Line #16 UsefulNotes/Guatemala


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guatemala-map_5330.gif]]
2
3	Guatemala is the most populous and third largest country in Central America, and the fourth most populated country in the continent of UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica after the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}. Although the official language is Spanish, not everyone speaks it and the country is very diverse both culturally and linguistically. There are four major ethnic groups: the Ladinos, the Mayas, the Garifuna and the Xinca. It is also a very biologically diverse place, as one would expect from a place whose name means “place of many trees”.
4
5	The territory was once inhabited by [[UsefulNotes/PreColumbianCivilizations Mayans]], a civilization with noteworthy advances in the arts and sciences, especially astronomy. However, by the time the Spanish conqueror army came around, they were long gone,[[note]] Nobody knows why, but common theories include a Toltec invasion, a collapse of trade routes, revolutions, diseases and massive drought[[/note]] leaving only [[TheAlliance small kingdoms and city-states]] for the Spaniards to fight.
6
7	The Spanish established the Captaincy General of Guatemala, mostly comprising modern-day Central America, which in turned proclaimed its independence in 1821. After an annexation to the short-lived [[UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} Mexican Empire]], the territory once again reformed itself into the Federal Republic of Central America. At least until 1840 when the provinces had all declared themselves independent.
8
9	In 1898 the country fell into a [[BananaRepublic dictatorship]] for the first time, and it would pass almost the entire [[The20thCentury 20th century]] alternating between political instability, coups d’état, military governments and guerrilla operations, resulting in a bloody civil war between the revolutionary armies and the government. Notably, it suffered a coup in 1954 orchestrated by the [[UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} CIA]] on behalf of [[MegaCorp the United Fruit Company]]; this overthrew Guatemala's only second ever democratically elected leader, Jacobo Árbenz, on [[RedScare suspicions of communism]], resulting in decades of authoritarianism.
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11	Peace accords were signed in 1996 and since then, it has recovered political stability and democratic institutions. Sadly, the problems of the 36-year-long war (including widespread poverty, sky-high crime rates, economic inequality and ethnic clashes) still linger today. And many government officials and presidential candidates take pleasure in exploiting it to their own profit.
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13	Guatemala has some kind of feud with UsefulNotes/{{Belize}} and, by extension, the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom. Turns out the territory of Belize was once part of the Spanish colony, something for which they have made a claim; actually, they only recognized the country in 1990, but the dispute, though civil, still remains active.
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16	!!Useful Notes:
17	[[index]]
18	* UsefulNotes/PreColumbianCivilizations (Mayas)
19	* UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheMaya
20	[[/index]]
21
22	----
23	!!Famous Guatemalans
24	* Manuel Estrada, dictator from 1898 to 1920, infamous for allowing the entry of the United Fruit Company to the country (the TropeNamer of the BananaRepublic) and for trying to [[CloudCuckooLander install a cult of Minerva]] (yes, ''[[Myth/ClassicalMythology that Minerva]]'').
25	* General Miguel Ydígoras, dictator from 1958 to 1963, who is notorious mainly because he once challenged the Mexican president to a [[DuelToTheDeath duel]] because of a fishing issue (of course, it didn’t come to fruition).
26	* Miguel Ángel Asturias, winner of the UsefulNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature in 1967. His most famous book is ''El Señor Presidente'' (''Mister President''), where he analyses the usual characteristics of a Latin American dictator (though his main inspiration was the aforementioned Manuel Estrada).
27	* Doroteo "Mateo" Flores, long distant runner. Won gold in the Pan American Games in 1955 and First Place in the Boston Marathon in 1952. Considered the best athlete in the country.
28	* Rigoberta Menchú, an indigenous woman of K’iche’ ethnicity (the same ethnicy detailed on the ''Literature/PopolVuh''), who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1992 for her work helping refugees of the Guatemalan Civil War.
29	* Creator/DaphneZuniga, who broke through in ''Film/TheInitiation'', is of Guatemalan descent on her father's side.
30	* Music/RicardoArjona, one of the best-selling Latin singers of all time. His daughter, Creator/{{Adria\|Arjona}}, is also in the entertainment industry, albeit as an actress, rather than singer.
31	* Creator/ColmanDomingo was born to a Belizean father and a Guatemalan mother.
32	* Actor Creator/OscarIsaac is Guatemalan-American.
33	* Creator/TonyRevolori was born in the United States to Guatemalan immigrants.
34	----
35	!!Works set in Guatemala
36
37	* The first part of ''Film/ElNorte'', a 1983 film about two Mayan youths who are driven out of Guatemala by ethnic persecution, only to find different suffering in the United States.
38	----
39	[[AC:The Guatemalan flag]]
40	[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guatemala_flag_3566.png]]
41	->The central white stripe symbolizes peace and purity, while the sky blue side stripes signifies the skies and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. At the center is the coat-of-arms, featuring a scroll, upon which is written the date of Guatemala's independence (September 15, 1821), atop which is perched a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resplendent_Quetzal Resplendent Quetzal]], the country's national bird whose importance dates back to the Mayas. Behind the two are a pair of crossed swords, representing honor, a pair of crossed rifles, signifying the people's readiness to defend their homeland, and a pair of laurel wreaths, symbolizing victory.
