The Place of Echoes

While I, of course, enjoy and respect the Star Wars franchise for what it is, I am by no means a diehard fan. As such, I was completely surprised to have stumbled across the site of the Rebel Base from Episode IV: A New Hope (movie clip here). For a brief moment I felt my mind leave the reality of Guatemala and all its natural beauty, and found myself on the planet Yavin IV. How did I get here?

The Rebel Base, Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

My photo, of which I had no idea that 

I was taking the same shot (2014)

Upon entering the national park of Tik’al our guide was certain to point out the famous tidbits about the ruins we were about to explore (e.g. cameos in films like Star Wars and Apocalypto); however, upon first sight of these amazing structures, all fun facts and claims to fame become strangely irrelevant. The structures themselves, peppered within the expansive, lush greenery that completely swallows everything within it, are absolutely breathtaking. The sheer rawness, power, and history that comprise these megaliths cannot be captured or enhanced by Hollywood or its special effects. The faces of these buildings scream, “Life has been here long before your mind can even begin to comprehend,” yet the vast jungle remains eerily silent – save for the occasional gut-wrenching wails of the howler moneys in the distance. We are tucked away, literally, in the middle of nowhere, and each passing second the earth moves to slowly take back what belongs to it.

Unite, build, destroy

As we trek through just a touch of the total 222 square miles of the national park, I begin to take notice of the small hills that really aren’t hills at all, but instead relics of a powerful civilization that date back to as far as the 4^th Century BC. Beneath these “hills” are the ruins of an ancient city that, despite being re-discovered nearly 200 years ago, still remain unearthed.

Humans as Specks

The name Tik’al is the recent name bestowed upon it at the time of re-discovery meaning “the place of voices” or “the place of echoes” in the Itza Maya language. This becomes evident as our tour guide claps his hands in the Plaza of the Seven Temples and echoes ricochet all around us like little sound bullets whizzing by our heads. I close my eyes and try to picture people – humans like us, but really not like us at all – passing their every day lives here. Observing the heavens and celestial bodies above from the temples, lying on the stone beds in the residences for the elites, selling ones labor to build these amazing temples with limestone from the quarries nearby. How they were able to create such beauty – so precisely – that has survived hundreds of years leaves me in absolute awe.

The Great Plaza (acropolises)

My heart swells as I approach Temple 4, the tallest of this ancient civilization. 

Temple 4’s power feels like the first time you have the wind knocked out of you. What just happened? Why can’t I breathe? Will I be ok? I haven’t yet caught my breath before I trek the 230 feet to the top, where I rein over the canopy below. I see nothing but the never-ending appetite of Mother Earth sprawling in its greenness swallowing everything in its path. Only the peaks of 2 temples peek out in the distance among the green wave of ancient jungle. As I whisper to myself that this view is truly out of this world, I begin to understand why Mr. Lucas found it appropriate for his intergalactic film.

The great below

Nothing else exists in this moment. There is nothing but stillness, vast expanse, and emptiness. Just a mere speck in the grand scheme of time – once so important and so powerful – Ti’kal came and went. Now I sit atop it all as if I were something important and powerful, yet that feeling of a speck is all too familiar. 

Highlights & Lowlights (El Retorno)

Being back here was never quite the plan. When I tell people of my summer plans, and how it all came to fall into place, the first word that comes to mind is “serendipitous.” I suppose the extra benefit from finding a way to inject an otherwise rarely used word into my vocabulary helps make it all worth it in the end.

I left Guatemala at the end of 2011 after nearly a year of working for Habitat for Humanity. I could spend days highlighting the amazing experiences I had here in Guatemala during that time, however, the archived post in this blog would do those memories more justice. As such, I encourage you to flip back. And now I am back in Guatemala for the summer working for the US Government. As I have come to adjust again to life in Central America, I find myself working most on – as one close friend of mine put it – creating new memories, and not living within the many old ones.

That, for me, is an interesting world: caught between the here and the now and the Guatemala of 2011. My mind struggles to process the similarities wrapped within the many differences juxtaposed between the 2014 and the 2011. The ghosts of 2011 haunt me around each and every corner of Guatemala, begging me to relive what once was. To step back and breathe in the tranquility, the love, and the carefree living that once flowed through the breezy streets of Antigua. Yet staring me in the face is 2014, and life in the capital city, which relentlessly push me forward, like a mother bird nudging her youngest out of the nest towards the real world.

“Mother knows best.”

“Packed like sardines in a tin can,” is the best way I can begin to describe life in Guatemala City, the most populous city in Central America. For all its many faults, Guatemala’s most glaring shortcoming, and that which most directly impacts my daily life, is its poor infrastructure. Traffic here is the worst I have seen in my life (caveat: I have been spoiled while living inside of the DC Beltway and have never dealt with rush hour traffic, nor have I ever been to places like Bangladesh or India. I have, however, experienced flavors of traffic in large cities like LA, New York, Chicago, Lima, DC, San Jose, San Salvador, and La Paz).

This doesn't begin to scratch the 

surface of how crowded it really gets

I do appreciate the public transport at moments when we cruise in our private lane past the rest of the traffic that inches along bumper-to-bumper. If it weren’t for the lanes dedicated solely to the public buses, the tin cans of sardines would rot under the Guatemalan sun with the rest of the commuters. An air of VIP-status hangs over the bus as we bypass the horrendous traffic; however, this quickly dissipates among the random odors wafting throughout the humid bus. Jammed shoulder to hip to chest to buttock among what feels like thousands of other locals quickly reminds me that this is not first class, VIP travel.

A taste of Guatemalan traffic

It’s love-hate with the buses and me. They get me to my job faster than any other option, but the lack of common courtesy or common sense exhibited by my fellow riders frustrates me beyond repair. Let others step off the train before boarding. Move to the center of the bus rather than crowd around the doors, so as to create more space for others. These simple concepts are lost upon the commuters, which I’ve moved well beyond trying to understand why and into the realm of acceptance.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

However, the work I have been involved with has helped to assuage my daily frustrations with public transport and, more importantly, helped to form new memories and keep those of 2011 at bay. To be a part of Vice President Biden’s visit to Guatemala, no matter how tangential, has made the efforts of this summer worth it. 

Hey, Joe...

For those unaware, the White House has been escalating the issue of unaccompanied children from Central America, which have been especially flooding the US borders in 2014 (52,000(!) children just this fiscal year). Unfortunately, destitute families, seeing no other option for economic opportunity or for escaping the crime in Central America, settle on sending their children to the US – in the hands of coyotes – as their best option. Many believe – falsely – that immigration reform in the US is near, and that such reform will allow for today's new entrants to stay permanently. This is simply not true.

While immigration reform is atop the list of White House’s lengthy list of “to-dos,” it is, in my opinion, a ways away from fruition. Further, if/when reform actually does pass, lawmakers have made it clear that such reform will only apply to those undocumented immigrants that arrived in the US before December 31, 2011. Those caught at the border illegally now are turned back to their home countries, and with their repatriation flight home let's just say that they are not given a notice to return when immigration reform is finally complete.