SUMMER 2017 STAYCATION: Worry Dolls from Guatemala. I had these beauties in a mini-bag for quite some time and I finally had time to put them in a frame. Pretty, huh? Look up the significance of these dolls when you can. There is a reason my friends got me these!
Join Guatemalans in Rhode Island in celebrating their heritage at the 3rd Annual Festival Guatemala on Sunday, September 9, 2012 from 10am to 6pm at Roger Williams Temple of Music in Providence, RI. For more information contact [email protected].The festival is coordinated by the Guatemalan Center of New England.
For many Guatemalans, Rhode Island became a passing point on the way to political asylum in Canada–simply a temporary stop-over. In the 1980sand 90s, the Guatemalan community became more visible, settling in places like Providence, Central Falls and Woonsocket. Today, Guatemalans can also be found in large numbers in Aquidneck Island (primarily Portsmouth and Middletown) working in nurseries and running their own lawn care businesses.
When Guatemalans first began to settle in Rhode Island, one of the biggest attractions for them was that it was a peaceful place, especially compared to cities like New York and Los Angeles. Many of the first Guatemalans to reach Rhode Island were from small farming communities, and the rural feeling of Rhode Island–and particularly Aquidneck Island–made them feel very much at home.
The first reported Guatemalans began to arrive in New England in the early to mid-1960s. Those were the years of the civil rights movement, and many women and African Americans were moving out of jobs as domestic workers into better-paying ones. There was a need to fill these abandoned positions, and employment agencies in Boston reached out as far as Guatemala searching for domestic workers. By the late 1960s and early 70s, many of these women eventually found their way to Providence when city life in Boston became too overwhelming for them and their families. At that time, the Guatemalans who arrived in Rhode Island found very few Hispanics living here. The only services that were available to them were limited ones offered by the Catholic Church. Many Guatemalans felt isolated from their people as they sought places to speak their language or for the familiar foods that they needed to cook their native dishes. The only Hispanic business where they found a bit of comfort was a place called Fefa’s Market, a restaurant and market in South Providence (owned by Josefina Rosario), which sold many Latin American staples. Eventually Guatemalans looking for food that reminded them of home ended up at Roger Williams Park, where a Guatemalan family pulled up their truck once a week to sell tortillas.
Feelings of isolation were often expressed by many Hispanics in Rhode Island, including one Guatemalan woman interviewed for this project, who considers herself and her family to be one of the first to arrive in Rhode Island in 1962. Because of her undocumented status when she and her family reached Rhode Island, she remembers very little about her life in the West End of Providence, where she and her family lived in hiding in the home of a friend for almost two years. Even at the age of eight, she recalls living in fear that they would be found by authorities, and the loneliness sometimes led her to wish she could return to her country just so she could walk outside and breathe the fresh air of her familiar world. During her interview, she commented on the irony of hearing her parents talk about coming to America to find a more stable place to live, a place where they could gain economic security and safety, and to be free to walk the streets without fear of government oppression. At that time, there were three such families from Guatemala who had been brought to Rhode Island through the Catholic Church, an entity that at the time was not readily prepared to give them the appropriate services needed to become contributing citizens of the U.S.
Formal records show that during the 1970s and 80s Guatemalans began to settle in high numbers in the West End neighborhood of Providence, and also in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence–on Westminister Street and in the vicinity of Saint Teresa’s Catholic Church, where a Spanish mass held every Sunday made them feel at home. The areas around Broadway Street in Providence, just east of Olneyville, are also heavily populated with Guatemalans. There are also pockets of Guatemalans in northern Rhode Island, in places like Central Falls and Woonsocket. Remarkably, in North Providence, a small community developed in the 1990s, one that includes Quiché-speaking Mayans, an interesting phenomena that raised a new set of social barriers for this community.
According to one Guatemalan who has lived in Rhode Island since the 1960s, the Guatemalan community today is still very isolated. Many individuals do not get involved in political advocacy or find it hard to access state social services for which they qualify primarily because they are accustomed to fearing anything public or government sponsored. The Guatemalan community today lives quietly in Rhode Island, and still relies on some assistance from the Catholic Church and other social service agencies, yet they have formed two organizations in an effort to educate their community about issues of amnesty and immigration reform. A number of restaurant and markets that sell Guatemalan foods are now serving the large number of Guatemalans who live in Providence and Central Falls.
