Guatemala 10

August 17, 2010

Guatemala 10

Following their testimonies, we are invited to a ceremony adjacent to the community structure, where a Maya priest is lighting candles and incense, preparing. At once everyone is praying aloud, in Spanish, in Qeqchi. A dozen minutes pass, maybe more. Men are weeping, hands over their faces, asking how things could be as they are. Fifty voices seep into the forest, lie upon their land. Clouds finally shade the sun. We are brought plates of food after the dying of the fire. They are proud to feed us, to share with us their wealth. Some of the women continue to cry, in their eyes a vacancy I cannot forget. “Why do they treat us like animals?” ask the women. “Like things they don’t know? Our women and children have suffered, you heard. This is good land here, and we will not leave. Please denounce this. Please take this to the President of Canada. We demand that your leaders get this company out of here.”