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GUATEMALA
* * * * * *
Works of
NEVIN O. WINTER
❦
_Mexico and Her People of To-day_ $3.00
_Guatemala and Her People of To-day_ 3.00
❦
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
New England Building, Boston, Mass.
* * * * * *
[Illustration: PRESIDENT CABRERA.]
GUATEMALA AND HER PEOPLE OF TO-DAY
Being an Account of
the Land, Its History and Development;
the People, Their Customs and
Characteristics; to Which Are Added
Chapters on British Honduras and
the Republic of Honduras, with References
to the Other Countries of Central
America, Salvador, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica
by
NEVIN O. WINTER
Author of “Mexico and Her People of To-day”
Illustrated from Original and
Selected Photographs by the Author
[Illustration: Publisher’s Logo]
Boston ❦ ❦ L. C. Page
and Company ❦ MDCCCCIX
Copyright, 1909,
by L. C. Page & Company
(Incorporated)
-------
All rights reserved
First Impression, July, 1909
Electrotyped and Printed by
The Colonial Press
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A.
[Illustration: The author’s route is printed in red.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO
MY SISTER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the better understanding of the pronunciation of the names of towns
and places in Guatemala and other parts of Spanish-America, the rule for
their pronunciation is herewith given:
is
pronounced
like, in
English
A ah
E ay
I ee
J h
O oh
U oo
Ñ ny
Hue we
LL lli (in
million)
H is silent
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE
THE very generous reception accorded “Mexico and Her People of To-day,”
by both public and press, has led the author to believe that there is a
field for a book upon a part of Central America covered by him in his
travels, prepared on the same general lines as that book, and treating
of the people and their customs, as well as the country, its resources
and present state of development. There is also the belief in the mind
of the author that the English-speaking people of America are becoming
more and more interested each year in the “other Americans,” those who
speak the Latin tongues; but who proudly call themselves “Americans”
also, and are as proud of the New World as those of Anglo-Saxon birth.
This is his explanation, or apology, for giving to the public another
book, which he hopes will receive as kindly a welcome as its
predecessor.
This book is not the result of hurried preparation, and its faults,
whatever they may be, are not the result of hasty compilation. Following
a tour through Guatemala and Honduras a careful reading of the available
literature upon those countries has been made, and the work of
preparation has spread over a period of almost two years. Care has been
taken that the statements herein made should be true to the facts, and
reliable. The publishers have done their part well in their efforts to
make the book attractive and pleasing to the eye, and an ornament to the
library. It is hoped that the wide range of subjects will render the
volume of interest and value to anyone interested in the countries
described.
The author desires to express his acknowledgment of obligation to Mr. I.
W. Copelin for the use of a number of photographs taken by him during a
recent visit to Guatemala; also to the publishers of the World To-day
and Leslie’s Weekly, for permission to use material and photographs
which had first appeared in their publications.
TOLEDO, OHIO, June, 1909.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. TOLTEC LAND 1
II. FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN 16
III. THE CAPITAL 54
IV. THE TROPICS AND THEIR 81
DEVELOPMENT
V. THE PEOPLE 109
VI. RAILWAYS AND THEIR ROUTES 132
VII. THE ANCIENTS AND THEIR 149
MONUMENTS
VIII. THE STORY OF THE REPUBLIC 165
IX. RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES 202
X. PRESENT CONDITIONS AND FUTURE 218
POSSIBILITIES
XI. BRITISH HONDURAS 235
XII. REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS 245
APPENDICES 281
INDEX 303
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
