Guatemalan
cuisine reflects the multicultural nature of Guatemala, in that it
involves food that differs in taste depending on the region. Guatemala has 22 departments of (or divisions), each
of which has very different food varieties. For example, Antigua Guatemala is well known for its candy which makes use of many local
ingredients fruits, seeds and nuts along with honey, condensed milk and other
traditional sweeteners. Antigua's candy is very popular when tourists visit the
country for the first time, and is a great choice in the search for new and
interesting flavors.
Many traditional foods are
based on Maya Cuisine and
prominently feature corn, chilis and beans as key ingredients. Various dishes may have the same name as dishes from a
neighboring country, but may in fact be quite different for example the enchilada or quesadilla which are nothing like their Mexican counterparts.
Chiltepe,
a common pepper used on some Guatemalan dishes.
There
are also foods that it is traditional to eat on certain days of the week - for
example, by tradition it is known that on Thursday, the typical food is
"paches", which is like a tamale made
with a base of potato, and on Sundays it is traditional to eat tamales, due to
the fact that Sundays are considered holidays. Certain dishes are also
associated with special occasions, such as Fiambre for All Saints Day on November 1
and tamales, which are common Christmas.
There are reportedly hundreds
of varieties of tamales throughout Guatemala. They key variations are what is in the masa or dough (corn, potatoes, rice), what's in the
filling (meat, fruits, nuts), and what is it wrapped with (leaves, husks). The
masa is made out of corn that is not sweet, such as what is known as feed corn
in the U.S.A. In Guatemala, this non-sweet corn is called maize and the corn
that Americans from the USA are used to eating on the cob, sweet corn, they
call elote.
Tamales in Guatemala are more typically wrapped in plantain or banana leaves
and mashan leaves than corn husks.
The ancient Mayan civilization
lasted for about six hundred years before collapsing around 900 A.D. Today, almost half
of the Guatemalan population is still Mayan. These natives live throughout the country and grow maize as their
staple crop. In addition, the ancient Maya ate amaranth, a breakfast cereal
similar to modern day cereals.
The name Guatemala, meaning "land of
forests," was derived from one of the Mayan dialects spoken by the
indigenous people at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1523. It is used today
by outsiders, as well as by most citizens, although for many purposes the
descendants of the original inhabitants still prefer to identify themselves by
the names of their specific language dialects, which reflect political
divisions from the sixteenth century. The pejorative
terms indio and natural have been replaced in polite
conversation and publication by Indígena . Persons of mixed or non-indigenous
race and heritage may be called Ladino , a term that today indicates
adherence to Western, as opposed to indigenous, culture patterns, and may be
applied to acculturated Indians, as well aothers. A small group of
African–Americans, known as Garifuna, lives on the Atlantic coast, but their
culture is more closely related to those found in other Caribbean nations than
to the cultures of Guatemala itself.
The national culture also was
influenced by the arrival of other Europeans, especially Germans, in the second
half of the nineteenth century, as well as by the more recent movement of
thousands of Guatemalans to and from the United States. There has been increased immigration from China,
Japan, Korea, and the Middle East, although those groups, while increasingly
visible, have not contributed to the national culture, nor have many of them
adopted it as their own.
Within Central America the
citizens of each country are affectionately known by a nickname of which they
are proud, but which is sometimes used disparagingly by others, much like the
term "Yankee." The term
"Chapín" (plural, "Chapines"), the origin of which is
unknown, denotes anyone from Guatemala. When traveling outside of Guatemala,
all its citizens define themselves as Guatemalans and/or Chapines. While at
home, however, there is little sense that they share a common culture. The most
important split is between Ladinos and Indians. Garifuna are hardly known away
from the Atlantic coast and, like most Indians, identify themselves in terms of
their own language and culture.
Location and Geography. Guatemala covers an area of
42,042 square miles (108,889 square kilometers) and is bounded on the west and
north by Mexico; on the east by Belize, the Caribbean Sea, Honduras and El
Salvador; and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. The three principal regions
are the northern lowland plains of the Petén and the adjacent Atlantic
littoral; the volcanic highlands of the Sierra Madre, cutting across the country
from northwest to southeast; and the Pacific lowlands, a coastal plain
stretching along the entire southern boundary. The country has a total of 205 miles (330 kilometers) of
coastline. Between the Motagua River and the Honduran border on the southeast
there is a dry flat corridor that receives less than forty inches (one hundred
centimeters) of rain per year. Although the country lies within the tropics,
its climate varies considerably, depending on altitude and rainfall patterns.
The northern lowlands and the Atlantic coastal area are very warm and
experience rain throughout much of the year. The Pacific lowlands are drier,
and because they are at or near sea level, remain warm. The highlands are
temperate. The coolest weather there (locally called "winter") occurs
during the rainy season from May or June to November, with daily temperatures
ranging from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the higher altitudes, and from 60
to 70 degrees in Guatemala City, which is about a mile above sea level.
