Category: politics

Women, Latin America, and the U.S.

Lately I have been trying to figure out why there is such an extreme strain of misogyny and gynophobia in the United States. A related question, and maybe…

Child labor in Guatemala

It’s been four years since I’ve posted on this site. During those years I was focused on print projects (I published three books), but now I am renewing…

Guatemala in danger

In an opinion piece in the Global Post, Mark Schneider argues that the Guatemalan state is in danger of collapsing. This is how he begins: While U.S. attention…

Hillary Cumbia

The Clinton campaign has its own music video aimed at Texas Latino voters. The have logged in with the cumbia Hillary Hillary Clinton. I don’t think it’s as…

Viva Obama

Whatever your take on the U.S. elections, you’ve got to admire this video, another example of the smartness of the Obama campaign team.

Por que no te callas?

This song is going viral in many parts of the Spanish-speaking world.

VIP behind bars

A new film from Guatemalan director Elías Jiménez Trachtenberg, VIP La Otra Casa, has just been released. According to Inner Diablog,” A government official called Juan Ramos is…

Colom wins!

Alvaro Colom, in something of an upset, apparently has defeated Otto Pérez Molina in the race for president of Guatemala. Colom had lost his one-time lead and was…

The Maya vote

The NYT has a nice slide show of images related to the Maya vote in Guatemala’s elections, and why Rigoberto Menchu didn’t do better (she was sixth out…

The Art of Political Murder

Ilan Stavans reviews Francisco Goldman’s The Art of Political Murder in the Los Angeles Times. The book is a look at the 1998 murder of bishop Juan Gerardi…

Runoff

To no one’s surprise, no presidential candidate in the Guatemala elections received a majority of the vote. Early reports show Colon at 36 percent and Perez at 29…

Guatemala election polls

Polls are currently showing a close race with Colom holding a tenuous lead. Vox Latina: Colom 32, Perez 32 Ultima Hora: Colom 35, Perez 27 Borge: Colom 31,…

Rigoberto Menchu campaigning in Poptun

This image is from the websites of the municipalities of San Luis, Poptun, and Dolores in the Peten. Despite killings and intimation, Rigoberto Menchu continues her campaign for…

Bloody build-up to Guatemala elections continues

Clara Luz López, a candidate for the Casillas City Council in the Encounter for Guatemala party of Rigoberta Menchú, was shot and killed Monday on her way home…

Felipe Carrillo Puerto

This charmingly saggy balcony sits across from the Balam Na in Filipe Carrillo Puerto. This is quite near the spring that gave birth to the Talking Cross and…

Revolution in Guatemala, 1944

Jorge Ubico y Castañeda ruled as dictator of Guatemala from 1931 to 1944, the year documented in this great historical footage (with “Sail to the Moon” by Radiohead…

Deadly elections in Guatemala

This year’s presidential elections are the deadliest since the 1980s. Frontrunner Alvaro Colom has called his chief opponent, Otto Perez Molina, an idiot. Perez Molina has called Colom…