The city with two names – Quetzaltenango and the original Mayan name Xelajú, or just Xela (“Shay-la”) – is considered the academic center of Guatemala and the largest city outside of the metropolitan area around Guatemala City.
After too many hours on the school buses in Belize, I decided after arriving in Guatemala to take advantage of the tourist shuttles, instead of using the “chicken buses”, to save time and have more leg room. The driver to the shuttle stop outside of Xela remarked that Guatemala used to grow much wheat and cotton, which were used by the breweries and to make traditional clothes. That cultivation and the agricultural economy depending on it were destroyed by the importation of cheaper staple crops from abroad.
The elimination of tariffs causing prices of imported (and US-government subsidized) grains and other goods to plummet occurred after the passage in 2005 of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) between the US, the Dominican Republic and 5 Central American countries including Guatemala.
As we were waiting for the shuttle to arrive, we watched a family in traditional Mayan garb lounging on a small patch of grass eating a meal together and drinking soda (“Super Cola”) from a large plastic bottle. The driver lamented that so many have become habituated to this cheap artificially super-sweet beverage, unaware of the damaging effects to their health, whereas before they would drink water or natural fruit juice.