A change of pace in Guatemala

After two weeks in Mexico, things were starting to feel more familiar, even comfy. Having entered Guatemala, even though it sits right below Mexico, certain differences become immediately apparent and serve as reminders of the importance of the imaginary lines drawn by nations, as well as physical boundaries, that both affect groups of people. Entering Guatemala has opened up a different world that we can now compare with the first.

A day in Guatemala is all you need to realize that Mexico’s size and proximity to the United States has created a dynamic that doesn’t exist in Guatemala. The difference between the two countries in trade, governmental cooperation, and de facto cultural exchange with the United States is clear in the way the two countries function as a whole.

Mexico’s formal economy is much more developed—there are more chain stores, more ATMs, better systems of transportation, and a larger middle class. In Guatemala, public transportation is made up of a patchwork of vans, taxis, school buses, and the occasional charter-style bus that is mostly a luxury for foreigners. Both countries are relatively poorer than the U.S., but whereas in Mexico a traveler must decide which bank to go to in order to take out money or which restaurant to eat at, in Guatemala these decisions are more often dictated by which bank has a working ATM and which restaurant is actually open for business. As a general rule for travelers, planning ahead is necessary in Guatemala, and optional in Mexico.

The two countries are also vastly different in the physical sense. Mexico has a diverse terrain—deserts, mountains, plateaus, rainforest—but it is hard to find a small town that feels isolated from the outside world. Guatemala also has high and low lands, but its lush mountainous landscape is much more treacherous than Mexico’s. Roads are almost uniformly windy and bumpy, helping to separating areas from one another. Guatemala has many small towns nestled in valleys that are surrounded by steep mountains on all sides, making them feel like their own worlds. Mexico feels like a place where people are moving back and forth on a large scale, as is common in the U.S., while Guatemala has a more local feel—each town is unique because people don’t come and go as much.

All of this can also be felt in the existence of linguistic diversity in Guatemala that can’t be found in Mexico. Guatemala is comparatively very small, but has 21 distinct languages spoken by the largely indigenous population. Mexico’s national identity is much more palpable, if only because the vast majority of its people speak Spanish as their first language. Again, Mexico’s stronger central government and less aggressive terrain made it easier to subdue the indigenous population, while Guatemala’s ruling elite spent most of the 20th century in a violent struggle for power with various indigenous groups—and never really won. It wasn’t until the 1990s that a tentative peace was made, even though the Guatemalan government had U.S. economic and military support throughout. Large portions of Guatemala’s indigenous still maintain “traditional” dress as well, or at least dress in a way that separates them visually while the indigenous peoples of Mexico have for the most part transitioned into European style dress.

Still, the countries share much in common thanks to the work of the Catholic Spaniards that first arrived and permanently changed the trajectory of this isthmus connecting North and South America. There are churches in even the smallest towns in Mexico and Guatemala, and Catholics are always easy to find. Both Mexicans and Guatemalans tend to have more rigid standards for men and women, and machismo is something that spans the border unimpeded.

The U.S. always looms as the overarching cultural force for both Guatemala and Mexico. Just as Americans in the southern states complain about Mexicans taking jobs in the U.S., Mexican southerners complain of Guatemalans coming over the border illegally, either to take jobs from Mexicans in Mexico or to share in the benefits of immigration into U.S. Both countries have an abundance of McDonalds, cell phones, and Coca-Cola advertisements which serve as comforting reminders to the weary traveler that home is never far away.

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