After spending a month getting skooled in spanish here in Guatemaya, I feel the nagging burning obligatory urge to illustrate an example of what I've heard and experienced. As well, I have got to publicly shout props to the school I attended, because it is an amazing program. If you have a couple thousand bucks, a month to spare, and want to learn spanish and Guatemalan politics/history, I highly recommend swinging down here for an education. The lessons, given by great spanish teachers knowledgeable in history and politics ("leftist"), are complemented with documentary showings, field trips to meaningful places, and guest speakers. On top of that, you can stay or eat with a local family, which can be an experience on its own (or you might end up watching American TV with them, varies.) It is an education full as an eclair, stuffed in a duck in a turkey.
But first, in general, worthy of description, is the spanish school thing in Guatemala. Some are non-profit organizations raising money for impoverished villages, sending kids to school, funding and building health clinics, and so forth. Some spanish schools just pocket your money. And other spanish schools say they are funding poor people, and then pocket your money.
There are many styles of spanish schools as well:
Some are fancy, pretentious, and snooty...
Some are more modest...and hard to find...
The school I went to is called
Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco. They are in Xela, along with the majority of schools in Guatemala (most of the gringos in Xela are here to study spanish, volunteer, and learn about Guatemala, which is extremely refreshing compared to the gringos who are here simply to see the popular beautiful spots listed in their stupid guidebooks and avoid the culture... more bitching on that later). The PLQ has a sister school in the mountains - this is the one I went to, and where my rap career has taken off.
The function of this school, as far as supporting the Guatemalan communities, is creating opportunities for a couple villages consisting mostly of laid-off coffee workers. The students eat with the families, whom get paid for feeding us, creating a job for them. A school was built and educational program started. A health clinic was built to limit travel for injury or illness or giving birth.
These are the beautiful faces of the village
The people here are very gentle
Ok, comic relief aside, I can tell you a story of many of these villagers, one that is pervasive among the oppressed indigenous in Guatemala, and is an old story as well. Like I mentioned, these families are those who once worked on coffee farms. And where they worked, they lived. Temporarily. However, they unfortunately were working for large-scale commodity farms, which are susceptible to the variabilities of the global market. For example, when another country like Vietnam decides to up their coffee production because the powers/companies-at-large think the demand will be sky high, and subsequently there is no big increase in demand, then the farms lose out with their depreciated product. Not so much the owners of the farms, but the numerous workers that were laid off in Guatemala. They then had to relocate.
Now, most of these folks are day-laborers. The men at least, there is not enough work for the rest of the family. It is possible for them to acquire work, they have hope! There again is some farmwork to be had. They could get paid 30 Quetzales (Q) for the day (about 4$ US). Minimum wage? Well, its 65Q. Min wage is more of a teasing apparition than a concrete effort to limit poverty. Regardless, they can still buy food for the family, even after dropping some of their earnings into transportation for the day (let's say 12Q, leaving them with 18Q for the day). Alright, looks like their working again. Go back for another day, drop 6Q for the ride out there, and, oh shit...no work today. Bummer, they spent almost all of their earnings from one day for nothing, all while they are barely scraping by as it is.
The take home message here is that there is little work in Guatemala. The people who need work the most, have been marginalized to the acidic soils of the mountain forest, not well suited for growing their own sustenance. Another twist of the arm is the loss of income from the (record?) high numbers of USA-deported latinos (under the Obama administration), of whom their families depended on. ¿Se la ví?
Peace,
Ronjon