PRESIDENT CABRERA _Frontispiece_
MAP OF GUATEMALA iv
LAKE AMATITLAN; WITH THE VOLCANOES OF 6
AGUA AND FUEGO
LANDING AT CHAMPERICO 19
THE VOLCANO AGUA 29
OX-CART AND NATIVE DRIVER 30
JOURNEYING ACROSS COUNTRY BY MULE 34
SCENE AT EL RANCHO 40
A VILLAGE NEAR THE COAST 45
PLANTATION HOUSE ON LAKE IZABAL 47
LAKE IZABAL 48
A STREET OF ANTIGUA WITH THE VOLCANO OF 56
AGUA IN THE BACKGROUND
THE OLD CHURCH OF EL CARMEN, GUATEMALA 58
CITY
THE CATHEDRAL, GUATEMALA CITY 60
A TYPICAL STREET IN GUATEMALA CITY 62
THE PRESIDENT’S GUARD OF HONOUR 64
TEATRO COLON, GUATEMALA CITY 67
A BULL-FIGHT IN GUATEMALA CITY 68
GUATEMALAN MARKET WOMEN 74
STATUE OF BULL, GUATEMALA CITY 77
GRAN HOTEL, GUATEMALA CITY 78
STREET CAR IN GUATEMALA CITY 80
AN INDIAN WITH HIS _MACHETE_ 84
A TROPICAL JUNGLE 86
A NATIVE HUT 93
A SUGAR PLANTATION 97
DRYING COFFEE 105
A MILL FOR HULLING COFFEE 106
INDIAN GIRL WITH WATER JAR 116
A CARGADOR ON THE ROAD 123
PLAYING THE MARIMBA 125
A GROUP OF CARIBS 128
A SCENE ALONG THE OCCIDENTAL RAILWAY 136
A WATERFALL NEAR ESCUINTLA 138
SAN JOSE, THE PORT OF GUATEMALA CITY 140
THE WEEKLY TRAIN ON THE GUATEMALA 142
NORTHERN
A BELLE OF PUERTO BARRIOS 146
ONE OF THE COLUMNS AT QUIRIGUA 156
INDIAN GIRL 166
A PEON 179
J. RUFINO BARRIOS 190
DUGOUT CANOE ON THE MONTAGUA RIVER 230
A POLICEMAN OF BELIZE 236
ENGLISH HOMES AT BELIZE 239
A STREET IN BELIZE 242
THE HONDURAS NAVY, THE _TATUMBLA_ 249
PUERTO CORTEZ 250
A TYPICAL BEGGAR 269
SOLDIERS OF HONDURAS 272
------------------------------------------------------------------------
GUATEMALA
CHAPTER I
TOLTEC LAND
THERE is a vast amount of ignorance and wrong conception prevalent
concerning the republics of Central America. Mexico has been exploited a
great deal in recent years and the whereabouts of Panama on the map is
now pretty generally known, but the five republics lying between these
two countries have been too much overlooked by recent writers. We are
sometimes inclined to appropriate the term republic and the name
American to ourselves as though we held a copyright on these words. And
yet here at our very doors are five nations, each of which lays great
stress on the term republic as applied to itself, and whose citizens
proudly call themselves Americanos.
The ideas of many concerning the Central American republics are drawn
from the playlife of popular novels and the comic-opera stage. Although
there may have been some foundation for their portrayal of political
life along the shores of the Caribbean Sea, and there are some things
approaching the burlesque to our eyes, yet there is a more serious side
to life in these countries. There are thousands of Guatemalans,
Honduraneans, Costa Ricans, Salvadoreans, and Nicaraguans, who are
seriously trying to solve the problem of self-government, and they are
improving each year. A whole country can not be plowed up and resown in
a season as the corn-fields of last year were transformed by the farmers
into the waving fields of golden grain this year. It is a long and hard
task that is before these struggling Spanish-Americans, but they are now
on the right road and will win. They deserve our sympathetic
consideration rather than ridicule; and it behooves Americans to inform
themselves concerning a people about whom they have thrown a protecting
mantle in the shape of the Monroe Doctrine, and who lie at our very
doors. Furthermore, the opportunities for commercial conquest invite the
earnest thought and study of the great American public.
Guatemala, the largest and most important of these republics, has been
described as the privileged zone of Central America and is easily
reached from both sides by steamers, and will soon be connected with the
northern republics by rail. It is a country of mountains, tropical
forests, lakes, rivers, coast and plains. No portion of the earth
presents a greater diversity of level in an equal amount of surface, or
a greater variety of climate. Humboldt, the great traveller, described
it as an extremely fertile and well cultivated country more than a
century ago. To this day, however, there are great tracts of fertile
virgin lands open to cultivation.
