Guatemala City

“ Guatemala was the head of Spanish power in Central America under the general term of the Spanish Captain Generalcy for two centuries.
During the two hundred and fifty years following the Conquest the country had three capitals in turn, all named Guatemala City. The first, founded by Alvarado, was on the very spot where he fought the battle which made him conqueror. The Indian kings of the South having heard of the exploits of Cortez in Mexico, sent an embassy to him which he received with distinction. ”

“ GUATEMALAN MARKET WOMEN.
Numerous public buildings are scattered over the city. Perhaps the most noted is the University of Guatemala, which has a great reputation all over Central America. As a matter of fact Guatemala City was noted for its learning before any educational institution had been established in the United States ”

“ From this point study each little republic by itself, beginning with Guatemala, the farthest north, adjoining Mexico, and resembling it in many ways.
Here the feature of prime importance is the natural forests of rare woods; the soil is also unusually fertile and can be made to produce remarkable crops under cultivation. The cities are modern; Guatemala City has tree-planted avenues, a beautiful plaza, electric lights, schools and churches. Manufactures and trades are interesting, especially the wood-carving and embroidery work. ”

“ Eighty-four miles separate Guatemala City from its port of San José; while the Atlantic ports are more than a hundred leagues away, with no carriage-road between. In spite of these and other disadvantages, the city of Saint James has grown to be the largest and most important of Central America. It numbers among its churches some of the finest in the country; and its other public buildings are of imposing size, if devoid of any architectural merit. Almost all the houses are of one story ”

“ Considering the size of Central-American republics, one feared lest the train overrun the boundary lines and trespass upon the sovereignty of Salvator or Honduras. But it stayed within its own domain, turning eastward, and climbing out of the coffee-covered Pacific slopes to the pine-clad heights of central Guatemala, landing us in the evening at Guatemala City, 4870 feet above the sea.
III
To the American at home, all Central America is a heat-stricken jungle. He invariably greets the returned traveler with, “I’ll bet you’re glad to get back to God’s country!” ”

“ There is local color in abundance, for Indians in picturesque garb walk the streets, lounge in the plaza, and congregate in the native market behind the cathedral, quite as primitive as in the rural districts. There is electric light, a system of mail boxes set into the house-walls at every corner, and even a café with an orchestra at every half block for those who crave modernity.
These cafés are really a distinguishing feature of Guatemala City. Elsewhere in Central America waitresses are usually waiters. ”

“ Dominick, whose houses and presence makes that street excell all the rest of the City, and their wealth and trading were enough to denominate Guatemala a very rich City. The Government of all the Country about, and of all Honduras, Soconusco, Comayagua, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Vera Paz, Suchutepeques, and Chiapa, is subordinate unto the Chancery of Guatemala ”

“ When one was beyond our jump we threw in the washing-stones on the bank until we had enough for stepping-stones. Returning to town, we paid our respects to the Jefe politico, Don Antonio Rivera, who is a young man exceedingly polite and obliging, and we found practice made it much easier to converse than when we met the Governor of Coban. Don Antonio showed us fine specimens of the woods of his neighborhood which had been prepared for an exhibition in Guatemala City ”

“ Owing to their tropical heat, low elevation above sea-level, and marshy soil, they are thinly peopled, and contain few important towns except the seaports. (2) The precipitous barrier of the Sierra Madre, which closes in the coastal plains on the north, is similarly prolonged into Salvador and Mexico. It is known near Guatemala city as the Sierra de las Nubes, and enters Mexico as the Sierra de Istatan. It forms the main watershed between the Pacific and Atlantic river systems. ”

“ This miraculous image, to whose shrine devout pilgrims have gathered even from distant Mexico and Panama,—pilgrims numbered in former years as many as fifty thousand at a single festival,—was made in Guatemala City in 1594 by Quirio Cataño, a Portuguese, at the order of Bishop Cristobal de Morales, on the petition of the pueblo of Esquipulas. The sculptor was paid “cien tostones,”—a testoon being of the value of four reals, or half a dollar; and to meet this expense the Indios planted cotton on the very land where the sanctuary now stands. ”

