Portal:Guatemala
The Guatemala portal
Guatemala (/ˌɡwɑːtəˈmɑːlə/ (
listen) GWAH-tə-MAH-lə; Spanish: [gwateˈmala] (listen)), officially the Republic of Guatemala (Spanish: República de Guatemala), is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, Belize and the Caribbean to the northeast, Honduras to the east, El Salvador to the southeast and the Pacific Ocean to the south. With an estimated population of around 17.2 million, it is the most populous country in Central America and has the 11th largest national population in the Americas. Guatemala is a representative democracy; its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción, also known as Guatemala City.
The core of the Maya civilization, which extended across Mesoamerica, was historically based in the territory of modern Guatemala. In the 16th century, most of this area was conquered by the Spanish and claimed as part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Guatemala attained independence in 1821 as part of the Federal Republic of Central America, which dissolved by 1841.
From the mid- to late 19th century, Guatemala suffered chronic instability and civil strife. Beginning in the early 20th century, it was ruled by a series of dictators backed by the United Fruit Company and the United States government. In 1944, the authoritarian leader Jorge Ubico was overthrown by a pro-democratic military coup, initiating a decade-long revolution that led to sweeping social and economic reforms. A U.S.-backed military coup in 1954 ended the revolution and installed a dictatorship.
From 1960 to 1996, Guatemala endured a bloody civil war fought between the US-backed government and leftist rebels, including genocidal massacres of the Maya population perpetrated by the military. Since a United Nations-negotiated peace accord, Guatemala has achieved both economic growth and successful democratic elections, although it continues to struggle with high rates of poverty, crime, drug trade, and instability. , Guatemala ranks 31st of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries in terms of the Human Development Index. (Full article...)
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El Señor Presidente (Mister President) is a 1946 novel written in Spanish by Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan writer and diplomat Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899–1974). A landmark text in Latin American literature, El Señor Presidente explores the nature of political dictatorship and its effects on society. Asturias makes early use of a literary technique now known as magic realism. One of the most notable works of the dictator novel genre, El Señor Presidente developed from an earlier Asturias short story, written to protest social injustice in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in the author's home town.
Although El Señor Presidente does not explicitly identify its setting as early twentieth-century Guatemala, the novel's title character was inspired by the 1898–1920 presidency of Manuel Estrada Cabrera. Asturias began writing the novel in the 1920s and finished it in 1933, but the strict censorship policies of Guatemalan dictatorial governments delayed its publication for thirteen years. (Full article...)Did you know -
- ... that the ancient Maya ruins of San Clemente, El Petén, in Guatemala include a two-storey palace structure and two Mesoamerican ballcourts?
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Carlos Castillo Armas (locally ['kaɾlos kas'tiʝo 'aɾmas]; November 4, 1914 – July 26, 1957) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who was the 28th president of Guatemala, serving from 1954 to 1957 after taking power in a coup d'état. A member of the right-wing National Liberation Movement (MLN) party, his authoritarian government was closely allied with the United States.
Born to a planter, out of wedlock, Castillo Armas was educated at Guatemala's military academy. A protégé of Colonel Francisco Javier Arana, he joined Arana's forces during the 1944 uprising against President Federico Ponce Vaides. This began the Guatemalan Revolution and the introduction of representative democracy to the country. Castillo Armas joined the General Staff and became director of the military academy. Arana and Castillo Armas opposed the newly elected government of Juan José Arévalo; after Arana's failed 1949 coup, Castillo Armas went into exile in Honduras. Seeking support for another revolt, he came to the attention of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1950 he launched a failed assault on Guatemala City, before escaping back to Honduras. Influenced by Cold War fears of communism and the pressure from the United Fruit Company, in 1952 the US government of President Harry Truman authorized Operation PBFortune, a plot to overthrow Arévalo's leftist successor, President Jacobo Árbenz. Castillo Armas was to lead the coup, but the plan was abandoned before being revived in a new form by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. (Full article...)Selected image -
A camioneta or chicken bus, a typical mode of transportation in Guatemala
Lake Atitlán, from a dock in San Juan La Laguna
A view of the beach in Livingston, Guatemala
View from the top of the Lost World Pyramid, Temple IV on the right and top of pyramid 5C-49 (also known as the Talud-Tablero Temple) in the Plaza of the Lost World
Station and Customs of Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, Northern Railway, 1896
A view of Flores, El Petén
A low impact trail built for ecotourists to protect an archeological site in Guatemala
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Quiriguá (Spanish pronunciation: [kiɾiˈɣwa]) is an ancient Maya archaeological site in the department of Izabal in south-eastern Guatemala. It is a medium-sized site covering approximately 3 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi) along the lower Motagua River, with the ceremonial center about 1 km (0.6 mi) from the north bank. During the Maya Classic Period (AD 200–900), Quiriguá was situated at the juncture of several important trade routes. The site was occupied by 200, construction on the acropolis had begun by about 550, and an explosion of grander construction started in the 8th century. All construction had halted by about 850, except for a brief period of reoccupation in the Early Postclassic (c. 900 – c. 1200). Quiriguá shares its architectural and sculptural styles with the nearby Classic Period city of Copán, with whose history it is closely entwined.