There are three minor mountain systems in the country. Of these the
northern series is composed chiefly of denuded cones from fifteen
hundred to two thousand feet high with plains between; the central
consists of ranges running from east to west and reaching a height of
from seven to fourteen thousand feet; the southern branch comprises a
number of volcanic peaks which culminate in several notable volcanoes.
These ranges parallel the Pacific and are known as the Cordilleras.
The Pacific side of Central America, from Guatemala to Nicaragua, is a
highly volcanic region, and Guatemala has her full share. The many
companion peaks and notched ranges as they are seen from the sea look
like great fangs. In no country in the world can one find a greater
number of perfect cones than in Guatemala where there are scores of
these peaks ranging from Tajumulco (13,814 feet), and Tacana (13,334
feet), down to small cones only a few hundred feet above the sea level,
yet maintaining the characteristic outline. Many of the peaks have never
been ascended so that little is known about their formation. All of
these volcanoes are now extinct, or at least quiescent, except Santa
Maria (10,535 ft.), from which smoke and steam constantly issue out of a
fissure, or crater, on the side several hundred feet from the top of the
cone or crater proper. This volcano had been quiet so long that it was
looked upon as extinct until early in April, 1902, rumblings were heard,
and suddenly it belched forth mud and sand, throwing the latter fifty
miles or more. By this eruption Quezaltenango, hitherto an enterprising
town and second city in the republic, was almost ruined, and several
thousand of its inhabitants destroyed. A number of villages near the
base of the mountain were almost completely demolished and a part of
Ocos, the most northerly Pacific port, sank into the sea during one of
the earthquakes which accompanied the eruption.
Since the settlement of the country in 1522 there are recorded some
fifty eruptions and more than three hundred earthquakes, the last of
which was in 1903. Nearly half of these eruptions were by Fuego, which
has been quiescent for a number of years. This list does not include
many little earthquakes of mild quality which frequently occur, thus
showing that the cooling and wrinkling process of the earth is still
proceeding. Innumerable hot springs are found in nearly every part of
the country, while beds of scoriae, lava and great quantities of
volcanic sand present in so many places testify to the numerous
upheavals that have taken place in centuries now past.
In former times the natives are said to have cast living maidens into
the craters of the volcanoes to appease the spirits or gods who were
supposed to be angry. Later, after Christianity was introduced, the
priests held masses and the people formed processions to calm the angry
mountains, until finally the happy thought struck the priests of
baptizing the volcanoes and formally receiving them into the church in
order to make them good. This was finally done, but the “goodness” did
not last, for even Santa Maria, supposed to be one of the “saintliest,”
went back to her old tricks, and her fall from grace was more disastrous
than any of the other recorded instances of her uncertain disposition.
In the hollows of the mountains lie a number of beautiful lakes. Lakes
Atitlan and Amatitlan are beautiful bodies of water almost as blue as
the famous Swiss lakes and reposing in nearly as beautiful locations.
The former is at an elevation of more than a mile, has no visible outlet
and its depth is unknown. To replace the effect of the glacier-topped
Alps there are the graceful conical peaks of the volcanoes. Lake Peten
is another large lake about twenty-seven miles in length, but it is less
beautiful and less accessible than those first mentioned. The town of
Flores, capital of that province, is situated on an island in the lake.
Lake Izabal, so called, but really an arm of the ocean, is the largest
lake, being about forty miles long and from twelve to twenty miles in
width. A few of the streams are navigable a short distance from the
ocean for light craft, but none of them are very much aid to commerce
except, perhaps, the Polochic, which pours itself into Lake Izabal.
[Illustration: From the Bulletin of the International Bureau of American
Republics. LAKE AMATITLAN; WITH THE VOLCANOES OF AGUA AND FUEGO.]
