Dispatch Number 18 -Back Roads II

If you are curious as to why I have written so little of recent it is because of the limited availability of Internet cafes in the areas I visit. When I locate one it often does not work. I have really gotten off the beaten path. Where I live now,Todos Santos (pop. 3,500 with an elev. of 7,900') there are two Internet cafes and between the two of them with their poor service levels there may be 2 or 3 days a week when they are open. It is not a writing environment and I dearly miss the activity of writing dispatches. The journals fill and the keyboard cools.

Back Roads: Part II

On the dirt roads there are no road signs to guide you -you must stop and talk to people, something of a challenge to the American mind of rugged self reliance and a "bring everything you need" approach to travel. I have brought little with me, so I pay Internet cafes each time I want to write, I do not own or use a phone and use maps made of paper. Most Latin Americans I have met regard maps as documents written in Chinese, they cannot relate to them.

The back roads have pushed me deep into rural Guatemala where the largest town I have been in had a population of 25,000. I am only glad to be in these cities for truck repairs and to eat at the plethora of inexpensive restaurants that they always have and even with all the choices the food is horribly dull. The food here is like a beautiful woman without charm. If you didn't put that together it means food without spices. Outside of these reasons cities in Guatemala feel dangerous or to use different language they are snake pits. Street smarts from childhood are reengaged when I visit them.

Off the beaten tourist path I have had meaningful experiences with Maya Indians and granted a unique view into the unvarnished agrarian lives they lead. A marginalized people scraping to keep it together between a number of forces: subsistence agriculture, acute poverty, a deeply corrupt government, lack of social services, feeble police protection, a legal system that favors the rich, and land rights issues. These people are left to fend for themselves.

They form their own Municipal governments at the pueblo-aldea-comunidade (town-village-hamlet) to provide basic public services, form community organizations, and the most difficult for this traveler to digest, vigilantism as a means of law enforcement. At first I was shocked to learn vigilantism actually had a role in their culture, however, when I learned more of the contemporary social fabric and suspended my own judgment I began to understand why vigilantism was alive and used across vast areas of rural Guatemala.

I have first and second hand accounts of beatings and murders delivered under mob-rule, but choose not to sensationalize the point. What I can say is it is done very publicly as a means of deterrence. There is no trial or hearing. They do one of the following: kill them publicly, fine them, free them, issue a jail term, turn them over to police or ban them from the community. Being ostracized from your community is a big deal, most spend their whole lives in one and when a person shows up in a community to start anew they are looked at with deep suspicion. Starting a new life is exceedingly hard.

The town I live in now, Todos Santos has a two cell jail facing the sidewalk right off the main square. Public viewing of the detainee is permitted and encouraged. The point is public humiliation. Family members can bring them food and hang out, there is no bureaucratic step to making a visit, just walk on up. I have walked up and greeted them myself. I like it. Life lived out in the open.

The federal government is largely inactive and in general non responsive to the indigenous population (60% of total pop. of 13+million), police are reluctant to get involved in anything and during mob moments, and they happen everyday, they stand off to the side and only watch. A tranquil jungle can hide criminal activity as good as the best camouflage. I am writing a Dispatch on a violent event I was close to in theComunidade Santa Lucia and plan to post it soon. Guatemala is closer to a wild west show than to an urbanized country with basic law and order. Relative to Mexico, Guatemala can at times be a dangerous place, one also filled with stunning natural beauty and a rich indigenous culture. It is a diverse and complex country.

The guide book, Lonely Planet put it very succinctly of the people of Guatemala,"They're a long-suffering people who don't expect wealth or good government but make the best of what comes their way -friendship, their family, a good meal, a bit of company."

Guatemala is a country of extreme contrasts. I have both driven and walked the country and have experienced nothing like it in my world travels.

To continue in following Dispatch.

David,

Todos Santos, Guatemala