Quetzaltenango's Santa Viernes Procession slowly rocks and marches its way through the streets of the city to the beat of funeral dirges. The Procession lasts at least 12 hours, sometimes stretching longer, into the night (Photo taken by Max Kintner, 1997).

Twenty years ago Quetzaltenango, or Xela (“shaylah”) as it is more often called in Guatemala, was a sleepy little city slightly over 100,000.  In the last two decades, however, it has become a boom town that has grown rapidly into a still small but bustling little city.  Bustling though it may be, however, it retains much of its provincial charm, and given only a modicum of common sense remains a very safe little city that especially in the Historical Center of the city remains quaint and charming, with generous touches of the neo-classical architecture left from the late 19th century.   

Meanwhile, despite increased auto traffic, not all about Xela’s booming growth is negative.  For, along with the annoyance of daily rush hours on the city’s mostly one-lane streets, has come a subdued and tasteful cosmopolitanism that many people find more restful and classy than the somewhat decadent party tourist atmosphere of Panajachel, or the “Spanish Colonialism theme park” ambience that has already imparted an air of artificiality to Antigua, Guatemala.  In comparison with most other popular destinations in Guatemala, in fact, Xela remains the real Guatemala, not driven by tourism but by a diverse mix of industrial, agricultural, and textile production for domestic use, and a recognized center of education where more people per capita attend the fine universities there than even in the capital.

Volcan Santa Maria, at over 12,000 feet Guatemala's 3rd highest, rises up in the background between mausoleums in Quetzaltenango's historic Cementerio General. Among a large handful of famous people interred here is Miguel Estrada Cabrera, who held power between about 1825 and 1929, making him Central America's longest reigning dictator. An ardent aficionado of all things neo-classical, Cabrera nurtured an eccentric devotion to the Roman Goddess Minerva. He constructed a miniature of the Goddess' temple for his tomb, and a much larger version at the intersection of Calle Rodolfo Robles and 4a Calle Z3 near the big second class bus terminal and market. The Terminal and Market Shrine retain Minerva's name. Estrada Cabrera's tomb has slipped from the public memory, however, and the roundly disliked disctator's resting place receives little or no maintenance and scarcely warrants a thought or a glimpse from Quetzaltecos. Still, along with great vistas of Volcan Santa Maria on Xela's southern horizon, the grave markers provide an interesting glimpse of Western Guatemala's history. From the hill at the rear of the cemetery, meanwhile, the visitor is treated to a splendid panorama of Quetzaltenango to the west, visitors can look over toward the pueblitos of Tierra Colograda and Xecaricoj and the surrounding Llano del Pinal where in 1524 the streams ran red with blood as the army led by the great K'iche' Prince Tecun Uman was defeated by the Spanish invaders under the leadership of Pedro de Alvarado (photo by Max Kintner, 2000)

Furthermore, despite its growing size, by no means is Xela a challenging city in which to study.  To the contrary, it offers a relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere, at a geographic scale that makes it an extremely walkable little city and a very nice mix between urban and rural.  While many of the poorer neighborhoods away from the center of the city are rather compressed and perhaps by North American standards not especially inviting, there two well-maintained parks  – Parques Central and Benito Juarez – which are sedate and offer a safe hangout to read the paper or a book and watch the pedestrians in “típica” costume from all over Guatemala pass by.   Not coincidentally, adjacent to both parks are coffee houses, where a visitor can be invigorated on a chilly morning by a good cup of Cafe Americano or be restored on a leisurely afternoon by a cappuccino and an elegant dessert.

Other food and entertainment services are easily available, so that students wanting a night or afternoon out with friends will find Chinese buffets, East Indian cuisine, wonderfully authentic Italian food, delicious steaks, or vegetable lasagnas, all at reasonable prices.  For the junk-food junkie with pangs of homesickness, meanwhile, one can even make their way to 4th calle in zona 3 for a real, down home Big Mac with Fries!  Generally, however, students find good food and warm company with their host families, who normally live in quite modest but comfortable homes occupied by families eager to welcome guest students for a week, a month, or longer – and unlike the usual host family arrangements in Antigua, only one student at a time stays with a family unless otherwise requested.

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Beyond all that, it must be noted that Quetzaltenango is not simply one little city in Western Guatemala.  Rather, it is the economic, social, educational, and in many respects cultural hub of that part of the country.  Surrounded by interesting and beautiful pueblos and sites of natural beauty, there are any number of day and weekend trips available to the visitor.  These include a variety of large markets (including one of the largest and most important in the entire country), as well as a variety of important religious shrines and beautiful mountains to climb or overlooks from which one can simply admire and revel in the incomparable beauty of the Land of Eternal Spring.

Quetzaltenango City's Parque Central becomes an artisan market the first Sunday of every month, usually with free concerts and always with a good sampling of wares fromn across the western Highlands. The oblelisk-like monument in the center of the park honors Justo Ruffino Barrios, who took power in the late 1860s. Rufino Barrios, in his quest for modernization, profitable exports, and divestiture of Church property and power, became the quintessential Banana Republic Dictator. Revisionist history has not treated the dictator kindly, and he is now best known for initiating a new era of exploitation of the Maya population, and more importantly, as the bearded face on Guatemala's 5 Quetzal Bill. (Photo by Max Kintner, 2001 )

Perhaps most important for the visitor studying in Quetzaltenango, however, is that while the sight of visitors on the tourists is certainly not a rarity, few residents have learned to think of visitors as a commodity to exploit as in other more “Resortish” Guatemalan towns.  They remain friendly and welcoming, eager to exchange information, to learn about the outside world, and to compare notes about local and world events.  Speaking in a rather slow, provincial Spanish and boasting one of the highest per capita education levels of anywhere in Guatemala, they are almost always surprisingly helpful, are open to warm friendships, and with the training offered at the MesoAmerican Academy can be counted on to be competent, caring, and very effective teachers.