Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía

Fotos del nuevo libro

2011-10-14T04:54:00.000-07:00

Acá unas fotos de la nueva edición de Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía.

Pequeña "tertulia" sobre Titular de hoy: Guatemala

2011-09-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

En 1982, Mikael Wahlforss, el director finlandés de Epidem films, nos pidió a Allan Nairn y a mí colaborar con él en un documental, ya conocido como Titular de hoy: Guatemala. El enfoque inicial de Titular se trataba del conflicto armado interno en Guatemala y la falta de atención periodístico al mismo. En otras palabras, Mikael pensaba filmar atrocidades de la Guerra y, luego, demostrar la falta de interés internacional en las mismas, usando entrevistas posteriores con editores en Washington y NY.

Sin embargo, sucedieron dos eventos durante el rodaje que, sin querer, se convirtieron en "noticias" -- una de inmediato y otra que se filtó con el pasar de casi tres décadas.

La primera fue una entrevista en la Escuela Politécnica, con un Boina Verde estadounidense quien enseñaba la contrainsurgencia a los cadetes de la misma. Como toda ayuda militar estadounidense había sido prohibida desde el 1977, su presencia era prohibida e ilegal. Esa noticia salió de primera plana en el Washington Post y en las noticias nocturnas de CBS/Dan Rather.

La segunda noticia se relaciona a la filmación del ahora candidato presencial, el ex-general Otto Pérez Molina, quien, en 1982, estaba de mando en el norte del Quiché. El Mayor "Tito Arias", como lo conocimos en la filmación, nos permitió dos entrevistas interesantes -- una en Nebaj, en el destacamento, y otra en La Pista, que en ese entonces era puesto de detención de personas capturadas mientras huían del Ejército. Se llamaba "aldea modelo".

Quisiéramos organizar una reunión para los que se interesan el los temas presentados en Titular los puedan desarrollar en un ambiente que se preste a este tipo de reunión. Si tienen ideas, favor escribirme al jmsguate@gmail.com.

nueva edición de "Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía"

2011-07-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

La librería Sophos informó que se han pedido copias de Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía. El libro se agotó a principios de 2011. Esperamos salga en agosto 2011 la nueva edición del mismo. La nueva edición llevará 272 páginas y más de 200 fotos, de las cuales la mitad son inéditas; es decir, no salieron en la edición de 2010.

Habrá 17 textos más una introducción breve. Print Studio imprimirá cuatro mil ejemplares; el 25% de ellos serán distribuidos gratuitamente, por ODHAG, a los colegios e institutos públicos junto con una excelente guía pedagógica escrita por Luisa González-Reiche.

Estudio A2 y el equipo de Andrés Asturias se encargó del escaneo y perfección de las imágenes. Lucía Menéndez, conocida diseñadora, de nuevo se encarga del diseño de libro.

Si quiere copia gratuita y se es maestro, favor enviar correo a libroguate@gmail.com con su nombre y el nombre de la institución que representa. La nueva edición del libro fue financiada con el apoyo de una institución no lucrativa más el 100% de la ganancia del libro publicado en 2010, la cual fue reinvertida en la nueva edición. Gracias a ello, se ha podido mantener el precio del nuevo libro en menos de $12.

El nuevo libro está dedicado a mi amiga Lucky Orellana, profesora de la USAC y persona extraordinaria, y a todas las personas desaparecidas y sus familiares.

Aniversario del cumpleaños de Beatriz Barrios, asesinada en 1985 por el Ejército.

2011-05-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

Edición popular de Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía

2011-05-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

En los próximos meses se publicará una nueva versión de Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía. La primera edición en castellana, publicada en 2010, tuvo en un tiraje de mil ejemplares el cual se agotó a principios de 2011. Con la ganancia de esta edición se invirtió en la nueva, la cual consistirá en 4 mil ejemplares. Con ésta esperamos crear una al alcance de muchos, sobre todo los sectores estudiantiles, razón por la cual se regalarán mil ejemplares a los colegios e institutos públicos junto con una guía pedagógica producida por Luisa González Reiche. La nueva edición contendrá 272 páginas y más de 200 fotos, 110 de ellas inéditas. Acá una pequeña muestra de la nueva edición. El nuevo libro será impreso en Print Studio, Guatemala Ciudad. Estudio A2 hará el escán y perfeccionamiento de las fotos; Lucía Menéndez, el diseño.

