out these books

Abuela's Weave, by Omar S. Castaneda; Angela Weaves a Dream, by Michéle Solá; Mayan Weaving: A Living Tradition by Ann Stalcup; You Can Weave!: Projects for Young Weavers, Kathleen Monaghan and Hermon Joyner.

Shapes on the Move

Click here to visit Artist's Toolkit to learn more about shape, balance, movement, and rhythm. Draw three shapes that you find particularly interesting in the works of Mayan art in this set. Then draw a pattern made up of your favorite Mayan shapes. Is your pattern balanced? How will you create a sense of movement in your pattern?

Every Garment Tells a Story

Huipiles (we-peel-ays) and other Mayan textiles go through various stages of use. Initially they are worn as a garment. Then they are passed on to younger family members. As they wear out, they are cut into smaller pieces, and eventually used as diapers! Write a history, real or imagined, of one of your garments.

Textiles Around the World

Go to ArtsConnectEd to view an Art Collector's set of Mayan textiles in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Click here. How do these textiles relate to the objects and textiles highlighted in this feature? Then, use the art-finder tool in ArtsConnectEd to search for textiles from other parts of the world. Using the Art Collector tool, create a collection of your top 10 textiles from around the world.

What Do your Clothes Say About You?

Imagine you are getting ready to pose for a photo that many people will see. What are you going to choose to wear? Why? What does your choice of clothing communicate about your identity? How does what you choose to wear affect how you feel?"

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The ancient Maya are well known for their highly developed written language, art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Today, Mayan people live in Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador. This ceramic figure is a hand-sized whistle that was buried with an important person on the small island of Jaina (hi-nah), the site of the largest known Mayan necropolis, or cemetery.

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In the Shadow of Green Man by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin (Author), Per Andreassen (Editor)

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In the Shadow of Green Man by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin (Author), Per Andreassen (Editor)

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I read this book in an environmental studies class, and it was a great blend of Guatemalan history, personal stories from the author, and an interesting discussion on innovative regenerative farming techniques. This would be a fun one to include in an Ag class!

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Website collection of lessons about Guatemala 

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Website collection of lessons about Guatemala 

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Rigoberta Menchú was born to a Mayan K'iche peasant family. Her family was active in grassroots organizing for land reform and women's rights. As a catechist in the Catholic Church, she also became involved with social reform. After the murders of her brother, father, and mother by Guatemalan military forces, she joined the Committee of the Peasant Union and the 31st of January Popular Front, rebel groups in the Guatemalan Civil War. She was forced to flee to Mexico in 1981, and there dictated the book to anthropologist Elizabeth Burgos. The testimony gained her international renown, and in 1992, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of indigenous rights. She continues to advocate for indigenous rights, and ran for the Guatemalan presidency in 2007.

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Teach About Guatemala - Teaching Central America

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Rigoberta Menchú was born to a Mayan K'iche peasant family. Her family was active in grassroots organizing for land reform and women's rights. As a catechist in the Catholic Church, she also became involved with social reform.

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1. 15% of Guatemalan kids do not speak any English when they arrive in MN

2. Less than 25% of Guatemalan students meet state academic standards by 8th grade compared to the state average (59%)

3. 44% of Guatemalan kids come to MN without a blood parent or relative

4. Over 75% Guatemalan families follow a Christian faith (Catholic/Protestant)

5. Guatemalan music falls under the Afro-Cuban music triangle.

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List of films that could be used in a classroom about Guatemala, from the same organization that has lesson plans centered on Central America 

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List of films that could be used in a classroom about Guatemala, from the same organization that has lesson plans centered on Central America 

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The 2 from this list that stood out to me were Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America (for older students) and If the Mango Tree Could Speak (for younger students). Since these are full length documentaries, snippets could be integrated well into a lesson that includes other components, instead of watching the entire movie over multiple class periods.

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Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America

High School/Adult

Harvest of Empire offers a comprehensive analysis of the connection between immigration to the U.S. and the long history of United States intervention in Latin America. "They never teach us in school that the huge Latino presence here is a direct result of our own government's actions in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America over many decades - actions that forced millions from that region to leave their homeland and journey north," says Juan González at the beginning of the film. The film is based on a book of the same title by González. 2012. 90 minutes.

