Todos Santos

The cell phone tower is an essential tool for the people of Todos Santos. Virtually everyone in town has a cell phone, and the tower lets them conduct business with the outside world. Some of that business includes small scale tourism, and growing broccoli and coffee (the economy of Todos Santos is based primarily on agriculture). The town is at an altitude of 10,000 feet in the highlands of the western part of the country, about 10 hours drive from the capital. There are 27,000 people in Todos Santos, with 95 percent of them being Mam-speaking Mayans. During the war, the town was briefly occupied by the guerillas, then seized by the army, and later subjected to the Civil Patrol laws that required all men to serve in the paramilitary units that terrorized the countryside. Today the town is thriving.

Market day is alive with colorful umbrellas shading products of all shapes and sizes. Each Saturday Guatemalans from neighboring villages travel to Todos Santos to sell their goods. Todos Santeros watch the market goings-on from El Parque Central while dressed in their traje, their traditional clothing. Each Mayan town has its own distinctive traje; in the case of Todos Santos, men wear striped red pants, blue shirts with a darker wide blue stripe down the back, and a hat with a distinctive band. There are minor individual variations that each person adds to their clothes: note how one man here has a dark blue strip across the yoke of his shirt while another’s vertical stripe does not reach the bottom of the shirt. The shirts are made by wives on traditional Mayan back-strap looms, while the pants are made by husbands on Western treadle looms (which are easier and faster to use; the shirts’ appliqué requires the more precise but slower back-strap loom). Each man also carries a crocheted shoulder bag, which he makes himself. It is not unusual to be at an intense political meeting in town and see the men crocheting.

Mayan identity in Guatemala is determined by three things: what you eat, what language you speak, and what you wear, and all three tend to be unique to a given town. If these men went to the capital, any other Mayan would instantly know that they are from Todos Santos because of their traje. At one time, people would have been hesitant to wear their traje in the bigger cities because they would be discriminated against or seen as easy targets for violence and theft. Today, though, most Todos Santeros proudly wear it when they travel to the capital, and all wear it as essential everyday clothing at home.

Radio Qman Txun is an essential tool in maintaining indigenous identity. It broadcasts news, entertainment, and cultural and educational programs, all in Mam. Ninety-five percent of the town’s 27,000 residents speak Mam as their everyday language, using Spanish only when talking to visitors (even when those visitors are Mam-speaking Mayans: each valley and mountain has its own local dialect, and in some cases one Mam speaker may not be able to understand another from another town). The marimba music it plays is also unique to the town. Each valley has its own distinctive variety of marimba music. In many towns these local styles have fallen by the wayside, as powerful outside radio stations play mainstream Latino music. By emphasizing traditional music, stations like Qman Txun play a crucial role in preserving regional culture.

Fifty percent of people in Todos Santos have a family member working or studying in the United States. The house on the right is built in the traditional style of Todos Santos while the house on the left, in a more modern style, belongs to a man who went to the United States to work and returned home. Unlike such expatriots in many other places, virtually all Todos Santeros return home, because of the strong culture foundation in the town. And while they bring new ideas and technologies, those things sit comfortably alongside their Mayan traditions, rather than corrupting or replacing them.

The Todos Santos diet is based on vegetables grown in milpas—fields of maize, beans, and squash grown together. Supplemented by small amounts of meat pigs and chickens, these foods provide sound nutrition, and this quintessential traditional Maya agricultural system is fully sustainable and ecologically beneficial. The corn serves as a pole for the beans to grow on, and the squash acts as a ground cover that keeps down weeds, and all three contribute different elements to the soil to keep it fertile. Many of these fields have been farmed this way for thousands of years. The resulting corn can grow up to 20 feet high, with eight mazorcas, or ears of corn, on each stalk.

Rosendo Pablo Ramirez, 34, and his five-year-old daughter, Abeth, beside a wireless antenna/transmitter. The device, installed by Cultural Survival with funds from our members, allows the radio station to have Internet access and easily share program content and news with other stations. Without this system, shared materials would have to be burned to a CD and hand carried for hours or days to reach other stations.

Ramirez, founder, volunteer, and former director of the Todos Santos community radio, is emblematic of Todos Santos’ comfortable footing in both traditional and modern worlds. The campesino tills the corn fields with the rest of the Todos Santeros, but at the same time he understands the importance of modern technology such as radio and Internet cafes for caring for the city’s needs. Ramirez, who studied in Florida and Cambridge, had an opportunity to use his advanced computer science skills anywhere, but he gave his knowledge and passion to his hometown. In June of 2000, he opened the first Internet café in Todos Santos. Ramirez says he saw open communication as the savior of Maya culture.

Todos Santeros assemble at an election event. Increased political participation is one of the goals of the community radio project, and the citizens of Todos Santos are proof of the concept. The number of people voting and taking part in political decisions has increased dramatically over the past several years, largely because Radio Qwam Txun encourages them to take part and be proud of their indigenous identity.