There are about one hundred and sixty miles of coast line on the
Atlantic, or Gulf, side of the republic. Puerto Barrios is the chief
port now because of the railway terminal having been established at that
place and it has been in existence less than twenty-five years. The
Spaniards established no large settlement on this coast and the nearest
city was Coban, at an altitude of four thousand feet, and about one
hundred miles from the coast. To the English, who were always seeking to
establish coast towns for the benefit of commerce, and with whom there
were few inland cities, the location of the principal cities inland
seems strange. Yet south of us in Central America, where the continent
grows narrow and wrinkled, scowling as it were, a territory larger than
all New England, this was the universal practice.
A commercial nation would long ago have established a harbour at
Livingston, about twenty-five miles north of Puerto Barrios. It is
situated on a bluff where a large city should be located, and has a far
better climate than Vera Cruz, Mexico. Although several hundred years
old it is still nothing but a crude wall and palm-thatched village.
Lowell has said “What is so rare as a day in June?” Here it is a
perpetual June where the thermometer seldom exceeds 86 degrees, and it
is generally considerably below that. Yellow fever has never become
epidemic here, and the deaths from it, and other tropical fevers, are
fewer than the victims of tuberculosis in northern climates. Livingston
is at the mouth of the Rio Dulce (Sweet River), which, after a few miles
inland from the coast, broadens out into Lake Izabal, and this lake
would make a beautiful and commodious harbour, large enough to hold all
the navies of the world. At the present time some sand bars impede the
passage of vessels, but a few dredges would soon make a fine channel
into the lake, where vessels would be perfectly protected from the
severe “northers” which sometimes sweep over the Gulf.
The Pacific coast line with its indentations is almost three hundred
miles long. The commerce in the early days was nearly all carried on
through the small ports on this coast and transported to the cities in
the interior. Guatemala City, Quezaltenango, Totonicapan and all the
other principal cities on this slope, except Retalhuleu and Mazatenango,
are located at a distance of from sixty to one hundred miles from the
sea, which meant a journey of from two to five days by the old means of
conveyance which are still necessary to reach many of those centres of
population.
Guatemala contains fifty thousand six hundred square miles, being about
the size of Illinois, and extends from the thirteenth to the seventeenth
degree north latitude. Its greatest length from north to south is three
hundred and sixty miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west is
three hundred and ninety miles. The range of mountains, or Cordilleras,
which runs through the country northeasterly and southwesterly, seems to
be a connecting link between the Rocky and Andes ranges. The climate
varies through the background of mountains, the sloping direction, the
nearness to the sea, or the direction and force of the periodical winds.
Depending upon altitude the climate ranges from torrid heat on the coast
to regions where snow occasionally falls on the crest of the mountains.
The _tierra caliente_ (hot land) is the name given to those lands up to
two thousand feet high. From two thousand to five thousand feet is found
the _tierra templada_, and above that is the _tierra fria_ (the cold
land). From May to October the rainy season occurs with great
regularity. The coldest months are December and January, and the hottest
months March and April. By reason of this variation in temperature and
soil, all the products of the torrid and temperate zones can be
cultivated.
The average person has a habit of associating tropical lands with the
idea of intense and disagreeable heat. This person does not stop to
think that the conditions are often much different from what they seem
on the map. Even at the equator, which one would naturally think almost
uninhabitable, the upland sections are just as well adapted for the
abode of white people as the temperate zone. If one should start at sea
level, at the equator, and ascend the mountains one mile, he will
experience the same change in temperature as to go due north one
thousand miles. If he goes up another mile he will find the summer
temperature lower than in that part of North America twenty-five hundred
miles north of the equator. The same is true in Central America, for
climate is determined by altitude and not by nearness to the equatorial
line. The population of Guatemala in 1904 was estimated to be 1,842,000,
of whom about fifty per cent are full blooded Indians and forty per cent
are Ladinos, or those of mixed blood. The Ladinos are descendants of the
early Spanish conquerors and natives and are generally superior to the
natives, although in some instances they seem to have inherited the evil
of both races. The remaining ten per cent comprise the Creole, or
Spanish, population, who form the aristocracy. A few thousand foreigners
are also engaged in business in the country.
