Facts About Guatemala

Guatemala fits 37 volcanoes into a country about the size of Tennessee. Three of them are still active: Fuego, Pacaya and Santiaguito. In the western highlands, Lake Atitlán fills a basin left by an ancient eruption and is the deepest lake in Central America.

Guatemala’s cloud forests are home to the resplendent quetzal, the national bird, which appears on the flag and gives the country’s currency its name. Guatemala borders Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador, with coastline on the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

About 19 million people live in Guatemala, more than in any other Central American country, and the capital, Guatemala City, is the largest city.

Guatemalan Culture and Traditions

More than 4 in 10 Guatemalans are Indigenous, and most are Maya. In the highlands, you can often tell which town a woman comes from by her huipil, a hand-woven blouse with colors and patterns unique to each town. Many women still weave on backstrap looms tied around their waists.

Market day brings whole villages together. In Chichicastenango, vendors fill the streets every Thursday and Sunday with fruit, flowers, pottery and woven cloth. Many shoppers arrive on camionetas, retired North American school buses painted in bright colors. Kids go to school from January to October, so their long vacation runs through the Christmas season.

During Semana Santa (Holy Week), neighbors in Antigua work through the night making alfombras, carpets of dyed sawdust, flowers and pine needles that religious processions walk over. On November 1, families in Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepéquez honor relatives who have died with giant tissue-paper kites. The biggest, some more than 60 feet across, stand on display, while smaller ones are flown near the cemetery.

What Language Is Spoken in Guatemala?

Guatemala recognizes 22 Mayan languages, along with Xinka and Garífuna, and about 3 in 10 people grew up speaking a Mayan language first. K’iche’, Q’eqchi’, Mam and Kaqchikel are the most common. Spanish is the official language and the main language taught in schools.

On the Caribbean coast live the Garifuna, a people with African and Indigenous Caribbean roots whose language, music and dance are recognized by UNESCO.

Traditional Guatemalan Food

Pepián is often called Guatemala’s national dish. It’s chicken or beef simmered in a thick sauce of toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds, chiles and tomatoes. In Cobán, families serve kak’ik, a red turkey soup from Q’eqchi’ Maya cooking. Black beans and thick corn tortillas show up at most meals, and chuchitos, small tamales tied in corn husks, are a favorite snack.

The Maya were drinking chocolate more than 2,000 years ago, bitter and frothy without sugar. Today, coffee grows on volcanic slopes across the country. Guatemala has long been the world’s largest cardamom exporter, much of it to the Middle East, where it flavors coffee.

A Brief History of Guatemala

Tikal was one of the largest cities of the ancient Mayan world. At its height, around 1,300 years ago, tens of thousands of people lived there, and its stone temples rose above the rainforest. The Maya kept detailed calendars and used a symbol for zero. Tikal was empty by about A.D. 1000, but Mayan communities carried on across the highlands, where their descendants live today.

Spanish forces arrived in 1524 and later built their colonial capital at Antigua. Earthquakes in 1773 left much of the city in ruins, and the capital moved to present-day Guatemala City. Antigua is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On September 15, 1821, Guatemala and the rest of Central America declared independence from Spain, and every year on September 14, runners carry lit torches from town to town to celebrate.