Cultural Experiences in Guate

We had the opportunity to join our friends in the home of a Guatemalan woman, who, together with some friends, helped us to experience some of their culture. Here she is demonstrating backstrap weaving.

 

They explained to us that the patterns in the cloth have meanings (it reminded me very much of an art history class I took in college). Some marks represent dog tracks, others bends in the road. In fact, people from different areas of Guatemala can look at a lady's hand-woven skirt and know where she's from. And! when their clothes are worn out, they are burned! Because it is such a part of their identity, they don't want anyone else reusing the clothing - it would be like identity theft! Because their clothing is labor intensive, they always wear an apron to cover and protect it.

Here we are learning about weaving reeds. They collect the reeds early in the morning or after the sun goes down so that the edges are softer and won't cut their fingers. After drying out, the reeds can be woven into fans, mats, carpets, and even sleeping mats. Kids as young as 7 years old will already be weaving reeds before or after school.

While we didn't get a tour of their coffee trees, we did get to see their method of griding coffee beans. Some of our neighbors have carvings made of coffee wood! I know coffee comes from trees but I never thought of it as a wood.

My favorite part was being taken up a long, stone staircase (which was completely open on one side - hug the wall, kids!) to this traditional kitchen where they make tortillas over a wood burning stove. Note the upper half of the walls black with soot. It was hot and smokey, but I loved the authenticity.

After rinsing their hands, the kids were each given a lump of masa (corn flour mixed with water to make a dough a bit softer than play dough) to form into their own tortilla by slapping it back and forth in their hands.

Baristas sometimes take pride in their fingers' desensitization to heat. These ladies flipping tortillas by hand are next level! After the tortillas had cooked, they added a touch of water, sprinkle of salt, and then rolled it up as a make-shift taco for the kids to eat.

I appreciated their calm response, "we'll feed it to the chickens" when one of my kids dropped their masa on the ground. Twice.

After tortilla making, we enjoyed a typical Guatemalan dish together: Pepián (a meat stew) over rice  with a side of tortillas (as always) and refreshing hibiscus juice.

Another big cultural experience has been the celebration of Easter. When we arrived 4 weeks before Easter, people had already decorated homes and businesses with purple streamers, banners, and flags. We attended an evening festival in our town's plaza (almost 3 weeks before Easter) complete with a big, professional band, lighting, and video cameras! Like the typical gringos that we are, we arrived too early and couldn't hang for the whole thing which went on until at least 10pm (we could hear the distant music as we fell asleep).

With just two weeks until Easter, our town held a processional for kids. Some of our neighbors participated and gave us the helpful heads up that we shouldn't bother coming until an hour and a half after it started. We got there just in time to see a flower carpet before it got trampled. 

All the boys dress in purple robes. Girls wore white dresses and white or purple veils. Older kids get the privilege of helping to carry the float (which resembles a casket - we're not clear on if that's intentional). Incense leads the way and a band and clean up crew bring up the rear.

Evidence.

Because parking is an impossible feat in Antigua during Easter, we took our first chicken bus ride! We were advised to go early if we wanted to see any flower carpets before they were trampled. We made it to the bus around 7am and to Antigua before 8.

Which was apparently too late because this was the scene we walked up to:

(can you see the confetti? that was my favorite part)

Apparently, some people attend mass at 2am and then start making the flower carpets in the streets and continue all night long. The processionals start early! It was a very somber feel--no clapping or cheering; tears, not smiles. The float we got closest to was carried by women and it looked like suffering - we wondered if this is intentional to symbolize joining Christ in his suffering.

We found ourselves in front of a catholic church with lots of bell ringers on the roof. Here we counted 8 drones in the air getting footage of the processional and a live radio show covering the event.

This is all we saw of the famous alfombras (made of fruit and flowers). We were impressed by the hard-working clean up crew.

Here is a less elaborate version of an alfombra from our gated community's little chapel. As we're not willing to get up any earlier or stay up any later, it might be the best view of a flower carpet that we get!

After the overwhelming sensory experience of an Easter processional in Antigua, we were in no shape to sit through a live church service (which I regretted because I just love worship songs in Spanish), so we opted for streaming our home church's service from the comfort of our king sized bed. It felt like cultural whiplash to hear the announcements reminding people that Easter and Easter activities are "just around the corner." Where we are, Easter started weeks ago and no one needs a reminder because you really can't miss it!