Much Ado about Nothing

I visited Rebecca’s old host family today. During the visit, there was a lot of commotion in the town plaza—a presidential candidate was coming!

[I have to lay out two disclaimers that pertain to Peace Corps policy. We are not allowed to participate in political rallies, so I viewed the event from the family’s second-story balcony a block away, literally “above the political fray.” Also, I cannot write about Guatemalan politics on my blog, so there will be no mention of the politician nor any political commentary. Just the spectacle of the event.]

The event was supposed to start at 1:30, but there were not a lot of people in the plaza. The plaza filled when 15 school buses arrived, bringing people from the surrounding communities who supported the party or who had received handouts from them.


The event finally began at 2:30 with the political equivalent of a warm-up act. The actors performed a skit about how this candidate helps people, and they tried to lead the indigenous women in cheers. It failed. As any educator of Guatemalans could tell you, in large groups indigenous women do not speak above a whisper (which has been the bane of student participation in my classes). Instead of energizing the crowd to cheer a rhyme about the politician, the speaker settled for, “Raise your hand if you support the candidate!” A few dozen hands raised in the air is not as impressive as three hundred people calling for a politician, but the fireworks more than made up for the lack of sound.

While we waited, 8-year-old Oscar, the most politically savvy kid I know, shared his views with me. He knew all about the divorce proceedings (“The average divorce takes three months, but they got theirs in one month for political reasons”), clerical duties (“If he runs, he has to resign as a pastor”), and campaign promises of the many candidates. He also shared insights like, “That politician looks constipated in his campaign poster.” Or, “The mayors always pave the road to their houses. In this case, I’m OK with it because I live next door to him.”


After candidates for mayor and congressman (“diputado”) spoke, someone came on stage and said that there was an emergency in the capital, and the candidate would not arrive. We had waited over 90 minutes for an anticlimax. The candidate’s slogan is “gets it done.” Not in this case.