If the Mango Tree Could Speak

Elementary/Middle/high school

If the Mango Tree Could Speak shares the story of ten girls and boys in Guatemala and El Salvador during the war. From losing family members to war, to challenges to obtaining an education, to the struggle to retain Mayan identity, the movie is filled with their stories, portraying the war through the lens of the youth whose lives it changed. There is a beautiful companion website, When We Were Young, with interviews conducted 20 years later.

Guazapa: Yesterday's Enemies

High School/Adult

Guazapa: Yesterday's Enemies explores the past and present of the Salvadoran civil war. Don North, a U.S. war correspondent who had spent two months in El Salvador during the height of the conflict, returns to El Salvador to interview people about the consequences 26 years later. The film consists of those interviews and observations from 2009 as well as the observations he collected in 1983 when he first began documenting the crisis. Read COHA review of the film.

La Manplesa: An Uprising Remembered

High School/Adult

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington D.C.'s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of Daniel Gomez, a young man from El Salvador. The uprising called attention to the deep and widespread discrimination experienced by the Latinx community. Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theatre, La Manplesa weaves together the collective memory of one of D.C.'s first barrios and dives into the roots of the '91 rebellion. As people across the world take to the streets to demand an end to police brutality, the film honors the largely untold stories that have come before us, and explores how artists prompt us to remember what we still have to fight for. 52 minutes.

Prudencia Ayala, (animación)

MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL

This short animation follows the life of Salvadoran writer and social activist, Prudencia Ayala, who fought for womens rights in early 1900s. Due to poverty and limited access to school as a child, she could not continue her formal education past the second grade. Despite these obstacles, Ayala gained mass popularity after publishing predictions and feminist articles in favor of gender equality, anti-imperialism, and Central American unionism. She challenged the political and social parties and went on to run for Presidential candidacy despite the laws that impeded women from having any rights at all. This short film is appropriate for middle and high school students. Subject area connections include Central American history, women's rights, indigenous rights, gender inequality, and changemakers around the world. 9 minutes.

Romero

High School/Adult

Oscar Romero was named Archbishop of El Salvador at a time when the country was in turmoil and a slogan on the right was "Be a Patriot--Kill a Priest." Starring Raúl Juliá, Romero follows the Archbishop's personal journey from being on the side of the elite to fighting fervently for social reforms and becoming "the voice for the voiceless." Produced by a Roman Catholic order, the film says little about the role of the U.S. 1989. 102 minutes.

Voces Inocentes/Innocent Voices

High School/Adult

Based on the life of co-screenwriter Óscar Torres, Innocent Voices tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who is forced to join the Salvadoran army during the civil war.

500 Years: Life in Resistance

High School/Adult

500 YEARS: Life in Resistance tells the epic story that led Guatemala to a tipping point in their history from the genocide trial of former dictator General Rios Montt to the popular movement that toppled sitting President Otto Perez Molina. Focusing on universal themes of justice, racism, power and corruption, 500 YEARS tells the story from the perspective of the majority indigenous Mayan population, and their struggles in their country's growing fight against impunity.

The Art of Political Murder

HIGH SCHOOL/ADULT

Based on Francisco Goldman's book of the same name and executive-produced by Academy Award winners George Clooney and Grant Heslov, The Art of Political Murdertells the story of the 1998 murder of Guatemalan human rights activist Bishop Juan Gerardi and how it stunned a country ravaged by decades of political violence. Read a review of the film.

El Silencio de Neto

High School/Adult

El Silencio de Netois a coming of age story of a young boy in the midst of the U.S. backed overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 in Guatemala. Read a detailed description. This film, produced by Luis Argueta, is available on Netflix. 1994. 108 minutes.

Sipakapa Not Sold

High School/Adult

The transnational company Glamis Gold (now Gold Corp. ) operates a gold mine in Guatemala. The Maya People of Sipakapa defend their autonomy against the advance of the great neoliberal projects.

Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley

High School/Adult

When a 21st century coup d'état ousts the only president they ever believed in, these Honduran farmers take over the plantations with no plans to ever give them back.

