Guatemala

Kristen wrote about the Maya for her seventh-grade history project. To give her report some context, I was delighted to find Casa Maya in nearby Mentone. This became my favorite restaurant and remained so for many years until they closed in 2017. I consistently ordered the salbutes and panuchos – anything with marinated turkey, pickled onions, beans, and cabbage has to be good! Do the two recipes look similar to you? The difference is that you stuff the tortilla for the panuchos:

· Salbutes: https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/yucatecan-tostadas-salbutes

· Panuchos: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/panuchos-2809403

Besides Guatemala, the center of Maya territory, Maya also come from the surrounding countries of Honduras, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. Their ancestors built pyramids, wrote books of history and medicine, studied astronomy, developed a calendar, and were skilled at art, weaving, farming, and business. Here are several resources I enjoyed while learning more about Maya civilization in its height:

· A Khan Academy series focusing on various art pieces: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/early-cultures/maya/a/the-maya-an-introduction

· A National Geographic documentary on recent discoveries expanding knowledge of the Maya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MFKy7DJsCY

· An episode of Fall of Civilizations theorizing on why the Maya civilization declined: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9YwfTerAdA

· Traditional Maya music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HILbfuvBD0

· The Popol Vuh, Maya origin myths (go to page 48 if you just want the text and not the preface): https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf

Besides seeing Mayan ruins and learning about this advanced culture, in Guatemala today we would see gorgeous scenery, weavers making beautiful cloth, and unusual animals. We might hear the rain all night while we sleep. Here are some resources to travel to present day Guatemala while staying at home:

· Netflix has a lovely tour called Guatemala: Heart of the Mayan World.

· Weavers in Guatemala make fabulous patterns in their beautiful cloth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2JSxywEJtU

· The Guatemalan Beaded Lizard is the subject of an episode of Deadliest Critters: Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwYQm2Vk8Ao

· Amazon Prime has Gentle Evening Rain, a nine hour film of rain while overlooking a nearby green hill and a distant mountain near La Antigua.

Guatemala is still recovering from twentieth century dictatorships, a civil war, and massacres of indigenous groups descended from the Maya. I picked up two Nobel Prize winning books covering these issues from the library, The President by Miguel Angel Asturias and I, Rigoberta Menchú by Rigoberta Menchú. In addition, both Kanopy and Amazon Prime have Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, showing the work necessary to build a genocide case against Guatemalan General Efraín Ríos Montt. These experiences have left many Guatemalans in poverty, as four American students experienced in Living on One Dollar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBjoQi1p21Q

Many Guatemalans live here in California, so Guatemalan restaurants are relatively easy to find. My sister Suzy and I took a rare drive during the pandemic to eat on the street in front of El Lucerito in San Rafael. (I love all the outdoor seating and hope it continues.) We shared the tostada de curtido with beets and cabbage, tamales (one chipalin-savory basil, one elote-sweet corn), grilled fish with rice, beans, salad, chirmol (salsa), and handmade tortillas that were soft and thick. Dessert was rellenitos – plantains and beans shaped in a kind of croquette and fried. Suzy, who was only going with me to be kind because she doesn't usually like new things, was pleasantly surprised to discover she enjoyed the food. I, of course, loved it!

El Lucerito is the most upscale Guatemalan restaurant I’ve tried, and I also enjoyed these Guatemalan businesses around Los Angeles:

· Channy’s Comidas Guatemaltecas in Hawthorne: I had the pan con frijol, which is a nice crusty bread with a bean spread and a cream spread making a good sandwich. I asked the Spanish speaking server her favorite of the baked goods. She suggested one that turned out to be mildly sweet, soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. I liked it better than the usual Mexican pan dulce which I have found to be harder.

· Antigua Bread on Figueroa in Los Angeles: I had the Guatemalan breakfast (eggs, black beans, soft cheese, plantains & bread) and added in two canchules (tamales with black beans in the masa - really delicious). I also bought four different kinds of Guatemalan sweet breads and the server explained to me that they are so hard so you can dunk them in your coffee.

· Antigua Coffee on Figueroa in Los Angeles: I have friends who rave about Guatemalan coffee so, since I don’t drink coffee, I chose a Guatemalan owned business and picked up a bag for Andrea. They grow the coffee on their family farm and roast it in the store. Andrea says it is dark and robust and she loves the smell of the grounds. She may have brewed too much for the amount of liquid, so she put in a lot of creamer and it was still super strong. The cookie she dipped into it was perfect with the coffee adding just the right flavor. She’s going to experiment with her brewing technique so she can drink it!

If you aren’t ready to get out, or there aren’t any Guatemalan businesses near you, here are some recipes to try: https://growingupbilingual.com/category/guatemala/guatemalan-recipes/

I hear that the travel industry is picking up, so here are some things to see if you actually go to Guatemala: https://www.twowanderingsoles.com/blog/things-to-do-in-guatemala. As always, I recommend working with your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Guatemala and throughout the world.

Photo credit: astuder https://www.flickr.com/photos/astuder/3298537202/