42	----
43	[[AC:The Guatemalan national anthem]]
44
45	->¡Guatemala feliz...! que tus aras
46	->no profane jamás el verdugo;
47	->ni haya esclavos que laman el yugo
48	->ni tiranos que escupan tu faz.
49
50	->Si mañana tu suelo sagrado
51	->lo amenaza invasión extranjera,
52	->libre al viento tu hermosa bandera
53	->a vencer o a morir llamará.
54
55	->Libre al viento tu hermosa bandera
56	->a vencer o a morir llamará;
57	->que tu pueblo con ánima fiera
58	->antes muerto que esclavo será.
59
60	->De tus viejas y duras cadenas
61	->tu forjaste con mano iracunda
62	->el arado que el suelo fecunda
63	->y la espada que salva el honor.
64
65	->Viva a pátria gloriosa!
66	->Floriu nos céus a bandeira da luta.
67	->Avante, contra o jugo estrangeiro!
68	->Nós vamos construir
69
70	->Nuestros padres lucharon un día
71	->encendidos en patrio ardimiento
72	->y lograron sin choque sangriento
73	->colocarte en un trono de amor.
74
75	->Y lograron sin choque sangriento
76	->colocarte en un trono de amor,
77	->que de Patria, en enérgico acento,
78	->dieron vida al ideal redentor.
79
80	->Es tu enseña pedazo de cielo
81	->en que prende una nube su albura,
82	->y ¡ay de aquel que con ciega locura,
83	->sus colores pretenda manchar!
84
85	->Pues tus hijos valientes y altivos,
86	->que veneran la paz cual presea,
87	->nunca esquivan la ruda pelea
88	->si defienden su tierra y su hogar.
89
90	->Nunca esquivan la ruda pelea
91	->si defienden su tierra y su hogar,
92	->que es tan solo el honor su alma idea
93	->y el altar de la Patria su altar.
94
95	->Recostada en el Ande soberbio,
96	->de dos mares al ruido sonoro,
97	->bajo el ala de grana y de oro
98	->te adormeces del bello quetzal.
99
100	->Ave Indiana que vive en tu escudo,
101	->paladión que protege tu suelo;
102	->¡ojalá que remonte su vuelo,
103	->más que el cóndor y el águila real!
104
105	->¡Ojalá que remonte su vuelo,
106	->más que el cóndor y el águila real,
107	->y en sus alas levante hasta el cielo,
108	->Guatemala, tu nombre inmortal!
109
110	--
111
112	->Glad Guatemala! may your altar
113	->Never be trampled by the tormentor
114	->Nor may slaves lick the yoke
115	->Nor may tyrants spit upon your face
116
117	->If tomorrow your sacred soil
118	->By foreign invasion is threatened
119	->Free into the wind, your beautiful flag
120	->To victory or death it shall call
121
122	->Free into the wind, your beautiful flag
123	->To victory or death it shall call
124	->Your people will, with fiery soul,
125	->die before being enslaved.
126
127	->From your old and hard chains
128	->You forged, with an ire-driven hand,
129	->The plow that fertilizes the soil
130	->And the honor-saving sword.
131
132	->Our fathers fought one day,
133	->Lit up in patriotic burning
134	->And they managed, without bloody clash,
135	->To place you on a throne of love.
136
137	->And they managed, without bloody clash,
138	->To place you on a throne of love,
139	->And our Nation, in energetic assent,
140	->Gave life to the redeeming ideal.
141
142	->Your emblem is a piece of the sky
143	->From which a cloud gets its whiteness
144	->And woe onto him who dares in blind madness
145	->your colours to stain!
146
147	->For your sons, brave and zealous,
148	->who adore peace as a great treasure
149	->will never avoid the rough battle
150	->to defend their land and their home.
151
152	->They will never avoid the rough battle
153	->to defend their land and their home
154	->as well as the altar of the mother country,
155	->their altar.
156
157	->Lying upon the proud Ande,
158	->of the two oceans, hearing its noise,
159	->under the gold and crimson red wing of the beautiful quetzal
160	->you will become entranced.
161
162	->Native bird that lives in your seal
163	->the protector of your soil
164	->May it fly high
165	->more than the condor and the royal eagle!
166
167	->May it fly high
168	->more than the condor and the royal eagle
169	->And in its wings, may it raise up to the sky
170	->Guatemala, your name, immortal!
171	----
172	[[AC:Government]]
173	* Unitary presidential republic
174	** President: Bernardo Arévalo
175	** Vice President: Karin Herrera
176	** President of the Congress: Nery Ramos
177	** President of the Supreme Court: Oscar Cruz Oliva
178	----
179	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
180	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Guatemala City
181	* '''Population:''' 17,263,239
182	* '''Area:''' 108,889 sq km (42,042 sq mi) (105th)
183	* '''Currency''': Guatemalan quetzal (Q) (GTQ)
184	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' GT
185	* '''Country calling code:''' 502
186	* '''Highest point:''' Volcán Tajumulco (4220 m/13,845 ft) (36th)

Context UsefulNotes / Guatemala