“ Antonio, which is the chiefe and head Town of all the Suchutepeques. But all the coast neer joyning to Guatemala, especially about a Towne called Izquinta, or Izquintepeque twelve leagues from Guatemala, is absolutely the richest part of the Dominion of this City; for there is made the greatest part of the Indigo which is sent from Honduras to Spaine, besides the mighty farmes of Cattel which are all along that marsh. Though the living there be profitable and the soile rich, yet it is uncomfortable by reason of the great heat, thundrings and lightnings, especially from May to Michaelmas. ”

“ The most interesting feature of the journey was the constant stream of men and women on the road, most of them headed for Guatemala City. The visitor to this country who confines his journeying to the iron horse misses these unique experiences and can not get so good an insight into the country and its people as he who is willing to endure a little hardship. ”

“ Several trains of pack-mules on their way to Guatemala City passed us, and we had to use care to avoid being bruised by their loads, which they did not hesitate to push into us if not driven aside. As Mabel had cast a shoe, Frank walked almost all the way, using the mare occasionally as a bridge when the stream to be forded was wide. As we came out on the northern slope of El Mico we had an attractive view of the Lago de Izabal, and later [224] of the town itself, where we arrived early in the afternoon, finding quarters in the posada of Señora Juana, an ancient mulattress. ”

“ The washwomen take advantage of this water heated by nature, as it saves them trouble and fuel and is always ready for use. The villages become more numerous as the city is approached, and factory buildings and the white walls of the haciendas which dot the landscape here and there make a pleasing contrast. Some lava beds are passed showing that nature has created disturbances in the past quite freely. At last the final ridge is passed, and there, nestling in the valley, is 28the City of Guatemala. Its situation is somewhat similar to the valley of Mexico, though it is not nearly so large ”

“ Their minds are not broadened by travel, and they grow up with narrow views of life but proud of their ancestry. They are very devoted to the outward ceremonials of the church and spend more time in learning the lives of the saints than they do in reading useful literature. A woman’s popularity in Guatemala City is judged by the number of pictures of herself that are sold by the photographer ”

“ If Guatemala be strong (though not in weapons or Ammunition) in people, it is strong from hence from a desperate sort of Black-mores, who are slaves in those Estancia's and farms of Indigo. Though they have no weapons but a Machette, which is a short Tuck, or lances to run at the wild Cattel, yet with these they are so desperate, that the City of Guatemala hath often been afraid of them, and the Masters of their owne slaves and servants. ”

“ Two sides of the city, those to the south and east, are bounded by the three grand conical mountains of Guatemala, and the other two sides by craggy and luxuriant sierras of less elevation; amongst which winds the road to the new capital. The most beautiful of the three large mountains is to the east: it is called the Water Mountain, as emitting, at times, cold water from its northern side: the other two, to the south, also emit water, but as the same is always hot, they have acquired the designation of the Fire Mountains. ”

“ Guatemala therefore is so well stored with good provision, plentifull and cheap, that it is hard to finde in it a begger, for with halfe a Riall the poorest may buy beef for a weeke, and with a few Cacao's they may have bread of Indian Maiz, if not of Spanish Wheat. This City may consist of about five thousand families, besides a Suburb of Indians called el Barrio de Sto. Domingo, where may bee two hundred families more. ”

“ At the time of Alvarado's entry into Guatemala in February 1524, the tableland round about the modern towns of Santa Cruz del Quiché and Quezaltenango was occupied by the Quiché Indians, who had their capital at Utatlan, close to Santa Cruz. The Cachiquels held the land to the east of the Quichés, and their capital, Patinamit or Iximché, stood near the modern town of Tecpan Guatemala, and is called by Alvarado the "City of Guatemala." ”

