By Andrew Lohmann, Webspace since 1997
Previous page Black Elk Changed; 15/06/2011
My impression of Guatemala, Central America is that people live Mayan culture despite extreme pressure from conquistadors 500 years ago through to CIA backed counter contra measures recently. Mayan ceremonies occur in Catholic churches placed on Mayan religious places, tolerated or perhaps accepted by the church, they can do no other, it not there place to in anycase. It made me smile when I saw a Christ with a Mayan headdress on crucifix in glass case in a hotel.
The children seem happy but the adults are not happy, but there is an assumption of getting better. US food is available but the indigenous people don’t eat it, there food is maze (corn) milled with limestone to release vital nutrients, Beans and peppers. The temples have pictures of the old Mayan royals with walking sticks 800 years ago. Subsequently the Mayan royalty was gone before the Spanish arrived partly due to poor nutrition probably. Perhaps the Mayan people have a cultural inbuilt skepticism of hierarchy and so called civilisation.
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Andrew Lohmann