“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.” ‒ Flora Lewis
After a nearly four hour van ride from Antigua I was deposited in front of my new home for the next four weeks in Quetzaltenango, also known by its Mayan name Xela (Shay-la). Xela is the second largest city in Guatemala and considered by many as one of it’s most rewarding travel destinations
According to legend, Guatemala’s second-biggest city got its name when the K’iche prince, Tecún Uman, was killed by conquistador Pedro de Alvarado. The battle turned the nearby river red, and when it was over, the Quetzal—a small, red-breasted bird—flew out of the prince’s bloodied chest.
Now, four hundred years after the Quetzal rose like a phoenix from ash, four hundred years after the city was brought under Spanish rule, everyone still refers to the city as Xela, the shortened version of its pre-conquest Mayan name, Xelajú.
I’m here to study Spanish, and for five hours a day, five days a week, I sit with my teacher, Josue at the Sol Latino Spanish School. In my humble opinion, Xela is the best city to get a full immersion into the language. Combining the local Mayan culture, an inexpensive location and a place where almost no one speaks English means you will have many opportunities to practice and improve your Spanish.
“If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.” ‒ Ludwig Wittgenstein
There are few more interesting places to live and study than the city of Quetzaltenango situated in a mountain valley at an altitude of nearly 8,000 feet, amid spectacular peaks and volcanoes. Its altitude gives it a perfect climate year-round — daytime high temperatures rarely exceed 85°F or drop below 55°F. It is the site of nine universities and the home of many of Guatemala’s outstanding writers and artists; it prides itself on its reputation as “The Cradle of National Culture.”
Despite its many attractions, Xela has not become a huge destination city and is not one of the usual stops on the “Gringo Trail”. Unlike other cities such as Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala City and San Jose, Costa Rica, there are very few English speakers among Xela’s inhabitants—a fact which benefits students of Spanish because it forces them to use the language in every aspect of daily life.
Nevertheless, Xela remains more of a sprawling town than a typical city. It is the real Guatemala, without the intensity one feels in the capital city of “Guáte.” Its architecture is a hodgepodge of adobe, reinforced concrete, and modern steel construction, and it has some very interesting historic neighborhoods (one of which has transformed into a historic district).
There are narrow, winding, hilly streets that contribute to its charm and sense of timelessness. If you study in Xela, you will get to know the country and the surrounding highlands, learn from well-educated teachers, and experience lower prices than you find in other centers as long as you keep in mind that it is not a lovely, manicured playground, like Antigua, Guatemala or Cuernavaca, Mexico. Quetzaltenango is a place students go to appreciate its unique qualities, and because it is home to some very special, very friendly, very welcoming people.
It was fun to discover that I have an interesting connection to Xela dating back to my years growing up in Livermore, California. Back in 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the Sister Cities International Program where he envisioned a network that would be a champion for peace and prosperity by fostering bonds between people from different communities around the world. By forming these relationships, President Eisenhower reasoned that people from different cultures could understand, appreciate, and celebrate their differences while building partnerships that would lessen the chance of new conflicts.
“The Sister Cities program is an important resource to the negotiations of governments in letting people themselves give expression of their common desire for friendship, good will and cooperation for a better world for all.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower
In May 1965 Quetzaltenango Guatemala became the first Sister City of my hometown of Livermore. What a small world that I end up there now!
The Sister Cities program now unites tens of thousands of citizen diplomats and volunteers in over 500 member communities with over 2,000 partnerships in 145 countries on six continents.
But back to why I am here in the first place, Spanish school…. Sol Latino was recommended to me by Ted (a friend from my State Parks days) and I am happy that I took his recommendation. The school is well run by three administrators and the very low weekly tuition not only includes 25 hours a week of one-on-one instruction in Spanish but also a homestay with a local Guatemalan family including meals and activities arranged by the school five days a week.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” ‒ Nelson Mandela
The students here at Sol Latino come from all over the world and, this month anyway, seem to all be young 20 somethings roaming the world. Some are enjoying gaps between high school and college, others taking a gap year in the middle of college studies and some just exploring the world before settling down into a career. It is great fun hanging with these kids, hearing about their experiences and thoughts of travel, their countries and the world.
