Dec. 29, 1999
San Antonio Palopó, Guatemala
Greetings,
This is the post-Christmas, pre-millennium meltdown edition of this newsletter. Here we are in the final days of the millennium, facing a big unknown– what will happen when Y2K finally arrives? There is a pretty good chance the computers here in Guatemala won’t be working on Jan. 1st. I say that not because I believe all the Y2K doomsday hype, but because here they don’t work half the time anyway.
Of course, it is still seems a miracle that they work at all. Guatemala is modernizing quickly, at least in some areas, and things such as computers, cell phones and satellite television are getting pretty common.
Faye and I have chosen to spend the turn of the millennium in the village of San Antonio, on the shore of Lake Atitlan, where we have been coming for the past several years. We thought about trying to go somewhere else, a little more exotic perhaps, for the Y2K party and/or disaster. But there is no place more special to us, both because my four godchildren and their family are here, and because this is where we met, four years ago.
We also considered that if there are any Y2K-related problems they are likely to go unnoticed here. If the phones go down, that will only knock them back a year or so. If there is a power failure, well, that happens pretty often anyway, and is a good thing as far as we’re concerned. The sun will shine, the rain will fall, the corn will grow. That’s what matters here.
This year we took the bus down once again. We started from our home in Ashland, stopped over a few days at my mom’s winter camp near Yuma, Arizona, then headed down through Mexico. We managed to make it all the way without stomach problems- or at least none that couldn’t be attributed to having hot sauce for breakfast.
Normally, when traveling, I am in favor of staying on the ground as much as possible, especially when the destination is vastly different from where one started from. Staying on the ground allows one to make gradual adjustments, and better understand the context of the destination. Getting off a plane in an unfamiliar and strange place can be disorienting.
But we’ve been to Guatemala many times. While it remains strange in many respects, it is not unfamiliar. For us, going by bus no longer serves a purpose. Prices in Mexico have risen in recent years and going by bus isn’t even that much cheaper than by plane. So, on the way down, after one too many nights trying to sleep sitting up on the bus, and far too many hours spent in all too familiar bus terminals, we promised ourselves that from now on, we’re flying. Needless to say, we were glad to get to San Antonio and get settled into our little adobe room, lumpy mattress and all (or rather lumpy mattress and little else).
The changes here this year are fewer than last year, and less dramatic. There is a new four-man police force. I had mixed feelings at first when I learned that, but they seem to be doing a good job, and now I think they are a good thing. The other day I helped a couple of them arrest a drunk. Well, to be honest, I just chatted with him about what good friends we were while the police handcuffed him.
There are more phones in the village, even a few cell phones. My dream of having an internet connection here seems more and more possible (assuming things work after Y2K). My godchildren, their family, and our other friends are all doing well. It is interesting to see people I first met as children several years ago now getting married and starting to have children of their own. Kids grow up fast here.
We arrived a few days before Christmas in time to participate, however unwillingly, in the holiday festivities. Here, the holiday season is characterized by noise. In the markets this time of year there are large tables selling a virtual pyrotechnic smorgasbord of fireworks. Some of the “firecrackers” are about the size of a frozen orange juice can, and make a truly impressive bang. (I’m not sure where the line is drawn between “firecracker” and “bomb”). These and many others, including entire packages of the smaller firecrackers are lit off at all hours of the night.
Of course the nightly battle of the evangelical bands continues unabated, with their Mexican-inspired music amplified as loud as electronically possible and broadcast from loudspeakers atop the churches. Occasionally they are joined by a woman singing in the Pentecostal church who has a screeching, monotone style that sends us scrambling for our earplugs. The overall effect is hard to describe, but it is a bit like listening to a cat being strangled, during a Mexican revival meeting, in a war zone.
Fortunately, during the day things are usually quieter. We are able to do what we really are here for- play with the kids, socialize with our other friends and explore the markets and other sights
Politics
No report from Guatemala would be complete without a few comments on the political situation. I’ll try to be brief. This year was an election year. Last year I predicted that the popularity of President Alvaro Arzu and his PAN party would sweep his successor, Oscar Berger, into office. I was very wrong.
Arzu was largely responsible for arranging the peace accord three years ago which ended 30 years of armed conflict with rebels unhappy with the military government. More than 100,000 Mayas were killed during that time, many more escaping into southern Mexico. Following the signing of the peace accord, a lot of foreign aid flooded into the country, most of which Arzu used to build roads, schools and health centers. I thought, wrongly, that the Guatemalans would think those things were a good idea. Maybe they did, but evidently the price of basic food items such as rice, beans and corn was more important. The price of those things, as well as electricity, which Arzu had privatized, increased over the past few years. Berger’s opponent, Alfonso Portillo, made the most of this, promising he would make sure the prices would drop. That wasn’t the only issue, of course, but I won’t try to explain the whole thing since I’ve already demonstrated I don’t understand Guatemalan politics.
The general election was Nov. 4. Portillo got 49% of the votes, Berger got 30-something%. (The FDNG, a coalition party comprised partly of representatives of the former rebels finished far behind the two leading parties.) A run-off election was held last Sunday, the day after Christmas. With about 40% of voters going to the polls, Portillo won by a better than 2-to-1margin.
Unfortunately, Portillo is a thug. His party, the FRG, was founded by, and is still lead by, General Rios Montt. In the late 70s Rios Montt lead a failed coup attempt against the government, escaping to Miami afterwards. The General was a Catholic, but in Miami he became an evangelical Christian. In the early 80s Rios Montt’s followers gained control of the government and he returned to preside over one of the bloodiest eras in Guatemala’s history. Soldiers killed thousands of Mayas, death squads operated throughout the country with impunity, murdering those who dared dissent. I first came to Guatemala in ’86, oblivious to the situation. But I recall how fearful anyone was to talk about it and answer my questions. My Spanish teacher said “You never know who is listening.”
Now Rios Montt is president of the Congress, and Portillo has been elected president. We asked a Guatemalan friend here what he thought of the election. He just shook his head and said, rather graphically, “It’s like the Jews voting for a Nazi.”
There is an often used term here- “Fíjese!”- which means, roughly, “go figure!” It is used to express wonderment at something that doesn’t seem to make any sense. I think that applies to this election. (“Fíjase!” can also mean something like “I don’t know whose responsibility this problem is, but it’s not mine so don’t expect me to do anything about it”. It is a very useful word.)
I am concerned about what will happen now in Guatemala, but I hope for the best. Much good has been accomplished in the last few years, and I hope it cannot be easily undone.