Victor Morente was born on January 17, 1990, in Zacualpa, Quiche, Guatemala. He grew up in an impoverished neighborhood, where the community suffered from lack of food and clean water. Victor remembers the people living in extreme poverty, in houses built of Adobe mud, with no cars.
Due to the civil war and genocide in Guatemala at the time, Victor’s mother fled the country and crossed over the border as an undocumented immigrant in 1994. She was forced to leave Victor behind with one of his aunts because he was too young to accompany her. At the age of six Victor finally embarked on his journey to the United States. He crossed The Rio Grande on a raft, traveled through Mexico, and walked the deserts of Texas. After finally reaching an airport in Texas he was able to take a plane to Providence, Rhode Island.
Growing up in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in the Southside of Providence with many other minorities, Victor felt welcomed. He was an excellent student, who put a lot of time and effort into his schoolwork. In high school however, Victor was told that his dream of going to college would not be possible because he was an undocumented immigrant. He became disillusioned and stopped doing his schoolwork.
Two years after graduating high school, Victor and his family finally received a phone call from their attorney who informed that they had a court date scheduled at the Boston Immigration Court based on their immigration application for asylum protection. When the court date finally came, his mother was extremely nervous, while Victor remained calm and confident.
After 16 years of waiting, Victor and his mother finally were granted legal permanent residency. He believes the struggle he went through from being an undocumented immigrant motivated him. “And that’s why I am even more driven now because for a long time they told me I shouldn’t even be here right now.” Victor was determined more than ever to pursue his dream of going to college and continue to work hard to become successful.
After making a trip back to Guatemala with his family last summer, Victor saw how Guatemalans struggled to put dinner on the table for their families and how the government was not protecting its citizens. This only motivated Victor further, because he saw where he came from and how privileged he is today to have the opportunities that he does in United States.
“If you have initiative, it doesn’t matter where you are from, you can definitely become successful.”
Victor attended the Community College of Rhode Island part time while he was undocumented, and then transferred to Rhode Island College after his legal situation was resolved. He is currently a senior at Rhode Island College where he is majoring in Political Science and Public Administration, while also minoring in International Nongovernmental Organizations. He is a member of the National Political Science Honor Society, also serves as the President of the Programming event board on campus, and is currently interning at the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office.
He hopes to attend law school with the goal of one day becoming an immigration lawyer. Just as he received assistance throughout his journey, he hopes to be able to help other immigrants toward their path to citizenship. It was for that reason that he also interned at Dorcas International Institute this past summer in the Feinstein Center for Citizenship & Immigration.
“I feel that if you get help from someone, it’s your duty to give even more back.”
Victor resides in Providence with his mother and brothers. He is a strong believer in the importance of recognizing the individual contributions of Rhode Islanders from all cultures and backgrounds, and that stories like his must be shared more often.
“I was so afraid of what people used to think about me, but why not tell them? In high school they always made jokes about going to your home country, and being a wetback, and I remember those jokes. For a long time it was shameful, but now there needs to be more stories about these things.”
Written and compiled by Evita Iiskola and Andrew Hopkins
<<From theArchives>> “There’s something to be said for sitting by the lake and enjoying its solitary beauty I peace and tranquility, letting life happen around you and observing silently.” -my journal, 3/1/08, sitting by the shores of Lake Atitlan in Panajachel. Photo taken same day. . . #fromthearchives #thetinowlarchives #panajachel #guatemala #lagoatitlan #lakeatitlan #latergram #journal #mydiary (at Panajachel, Atitlan)
Un proyecto cortometraje/ documental a nivel latino busca dar a conocer historias de madres que hayan perdido a sus hijas debido al aborto clandestino. Amigas, sobrinas, hermanas, primas, novias o quién sea que conozca la historia de alguien que quiso decidir sobre su cuerpo y hoy sienten su ausencia.
