Juliana's Travels: Christmas in Antigua

antigua from a lookout point called el cerro de la cruz

This past weekend, we went to Antigua, which is the former colonial capital of Guatemala, for Christmas weekend with my mom and her partner Marco (we call him Tato). The drive across the border was super sketchy. There really isn't any security there and the border check is a complete joke - it's so easy to see how drugs and people can be smuggled in and out. Also, people do not respect your private space. Some lady stood right over my mom's shoulder as she was checking us in with Guatemalan customs. I asked my mom why people do this and she said that either people want to try to find out info about you if they are from a criminal element or people simply do not respect private space around these parts. I felt like saying something to her but with the situation the way it is in both El Salvador and Guatemala, you never really know who you are messing with. But as Julio says, they do what they can at the borders with the resources they have. Welcome to the Third World.

iglesia la merced

Anyway, we drove to Escuintla, a suburb of Guatemala, where we met my Marco's (my mom's partner) family. They were very nice and we had a quick lunch together before we drove up to Antigua. It was a absolutely breath-taking drive with volcanos (active ones) dotting the landscape. It was amazing to see one of them puffing out smoke as we drove up! Antigua, like Suchitoto, has a very colonial feel to it and there is definitely a lot of gentrification going on there - I've got mixed feelings about this. I suppose it is to lure the tourists and bring in the cash flow. There is so much to see here and with the 2-3 days we spent here it just wasn't enough.

fincas (farmland) on the drive up to antigua

little boy playing with sparklers on christmas eve

We had a quiet Christmas dinner at a local restaurant with a Cuban band playing Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" while the firecrackers were going full speed in the background. Afterwards, we went to midnight mass at the local Cathedral. Most of the songs they sang were the same ones Julio and I sang as kids growing up. The next day, we spent the day shopping and taking pics of the beautiful colonial architecture. We went to one of the Mayan artisan markets and bargained our little hearts out. Bargaining with Mayans is a lot different from bargaining with Indian people it seems to me. Mayans will basically ask you what you want to pay after you offer them a counter-offer to the original asking price. In India, after you try to half the original price, there is a bit of game playing you gotta do to get the price you want. And sometimes they won't agree to the price until you are literally walking away from the sale. Not Mayans, they will usually accept the price you want to pay as long as it sounds reasonable. There is so much to look at in the markets, it was so hard to choose what to buy. It was all so beautiful, colourful, and intricate. Julio bought a beautiful leather appliqué of the Mayan calendar. He got the vendor to explain it a bit. He asked her if she knew a lot about Mayan culture and pre-colonial religious beliefs and she said that she knew a bit but not a lot.

one of the many mayan markets with church ruins to the left and cerro de la cruz way in the background

mayan girls in the main plaza selling traditional textiles

Antigua brought out a lot of conflicting thoughts for both Julio and I. On the one hand, it is a very picturesque and beautiful town with lots of beautiful traditional colonial architecture and cultural influences. It was also nice to see the Mayan people throughout the town dressed in their traditional woven clothes. But we also wondered how much of it was just for show, to play to the tourist fetish (including our own). Marcos told us that Antigua is one of the most Catholic towns in all of Guatemala. I personally found myself feeling conflicted about how much of an influence Catholicism has had on the Mayans here and how much of their own religious beliefs and practices has been lost to the colonial religion and culture. During Christmas day mass, I found myself wondering about this deeply as I sat in the pews looking at the Mayan women with their traditional dress following Catholic rituals and prayers. They seem so devout in their traditions, even if they are now heavily influenced by the colonial religion, that it's hard to feel critical about the role that colonization has played in places such as Antigua. I almost felt bad for even feeling so conflicted about all of this. It must be the Catholic guilt; or maybe my academia post-colonial mind going into overload. LOL

little Mayan boy bored during Christmas day mass. i definitely know what this felt like as a child lol. Note Maya woman infront of him wearing a Mayan textile cloth on her head as a sign of humility during mass. Head covering is actually a Catholic/Moorish custom brought to the Mayans during colonial times.

my mom and marcos going to kiss new born baby Jesus (as played by a toy doll). this is a tradition in Latin America and is a sign of humble celebration of his birth.

In the end, what Julio and I chose to take away from Christmas day mass was the sermon. The priest talked about the usual rituals and festivities that take place during this time of the year such as the firecrackers, the food, the music, the shopping, and sometimes even the drinking and showing up to Christmas day mass with a hangover (he actually made a funny out of this LOL). He said that regardless of these modern day distractions, the message of the Christmas season is what is important and is what we (Catholics) should try to have at the forefront during this time of the year. Of course, part of that message is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, God's only son and the saviour, but the other part of the message is that this is a time of love, peace, compassion, and sharing with family and friends.

nativity scene at iglesia la merced

I think regardless of one's religious beliefs (or lack thereof) about Christmas, these are things I think almost anyone can appreciate and relate with during this time of the year: the celebration of love, peace, compassion, and sharing with family and friends.