Guatemala is a republic modelled in form after the United States. It is
made up of twenty-two provinces, termed _departmentos_, whose chief
officer is called a _jefe politico_ and who is appointed by the
president. The _departmentos_ are again subdivided into municipal
districts, of which there are three hundred and thirty-one, at the head
of which is one or several _alcaldes_, or mayors. Again, for political
purposes, the country is divided into thirty-eight electoral districts.
There is a congress of deputies elected by the people on the basis of
one deputy for each twenty thousand inhabitants. The President is
elected by an electoral college for a term of six years. He is not
supposed to be re-elected without one term intervening, but this little
matter never seems to trouble an ambitious President, for, if Congress
is favourable, the law can easily be changed. He has six secretaries and
an additional advisory body of nine members of whom a majority are
selected by the House of Deputies and the remainder appointed. There has
never been a real President, for each one has been a practical dictator,
and made the attempt, at least, to run everything his own way. A
dictator, however, like Porfirio Diaz, one who was far-sighted enough to
see what was for the best interest of his country and had the ability to
carry into effect his ideas for the upbuilding of his country, would do
far more for Guatemala in her present condition than a man elected
president by popular suffrage.
It was curiosity, the mother of science, that became the mother of the
new world, gave birth to continents, islands and seas, and gave form as
well as boundary to the earth. After the first few discoveries were made
the sea soon carried the Spanish galleons to the newly-discovered lands
filled with the cavaliers and peasants of that country. These
adventurers who carried the flag of Spain into the New World were men of
great physical endurance, but possessed of little character, and that
little dwarfed by the lust of gold. They were soldiers of fortune who
came to destroy and not to create. Even Columbus, who ranked high above
the other _conquistadores_ in character, was led to make his first
landing on the American mainland by the sight of natives wearing pieces
of pure gold suspended around their necks along the shores of the
Caribbean Sea. In looking for the source of this gold supply he made an
expedition of several weeks in what is now the republic of Honduras, but
without profitable results. No serious attempts at colonizing were made
until the chief lieutenant of Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado, made his
memorable and historic expedition against the Quiché tribe, of the
wealth of which people marvellous reports had been brought. Alvarado was
a past graduate of the Cortez school of intrigue, deception and
duplicity, and soon made himself master of the province which was
designated as the Kingdom of Guatemala. He was reckless, impetuous, and
merciless; lacking in veracity if not common honesty, but zealous and
courageous. His forces comprised one hundred and twenty horsemen, three
hundred infantry, including one hundred and thirty cross-bowmen, and
twenty thousand picked native warriors. Spain was at once declared the
sovereign power and Alvarado was established as the representative of
that government. The incidents of the conquest of Mexico were repeated
in a smaller and less impressive way since the number of the natives was
not so great, and no powerful and advanced tribe such as the Aztecs held
sway.
The Quiché Indians were, at that time, the most powerful tribe in
Guatemala, but the domination of the country was shared with the
Cakchiquels and Zutugils. News of the white men with their wonderful
weapons of warfare had already reached these people. Kicab Tanub, King
of the Quichés, tried to form an alliance with the other kings against
the invading forces, but failed. This conference was held at Totonicapan
and was attended by two hundred thousand warriors with great barbaric
display. The Zutugils entered into an alliance with Alvarado after
receiving certain promises. Alas! for the proffered friendship and
friendly hand. It meant only vassalage for the natives and death for the
kings.
Thus by lying, deceit, intrigue, duplicity and even the good offices of
some of the priests, the power of these mighty tribes was broken and the
rule of Spain installed, and a new order of things was established. The
people, except a few powerful chiefs, were enslaved. These few chiefs
were released upon accepting baptism and went forth as missionaries to
their people. Thousands of the natives were set at work making bricks,
bringing stone and other building materials for the capital, which was
established in a beautiful valley between the mountains in the very
shadow of two volcanic peaks which were destined to bring death and
disaster upon the invaders, as if in revenge for their trampling upon
the rights and freedom of those to whom this valley rightfully belonged.
The labour of tens of thousands of enslaved natives resulted in a
beautiful city which was overthrown and destroyed in a night of terrible
thunder and lightning, of frightful rumblings of the earth, and of a
terrific rushing of waters which laid the whole city waste.
------------------------------------------------------------------------