This past weekend, heads of state, business people, and social actors from across North and South America gathered in Cartagena, Colombia for the 6th Summit of the Americas. The summit is an opportunity for leaders to discuss issues of national and regional importance and this year made significant strides in including activists, indigenous groups, youth, [...]
Many of us in the United States are taking advantage of the warm spring weather over the long weekend. Yet, in Guatemala, during Semana Santa, or Holy Week, a huge celebration is going on all across the country and it is a popular week for tourists. According to the newspaper El Periodico, 1.5 million Guatemalans [...]
RWI is one among many dedicated organizations working on the ground in Guatemala to promote indigenous rights and development. This year, we hope to introduce you to the stories of other nonprofits that promote causes and missions similar to ours in the region. This post profiles one such organization, Peace Brigades International, and specifically their [...]
On February 16th, the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture in Guatemala announced the “Zero Hunger” campaign, a $260 million dollar blueprint to tackle hunger and poverty in the Central American country. Signed by President Otto Perez Molina, food security secretary Luis Enrique Monterroso, various cabinet ministers and local authorities, the “Zero Hunger” campaign represents [...]
Rigoberta Menchu is one of the most famous human rights activists and perhaps the most famous Guatemalan woman in the world. However, during and after the Guatemalan civil war many other women became vocal advocates for indigenous human rights. Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez is one such woman who has also been widely recognized throughout Guatemala and [...]
Semana Santa, or Holy Week, in Guatemala takes place from March 31 to April 7. Festivities are held throughout the country, but in La Antigua the celebrations and ceremonies are simply breathtaking. La Antigua is a Spanish colonial town, which is to the southwest of the Guatemalan capital. It has an enormous central plaza, stunning [...]
In very exciting news, the United Nations announced last Tuesday that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water has been achieved! Far ahead of its goal completion date of 2015, from 1990 to 2010 over two billion people worldwide gained access to [...]
Often, when discussing Latin America or other non-western regions, it is easy to fall into the trap of talking about people who live in these places as victims inseparable from their circumstances. When this happens it only serves to make these people voiceless and takes the focus away from the individuals who have brought about [...]
This post continues the Language Rights Series by exploring the connection between politics and language. The family of Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala represents not only a way of speaking, but also an indigenous way of life. The politics of language are complicated, and reflect conflicting desires for inclusion and autonomy among indigenous communities. This [...]
Those who follow Guatemala in the mainstream media probably know that violence and national security are the most pressing issues facing the country. International media coverage routinely centers on drug trafficking and President Otto Perez Molina created a new stir recently when he announced that he was considering legalizing drugs as one means to address [...]
As March approaches, many Central American countries are coming to the end of the coffee harvest season, which lasts from December through February. This is also a time a of celebration, with Carnaval right before Ash Wednesday, and in coffee growing communities a time for the harvest festival. In Pasac, where Roots and Wings operates, [...]
This post is part of the Language Rights Series that will be appearing throughout the next few weeks on the RWI blog. Each entry will offer a unique perspective on language rights issues and advancements in Guatemala since the 1996 Peace Accords. The 1996 Peace Accords outlined new efforts to incorporate indigenous languages into government [...]
Thanks to the Internet and the easier access to international travel, every day more people discover features as essential to a nation’s culture as the native languages of their inhabitants. Today many a visitor is surprised and delighted to find out that in countries like Guatemala, where Spanish is usually the only official language known [...]
Here in my workplace I’m free to take my lunch hour whenever I want, but given that I’m a creature of habit I tend to peel myself away from my computer screen at 1pm each day despite the benefits of flexitime. This does not necessarily mean that I have the willpower to resist my beautiful [...]
When one hears the phrase pirate radio, images of subversive rebels or maybe even violence might come to mind. When one turns on a “pirate” radio station they do not expect to hear cheerful marimba music, health advice, or indigenous language instruction. But that is exactly what listeners will hear if they turn on Radio [...]
