Guatemala lies in the north of Central America, with Mexico to the north and west, Belize to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. It has a long Pacific coast in the south and a short Caribbean coast on the Gulf of Honduras. Two mountain chains cross the country, so it falls into three regions: the cool volcanic highlands, the hot Pacific coastal plain, and the vast, sparsely populated lowland forests of Petén in the north. Volcán Tajumulco, at about 4,200 m, is the highest peak in all of Central America.
This was a heartland of the Maya civilisation. Great cities such as El Mirador, Tikal and Quiriguá rose in the forests, and highland kingdoms of the K'iche', Kaqchikel and other peoples were still strong when the Spanish arrived in 1524. For almost three centuries Guatemala was the centre of Spanish rule in Central America, above all from Antigua and later from Guatemala City. It became independent in 1821 and a separate republic in 1847. The 20th century brought dictatorships, a decade of reform, a coup in 1954 and a civil war that lasted until the peace accords of 1996.
Memories fade faster than photos. Ask these over a meal or a phone call, and write the answers down.
Maya cities flourished in Guatemala for well over a thousand years before the Spanish arrived. Spanish rule lasted almost three centuries and left behind Antigua and a deep Catholic tradition. Since independence in 1821 the country has lived through dictators, reforms, a coup, a long civil war and, since 1996, peace and elected governments.
Carved monuments record that on 14 January 378 the king of Tikal died and, on the same day, a lord called Siyaj K'ak' (Fire Is Born) arrived from the west. He was probably a general linked to the great Mexican city of Teotihuacan, and a new dynasty soon ruled Tikal, which went on to become one of the most powerful Maya kingdoms.
The conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, sent from Mexico by Hernán Cortés, led a campaign into the highlands in 1524. At first allied with the Kaqchikel Maya, he defeated their rivals the K'iche' and founded the first Spanish capital near the Kaqchikel city of Iximche. The alliance soon broke down, and resistance went on for years.
Nojpetén, the island capital of the Itza Maya on Lake Petén Itzá, was the last independent Maya kingdom. Spanish forces took it by boat in 1697 and destroyed its temples. The town of Flores later grew up on the same island.
On 15 September 1821 leaders in Guatemala City signed the Act of Independence of Central America, ending Spanish rule. The region briefly joined the Mexican Empire and then formed the Federal Republic of Central America. 15 September is still Guatemala's Independence Day.
Protests and a general strike forced the dictator Jorge Ubico to resign in July 1944, and on 20 October a revolt by young officers and students overthrew his successor. The free elections that followed began ten years of reforms, later called the Ten Years of Spring, including a labour code and, in 1952, a land reform.
On 13 November 1960 a group of junior officers rebelled and failed. The survivors formed a guerrilla movement, and this is usually taken as the start of a civil war between the state and left-wing rebel groups that lasted 36 years.
Rigoberta Menchú, a K'iche' Maya woman whose family suffered during the civil war, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her work for the rights of Indigenous peoples. She was 33 years old.
In February 1999 the UN-backed Commission for Historical Clarification presented its report, Memory of Silence. It estimated that more than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the war, found that 83 percent of the fully identified victims were Maya, and attributed 93 percent of the violations it documented to state forces and related paramilitary groups. It concluded that agents of the state had committed acts of genocide against groups of Maya people in the four regions it studied, between 1981 and 1983.
Cook one of the recipes, print the large-print pack about Guatemala, and finish with the big-screen quiz or the words crossword. Grandchildren can colour the flag.