Sí conocen a alguien que no quiera callar más, que esté hartx de ser llamadx locx, histericx o asesinx y quiera contar lo que alguna chica ya no pudo puede escribirme a este blog o a Instagram @ts.priscila en cualquier parte de Latinoamérica, y a quien quiera aportar algo a este proyecto de cualquier forma.
Guatemala podría poner en vigencia una ley llamada “Protección a la vida y a la familia”; iniciativa que pretende una postura ultra derechista en contra de los matrimonios igualitarios y plantea elevar entre 3-10 años de cárcel a cualquier mujer que sea víctima de una aborto clandestino.
Guatemala; un país con más del 46% de desnutrición crónica en niños menores de 10 años, con un porcentaje de pobreza y desempleo de hasta el 58%, el mismo país que tiene uno de los porcentajes de muertes por abortos clandestinos más elevados de Latinoamérica, la misma Guatemala que infringe sus propias leyes al validar matrimonios y maternidades forzadas en niñas desde los 12 años.
Mayarí De León, hija del escritor guatemalteco Luis De León, quien fue secuestrado y asesinado por fuerzas del gobierno en 1984 debido a su posición política y su trabajo de alfabetización en comunidades indígenas. La casa donde nació su padre es ahora una escuela de arte para niños.
“Yo soy una huérfana más de la guerra en Guatemala, como yo hay muchas. Según los críticos, a mi padre lo mataron justo en su madurez como escritor. En realidad la pérdida fue para el país, pues nunca conoceremos las obras que ya no alcanzaron a ser escritas por él”, nos dijo Mayarí.
Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15 because this day marks the anniversary of independence for five Hispanic countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico achieved independence on September 16, and Chile on September 18.
¡Hola! Hoy les traemos chapinismos(modismos guatemaltecos) ¿Ya los conocías? ¿Cuáles utilizas frecuentemente? ¡Te esperamos en los comentarios! ¿Eres un chapín de corazón? Dinos en los comentarios ¿De qué parte de Guate eres?
¡Hola! Hoy les traemos chapinismos (modismos guatemaltecos) ¿Ya los conocías? ¿Cuáles utilizas frecuentemente? ¡Te esperamos en los comentarios! ¡Si eres un chapín de corazón repórtate en los cometarios! ¿De qué parte de Guate eres?
Guatemala epicycles bicycles into pedal machines. via bbc.com:
What’s the point of a bicycle that doesn’t go anywhere? In one part of Guatemala, old bikes are being recycled into nifty pedal-powered machines.
For almost 20 years, the charity Maya Pedal has been converting bicycle parts donated from abroad into so-called “bicimaquinas”, or bicycle machines….
At first, the pedal technology was aimed at helping to make small-scale agriculture sustainable.
Now, at low cost, individuals are using it to create their own businesses without electricity and to reduce the physical effort of daily chores in the home.
Rodrigo Abd captures bicycles standing in the hall of a home covered by ash from the Fuego volcano in Guatemala in a photo taken from The Guardian’s 20 Photographs of the Week.
Bolitoglossa lincolni (Plethodontidae) is a stout salamander with a bright coral red coloration on the back, tail, and dorsal surfaces of limbs, and sometimes the fingers and toes. It is known from the central plateau of Chiapas, Mexico, and mountainous areas of western Guatemala. It lives in low vegetation (probably including mosses), under bark, and in bromeliads, with a broad enough habitat that its populations are not declining. However, due to destruction of habitat, the species is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.
Bolitoglossa species are able to propel themselves forward by an “explosive tail flip” that carries them off the vegetation – a protective device when in danger during its daylight resting hours. Another protective behavior is to raise its tail as an offering to a predator. If the tail is grabbed, the salamander can disarticulate and run off, leaving the predator with only the tail.
![Oh my god. The US government is putting up billboards across Guatemala hammering home Kamala Harris’s message “Do Not Come.” This one says: “Share your pride for Guatemala with [your family]. Stay here.” pic.twitter.com/vddCXTe6s3 — David Adler (@davidrkadler) May 22, 2022](https://64.media.tumblr.com/622eeede7cdf746f03aa91f6c3110b7a/2637c7ed9a0d4573-35/s540x810/89477c7c47e739ad1f1dbe873490213d42d63d24.jpg)
