Procession,
Second Sunday of Lent.
Antigua, Guatemala March 11, 2001.
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Guatemala City, Guatemala, March 8, 2001--
Everywhere
masked students are collecting money for the Guatemalan version
of Carnival. La Huelga de Dolores--the strike of the aggrieved--is a
day when people parade mocking the government. It is also a day of remembrance
of martyred student leaders and military dictatorships of the very recent
past.
In the Lenten processions of the season Ladino and Mayan people bear
extremely heavy wooden images of the crucified savior and his suffering
mother--the Virgin of Sorrows--on their shoulders.
In Antigua, children spend hours making colorful
"rugs" of flowers, colored rice and fruits in the streets.
The procession of suffering will destroy them in minutes. In a neighboring
village other children dance while sniffing glue and throwing the 18th
Street gang sign.
Even at the wedding I photograph the emotions are mixed. The
bride receives gifts and wipes tears from her eyes often. Someone
whispers in my ear that she looks very pregnant.
Guatemala,
March 18
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