“Everyone is the age of their heart.” – Guatemalan Proverb
Speaking of young people brings me to my instructor at Sol Latino. Josue is 26 years old and a native Guatemalan. Working as a Spanish teacher helps to fund his studies at a local university and he has plans to travel and work as a Spanish teacher in other countries. Josie loves Guatemala and is a wealth of information about the country and the city of Xela not to mention a very patient teacher.
Everyday it is a pleasure (and hard work at times) to talk with Josue about living in Guatemala and how that compares to the United States and what each know about the rest of the world. Young people have much to offer societies – from innovation to creativity to new thinking and I am hopeful for the future of this country if all (or even a good majority) of its young people are like Josue.
Sol Latino also provides activities for the students that take place in the afternoons (and sometimes evenings) to help get us out into the community and practicing our newly learned Spanish skills. Visits to historic sites, local interesting places and of course the experience of traveling on Guatemala’s public transportation.
My first experience was in one of the many “vans” roaming the city transporting passengers in need of shorter rides. This was a 14 passenger van and at one point there were 23 folks packed tightly into the interior. The sliding door looked like it had suffered one too many side swipes and wouldn’t close properly (or at all) which was probably fortunate as it let in air from the outside. As we all piled out of the van we headed toward the more famous of Guatemala’s transportation.
Often referred to as the “Chicken Bus” by tourists (and called La Camioneta by locals) the widely preferred method of transportation in Guatemala are these repurposed American school busses.
When American school buses reach the age of ten years or 150,000 miles, they are sold at auction. Many of these buses are bought and driven down through Mexico to Guatemala where they are prepared for their second lives. In contrast to their modest first lives as yellow buses carrying children to school, their second lives are spent in Guatemala sporting colorful exteriors, stuffed with people, topped with roof racks full of cargo, and careening at high speeds over mountain passes.
Chicken buses are not for people traveling on a strict timetable. Schedules sometimes are non-existent; buses may leave when they’re filled with passengers or whenever the driver feels like it sometimes when the last passenger isn’t even all the way through the door. Still they are a not to be missed experience in Guatemala.
Xela (and Guatemala as a whole) is not a country without it’s problems and challenges. Josue and I frequently get into conversations about each of our countries both the good and the bad. The trash problem in Guatemala is something you notice as soon as you step foot into the country. Although there are signs nearly everywhere “No Basura” there is still garbage littering almost every street and neighborhood in the cities and rural areas. Along the littered streets you will find numerous stray dogs, ownerless, homeless and thin they seem to band with other strays and can be added to the ongoing problems in Xela. We also discuss our governments and corruption……but that’s a story for another day.
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” -Henry Miller
Traveling puts things into perspective. Traveling allows you to see that the world is not always about you. It allows you to see how other people live and what they have to deal with on a daily basis.
Traveling has humbled me and has broadened my perspective in so many ways. Traveling to places like Guatemala has given me a sense of gratefulness for the modern day comforts that I am able to enjoy when at home in the US. It also makes one ponder the sheer amount of “stuff” that we have.
As I was enjoying a traditional dinner with my Guatemala family it dawned on me that the places that I’ve traveled where the people are the happiest is where the people live very simply. They aren’t working ten hours a day to try to buy the latest iPhone, or newest car.
The people here are more grateful, They live more in the present and in the now. They have little money, so they don’t spend their time worrying about money. They spend more time with each other. They have nothing to lose.
Our relationships with each other are what make life rich and rewarding. I see families celebrating together and spending time together. I watch men, women, and families hanging out on the sidewalks in friendship and joy. Friends talk and congregate just about everyday. I see them telling each other stories, laughing. My Guatemala family is a great example of this. I see happiness and it warms my heart.
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”‒ Charlemagne
What a lovely place <3
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