Todos Santos de Cuchumatan
Waking up in Todos Santos when the sun shines and the clouds are clearing is like being in paradise. It is such a fresh beauty that mesmerizes you. In the morning I woke around 7:00 hearing the roosters and the cows but also the trucks with their powerful horns.The first thing was to go to the terrace on top oh the Hotel Mam, the name of the language spoke by the locals, to take pictures and quickly I went to the market to take advantage of the fantastic light.I shot lots of video in the plaza in front of the church and in the market. The plaza was full of military people, army and police and when I asked what´s about they said that nothing especially, they come and they go. And they vanished at one time. I understood that in Guatemala are 20000 national police and 30000 public police, so is customary to see around many important buildings, especially banks, a lot of armed men in a kind of uniform. This is reaaaal Guatemala, a country village where everybody is dressed in traditional clothes, men wearing some red pants with white stripes, with a typical shirt and a hat with blue band. Actually this is a important here because the men are those wearing mainly the traditional clothes. It is not too much work here and everybody sits and hangs out, so they are perfect target to be filmed. I went and I had my breakfast in a panaderia in front of the church watching the square. I started to chat with one local guy who told me that he was in the States, a trend that continued the entire day. Apparently everybody was in the States and will go again, with or without a visa, and surprisingly one of the most important subject for them are the American elections. All of them told me their stories, where they work and what and how they got there. One told me also the price, very expensive for a person in Guatemala: Q12000 to cross the Mexican border and $3000 for the American one. The last one I met during the day had a video camera and was shooting the village for a friend of his in Oakland. He said that he worked 2 years, and came back and are three families there together. He said he will go back in two years. He said that he spoke English, but we spoke Spanish still. Many of them speak a very basic English, because their interface in the States is only with Ladinos.When I came to the hotel I bumped into Eva who stayed also at Mam and we talked to meet in the market in 15 minutes. I went to the hotel to change some things, I asked again about phone and now at the internet was a smarter guy who said that he has phone and it was actually right behind (last night the girl said that you cannot call international…) and shot a little more in the market and went to the church. I talked with another gentleman about Maya tradition and looked a little at the mesa and when I got out I met Eva who was eating her breakfast at the same panaderia. I met before the Canadians in the market and they decided to go Sendero Madero, but it implies to take a bus for one hour, so I decided after we asked around to go to the tower on top of the hill from where is a beautiful view over the town.
The walk is charming , among houses and fields that are worked by people. Like in the country you say Hi to everybody and you stop and chat with them or take a picture. People here don´t have a real problem to be filmed and some of them even ask for it. Still is good to ask first. Going up, at one point a girl of about 17-18 stopped and addressed us in perfect English with an impeccable American Southern accent. I was so puzzled, especially by the accent and I asked her if she lived in the South. She said that she lived in the North, but when I asked here where she said that in Northern Alabama. He was great and very friendly and we chat a lot about her after we start again going up. We arrived on top of the hill, after a very strenuous 2 hours walk, but the clouds started to come in and the visibility decreased, but still was great. It became right away a little chilly and we started to go down and go to the village.On the way back we met again the girl from Alabama working a loom in a house balcony and I chat a lot with her. What was funny were her questions that were typical Southern, asking several times the same thing with that slow and wavy accent: did you enjoy, was hard, etc. Her parents came out meanwhile, and when I asked her if she will go back she said that she does not have papers and it´s over.The lover relationship with USA is very strong here. After that I found out from another villagers, I spoke with a lot, that she lived there for 10 years and did the entire school and his father was deported, so everybody waits for a change in the emigration law. Eva went to the hotel and I went to eat in the market, my regular meal of watermelon, and pineapple and after that a hotdog. Eva popped in the market and decided to go and buy some crafts from a store in Casa Familiar and I went to see Santiaga. Santiaga was working a loom surrounded by the entire family. We chat about an hour, about her house that will be different having private bath, something that no hotel in Todos Santos has, about the difficulties of construction, the work they just did, about Olivia, Daniela, the kids and of course the American election, Bush and the emigration law. We chat for about one hour and meanwhile it started to rain and it stopped. She send all the best and I left her after I took some pictures of her and her daughter and walked a little more in the village arriving at the cemetery, where among others tombs made all of cement, one was painted in the American flag and said USA on it. The person who was entombed was 23 and I don´t know if he was in Iraq or he wanted to cross the border in the desert. I left just after the blog to a conference in one of the Spanish schools, about the Guatemalans and USA. It was very interesting, a guy who studied in France presented. Meanwhile, talking during the day with so many locals, I got a pretty good idea and what he said just added details to the story. There are currently 10000 people from Todos Santos in the USA and 30000 in the city. Most are illegal and can be deported. There are now 30 coyotes only in Todos Santos in comparison with 2 in 2000. The major problem is the lack of education, that like in any underdeveloped country is a privilege of the rich because you have to pay, in the peasants case more they make a month. The minimum salary is $90/month. Obviously when is any need of the Maya there are no money, however Guatemala built one of the most luxurious airports in the word , La Aurora, on which I landed. A lot of the people who go to the States prefer to stay there and not come back because off the intense corruption that exists in the country. After the talk that was till 7 00pm aI went to have dinner in a restaurant that I found on the main street. It is a restaurant for TS standards. I could not have a beer in TS in the restaurants for a reason that I did not understand, the occupation of the large part of the people being drinking. This was mentioned in the conference also, and is caused mainly by the lack of education. They go and worked their life in the US, come back, build a house and drink the rest. y 8 00pm I went back to the Spanish school to watch a movie and it was something about their radio station , the horse race for Dias de los Muertos and the elections. A very good documentary that touched again the same subjects as the conference. I saw there Olivia’a movies that are now mentioned in the Lonely Planet under Todos Santos. In school were also, a guy from England and one from the Czech Republic and a girl who sounded American by the accent. After the film was over I went to my room to read again the guide book and I decided to leave early to Xela the next morning.
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