“ GUATEMALA (sometimes incorrectly written Guatimala) , a name now restricted to the republic of Guatemala and to its chief city, but formerly given to a captaincy-general of Spanish America, which included the fifteen provinces of Chiapas, Suchitepeques, Escuintla, Sonsonate, San Salvador, Vera Paz and Peten, Chiquimula, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Totonicapam, Quezaltenango, Sololá, Chimaltenango and Sacatepeques,—or, in other words, the whole of Central America (except Panama) and part of Mexico. ”

“ These men are the salesmen who introduce the manufactured goods of commercial countries into the uncivilized and uncommercial lands of the globe. Some of them deserve medals and even pensions, but they are lucky if they get their names in the papers when they pass away 79in some far-off land. Many of them are very interesting characters and as full of interesting anecdotes of personal adventures as the tropical jungle is of vegetation.
GRAN HOTEL, GUATEMALA CITY.
The tram lines extend all over the city but the little “dinky” cars are almost a joke. ”

“ This City of Guatemala (called by the Spaniards Santiago, or St. James of Guatemala) is seated in a valley, which is not above two miles and a halfe broad, for the high mountaines doe keep it close in; but in length towards the South-sea it continues a wide and champaigne Countrey, opening it selfe broader a little beyond that Towne, which to this day is called la Ciudad Vieja, or the old City, standing somewhat above three miles from Guatemala. ”

“ Then in 1774 the Cabildo finally moved its home to the present site of the city of Guatemala. This last change was not altogether a popular measure, and the Archbishop and the clergy strongly opposed the removal; but the principal laymen were in its favour, partly influenced, so says tradition, by the heavy liens which the numerous ecclesiastical bodies held on their property in the old city. The poorer people, when they had once recovered from their fright, were content to stay until oppressive laws were enacted to compel them to leave their old homes. ”

“ But above all Acasabastlan, is farre known, and much esteemed of in the City of Guatemala, for excellent Muskmillians, some small, some bigger then a mans head, wherewith the Indians load their mules and carry them to sell all over the Country. From hence to Guatemala, there are but thirty short leagues, and though some hills there be, ascents and descent, yet nothing troublesome to man or beast. ”

“ Chimaltenango, hotel at, 41, hills and plains of, 72. Chinic village, fruit-culture at, 76. Chiquimula village, doctor at, 125. Chixoy River or Rio Negro (q. v.) , 87, bridge across, 88-9, 167-8. Chocolateras (birds) , 216. Chol Indians, missionary effort amongst, 248. Christmas market, Guatemala city, 10. Chronicles, the, of the Cachiquel Indians, 61. Chuaca, old Spanish settlement at, 196. Chuntuchí, 248, 250. Churches in Guatemala city, 12. Chute fern, use made of, 91. Cicadas, 77. Ciguatecpan, 245. Cimientos, or foundation mounds, 169, see Mounds. Cinder ridge, on Fuego mountain, 40. ”

“ All this way are also many faire gardens, which supply the Markets of Guatemala with herbs, roots, fruits, and flowers all the yeer. There are further in this Rode three water mills for the corn of the City, whereof the chief and the richest belongs to the Dominican Fryers of Guatemala, who keep there a Fryer constantly with three or foure Blackmores to doe and oversee the worke; What will not those Fryers doe to satisfie their covetous mindes? Even dusty Millars they will become to get wealth. ”

“ Antiquarians, deep delvers in the majestic monuments of the long forgotten past, seek in the myths, the traditions, the temples and the ruins the riddles of prehistoric civilization. Modern tourists traveling as they will be able to do within a short time by railway from New York or San Francisco to the very heart of Guatemala may lose themselves in admiration of the sublime scenery, the lovely landscapes of valley and mountain lake and forest (the Indian name for Guatemala means abounding in trees) , volcanic caps, giant outlines, and cloud-clad craters. ”

“ In any Central-American republic, one notices a “homey” quality lacking in the larger territory of Mexico.
In these smaller nations, every one of any prominence knows every one else. The capital is something of a Latinized Main Street. This is more true of the little countries to the south, but Guatemala is not completely an exception. Its provincialism manifests itself particularly in the newspaper, which savors always of the local country weekly, although a flowery verbosity gives it a unique distinction. ”