Guatemalan Culture

As discussed earlier, the population of Guatemala is around 14,000,000.  Overall, it is a very young population with 43% of the people under the age of 14.  There are 2 main groups of people that live in Guatemala: natives and ladinos.  The natives are mostly Mayans.  Ladinos are people with mixed Spanish and native ancestry. 

Population of Guatemala

Ladinos      55%

Natives      43%

Whites/others   2%

The main differences between ladinos and natives are language and dress.  Spanish is the official language of Guatemala and the primary language of 60% of the population, including ladinos.  However, there are also 23 Maya languages spoken by different parts of the population..  While natives mostly speak their own language, some of them also speak Spanish.  Natives can easily pass for Ladinos by changing their clothes and speaking Spanish  

 

Ladinos live primarily in the cities and are mostly middle or working class.  They tend to be poorer than most people in the U.S. or Europe, but they dress for work in much the same way.  Contrary to the western fashion of the ladinos, natives wear traditional Maya clothes   

Who lives in Guatemala?

A native woman bargaining with a ladino at a market.

Natives also do not typically live in cities.  There are 20 different groups of Maya in Guatemala primarily living in the highlands and scattered villages.  They have their communities in some of the most scenic parts of the county.  This has helped make the Maya a popular tourist attraction in Guatemala. 

Many Maya are farmers.  They have little plots called milpa where they can grow corn, beans, squash, chilies, and other foods.  Sometimes milpas are hours away from where a family lives.  Men have to get up very early and travel to the milpas to work.  The milpas can also be on a steep hillside.  The farmers sometimes have to bury a stake in the ground and tie themselves to it before they start faming so they won’t fall down the hill.  Plots are divided between the sons of a family so they grow smaller with every generation.  Some milpas aren’t even big enough to feed a family.