Beginning with the first coup in Central America in three decades, Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley picks up the story of the farmers who responded to the coup by taking over the plantations of the most powerful man in Honduras. The camera follows three of the movement's protagonists and one brilliant journalist from the capital city over the four years between the coup and the elections that the farmers hope will return democracy to Honduras. Produced by Makila Usine Médiatique and Naretiv Productions.

¡Las Sandinistas!

High School/Adult

¡Las Sandinistas! uncovers the untold stories of women who shattered barriers to lead combat and social reform during Nicaragua's 1979 Sandinista Revolution, and the ensuing US-backed Contra War, as these same women continue as leaders in the struggle against their current government's suppression of democracy and women's rights.

The film is centered around the personal stories of Dora Maria Téllez, the young medical student who became a major Sandinista General, and four of her revolutionary allies - Nicaraguan women who overcame traditional gender barriers and subverted stereotypes to lead rebel troops in battle and reshape their country with landmark social reform. ¡Las Sandinistas! exposes a watershed moment in history when thousands of women transformed society's definition of womanhood and leadership before facing renewed marginalization by their male peers after the wars ended. Now, 35 years later, amidst staggering levels of gender violence in Nicaragua, these same women brave the streets once again to lead popular movements for equality and democracy.

The Panama Deception

High School/Adult

In their Oscar-winning documentary, director Barbara Trent and writer/editor David Kasper contrast media coverage of the 1989 invasion of Panama with expert testimony. The filmmakers backtrack to the U.S. turn-of-the-century takeover of the Panama Canal--and volatile aftermath--before flashing forward to the reform-minded Carter era. When the CIA-supported Noriega comes to power, reform gives way to repression, and Reagan calls for the dictator's ouster. The documentary streams for free online. 1992. 90 minutes.

The Golden Dream/La Jaula de Oro

High School/Adult

The Golden Dream/La jaula de oro tells the story of four teenagers (three Guatemalan and one Mexican) on a dangerous journey across the border to the U.S. Their stories are based on 600 interviews conducted by the director. " La Jaula de Oro just may stand as the definitive Latino immigrant odyssey." -- Film Journal International. Listen to an extended Democracy Now! interview with film director Diego Quemada-Diéz on La Jaula de Oro and migration to the U.S. Available on Netflix.

Which Way Home?

High School/Adult

Academy Award nominee Which Way Home follows unaccompanied children as they make the long and treacherous voyage to the U.S. border. Some, like Olga and Freddy, venture out in search of distant relatives. Others, like Kevin, hope to find work to support their families at home. Often traveling for months or even years at a time, these courageous and determined children each have stories of hope and resilience, disappointment and sorrow. Chronicling the harrowing journey of thousands of migrant children, Which Way Home illuminates a powerfully human side of immigration.

La Manplesa

High School/Adult

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington DC's Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of Daniel Gomez, a young man from El Salvador. The uprising called attention to the deep and widespread discrimination experienced by the Latinx community. For thirty years, these three seminal days in the city's history of racial justice movements have remained seared in the memories of community members - yet have also rested largely untold beyond the neighborhood's own streets.

Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theatre, La Manplesa weaves together the collective memory of one of DC's first barrios, dives into the roots of the '91 rebellion, and explores the ways that activism of the past informs and inspires present social movements. 52 minutes.

Remembering the 1991 Disturbances in Mount Pleasant

Smithsonian Latino Center. Roundtable discussion (2011).

Beyond Borders: U.S. Central American Art in the Age of Social Media

Keynote address for the University of Maryland Stamp Gallery's exhibition; C onnected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media with speaker Mauricio E Ramírez. Moderated by Teach Central America campaign advisor, Dr. Ana Patricia Rodriguez.

History of Central America
Dr. Ana Patricia Rodríguez, associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and U.S. Latina/o Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, gave an overview of the history of Central America, including the Indigenous peoples, colonization, independence movements, and the role of the United States.

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Harvest of Empire offers a comprehensive analysis of the connection between immigration to the U.S. and the long history of United States intervention in Latin America.