Quiriguá's rapid expansion in the 8th century was tied to king K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat's military victory over Copán in 738. When the greatest king of Copán, Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil or "18-Rabbit", was defeated, he was captured and then sacrificed in the Great Plaza at Quiriguá. Before this, Quiriguá had been a vassal state of Copán, but it maintained its independence afterwards. The ceremonial architecture at Quiriguá is quite modest, but the site's importance lies in its wealth of sculpture, including the tallest stone monumental sculpture ever erected in the New World. (Full article...)List of Featured articles
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General Carrera portrait celebrating the foundation of the Republic of Guatemala in 1847.
Central America in the 16th century before Spanish conquest.
Plaza Central of Antigua Guatemala in 1829. The old "Palacio de la Capitanía General" was still destroyed after the 1773 earthquake.
Map of Guatemala in 1829. Note that borders with Mexico, Yucatán and Chiapas are not defined.
The Jurun Marinalá power plant was conceived during the Arbenz government to compete with the generation of the Electricity Company of Guatemala, which at that time was an American company and was using foreign oil instead of natural resources in Guatemala. Construction was not completed until 1968, fourteen years after Arbenz was removed in a CIA sponsored taken coup d'état.
Finance Center in 2011. In 1981, a powerful bomb exploded in the basement of the building, leaving it without windows for several years. The owners -Industrial Bank- decided to keep it open to the public to defy the leftist guerrilla.
Guatemala territory during Rafael Carrera and Vicente Cerna conservative regimes. Soconusco territories were given to México in exchange for their support to the Liberal revolution in 1871 by Herrera-Mariscal treaty of 1882.
General Francisco Morazán
tried to invade Guatemala for the second time in 1840 after having invaded in 1829 and expelled members of the Aycinena clan and regular orders. In 1840 he was defeated overwhelmingly by Carrera, marking the end of his career in Central America
Route Map of the Great White Fleet of the United Fruit Company, which had the monopoly of freight and passenger maritime transportante to and from Puerto Barrios in Guatemala since 1903.
Chipilín Tamal, a common dish usually eaten at dinner.
Barrigones sculpture
Marinalá power plant advertisement during Arbenz government.
Proclamation Coin 1847 of the independent Republic of Guatemala
Location of Franja Transversal del Norte -Northern Transversal Strip- in Guatemala.
Inauguration of colonel Jacobo Árbenz as president of Guatemala in 1951.
Manuel Estrada Cabrera ruled Guatemala between 1898 and 1920.
Maya city of Tikal
Criollos rejoice upon learning about the declaration of independence on 15 September 1821. Painting by Rafael Beltranena.
Day laborers pay day in Santa Rosa ca. 1890 according to the Day Laborer Regulations established by Barrios.
Guatemalan National Penitentiary, built by Barrios to incarcerate and torture his political enemies.
Captain General Rafael Carrera after being appointed President for Life of the Republic of Guatemala in 1854.
State Coat of Los Altos, carved in stone on the grave of heroes in the Cemetery of Quetzaltenango
Coat of Arms of the Republic of Guatemala between 1858 and 1871. A replica was carved on the front side of the Carrera theater before it was remodeled in 1892.
Map of railway lines in Guatemala and El Salvador, which were owned by the IRCA, the subsidiary of the United Fruit Company that controlled the railroad in both countries, while the only Atlantic port was controlled by the Great White Fleet, also a UFCO's company.
Chiltepe, a common pepper used on some Guatemalan dishes.
1861 map of the boundary between British Honduras (now Belize) and Guatemala
Topics
Departments
Guatemala is divided into 22 departments (departamentos) and sub-divided into about 332 municipalities (municipios).
The departments include:
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- El Viejo Palmar -- Village south of Quetzaltenango, hit by a volcanic eruption
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Recognized content
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Featured articles
Good articles
- 5to Piso
- 2010 Guatemala City sinkhole
- Adentro
- El Amor (Ricardo Arjona song)
- Jacobo Árbenz
- Ricardo Arjona
- La Blanca, Peten
- Bartolomé de las Casas
- Como Duele (Ricardo Arjona song)
- El Chal
- Fuiste Tú
- Guatemala at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
- Guatemalan Revolution
- Haʼ Kʼin Xook
- Independiente (Ricardo Arjona album)
- Itzam Kʼan Ahk II
- Iximche
- Kʼinich Yat Ahk II
- Kʼinich Yoʼnal Ahk I
- Manche Chʼol
- Marta (Ricardo Arjona song)
- Mi Novia Se Me Está Poniendo Vieja
- Mixco Viejo
- Motul de San José
- Mundo Perdido, Tikal
- North Acropolis, Tikal
- Poquita Ropa
- Puente (song)
- Quién Dijo Ayer
- Quién (Ricardo Arjona song)
- Quiero (Ricardo Arjona song)
- Battle of Roatán
- Simplemente Lo Mejor (Ricardo Arjona album)
- Spanish conquest of Yucatán
- Spanish conquest of the Maya
- Te Quiero (Ricardo Arjona song)
- Tikal
- Trópico (Ricardo Arjona album)
- Vida (Ricardo Arjona song)
- Yoʼnal Ahk III
- Zaculeu
Associated Wikimedia
Guatemala news
The current date and time in Guatemala is Sunday, January 17, 2021, 08:14.
News media:
- The Guatemala Times
- La Prensa Libre (in Spanish)
- Wikinews Guatemala portal
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