II Muestra de Cine Internacional: Memoria Verdad Justicia 2011

2011-03-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

Uli Stelzner, el director del documental La Isla, presenta la II Muestra de Cine Internacional, una complilación de documentales rodados en distintos países. Entre ellos, se presentarán tres documentales rodados por el director finlandés, Mikael Wahlforss llamados: Titular de hoy: Guatemlaa y Ensueños Blindados (1983) y Stalag Guatemala (1984).

Los documentales serán presentados en Guatemala Ciudad (31 marzo al 9 de abril) y en Quetzaltenango (7 al 13 de abril):

Ensueños blindados, viernes 08/04/11: Palacio de la Cultura, 18 horas

Stalag Guatemala, viernes 08/04/11: Palacio de la Cultura, 19:30 horas

Titular de hoy: Guatemala, 09/04/11: Palacio de la Cultura, 18:00 horas

Mikael y yo ofreceremos un comentario sobre los documentales.

"Esa historia la vuelta de la esquina": retrospectiva en imágenes y texto

2011-01-29T09:50:00.001-08:00

Hoy, 29 enero 2011, a las 16 horas en la antigua Compañía de Jesús en Antigua, se inaugura una exposición de titulada "A la vuelta de la esquina," la cual consiste en una selección de fotografías seleccionadas de múltiples fuentes más un excelente texto escrito por Luis Pedro Taracena. La exposición, patrocinada por Espacioce en Antigua, está abierta lunes a domingo 9 hasta 18 horas todos los días y se mantendrá abierta hasta el 30 de abril. Felicitaciones a Rebeca Lozar, Emiliano Valdés, y Luis Pedro Taracena por su valiosa y necesaria contribución al proceso de la memoria histórica. (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1528693570)

Exposición en el Palacio de la Cultura, jueves 2 diciembre 18 horas.

2010-11-26T10:51:00.000-08:00

New Book, New Exhibit....

2010-11-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

Hola a todos. Como han de saber, mi libro, Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía se publicó en junio gracias al apoyo de la Fundación Soros/Guatemala y de varios colegas, entre ellos Daniel Chauche; Andrés Asturias y el equipo de Estudio A2; José Fahsen de Print Studio, y la diseñadora Lucía Menéndez. El prólogo fue escrito por Aryeh Neier, presidente del Open Society Institute/NY y el comentario es de Juan Luis Font. Cinco meses después, se han vendido el 80% de los ejemplares de venta en la librería Sophos, en Guatemala. Sin embargo, Cirma, la entidad ONG en Antigua, obtuvo 500 ejemplares los cuales tienen que ser distribuidos gratuitamente. Si desean copia del libro, les sugiero ponerse en contacto con la señora Lucrecia Arriola de Cirma (Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica, 5ª Calle Oriente No. 5 Antigua, tel: 7931-3000).

A raíz de la publicación del libro se consiguieron fondos para tres proyectos relacionados al libro. El primero es un nuevo libro. Con el mismo equipo vamos a publicar una edición popular en abril 2011; habrá 200 fotos a color y el precio de venta será de Q100 (menos de $13 dólares). El nuevo libro contendrá más fotos inéditas incluso más del EGP, el ORPA, y la vida diaria, con énfasis en más fotos de la costa sur, región tradicionalmente olvidada en cuanto al conflicto. Además, la nueva edición incluirá varias fotos técnicamente inferiores (ouch!) pero la cuales considero importantes en cuanto a explicar los años ochenta. Entre ellas figura una foto de Ríos Montt, en el Palacio, enseñando unos posters los cuales representan una "disminución" en los escuadrones de la muerte y, a la vez, elogiando los clandestinos tribunales de fuero especial. El libro ha sido financiado gracias al Orchard House Foundation en Palo Alto y el Programa Nacional de Resarcimiento (PNR).

El segundo proyecto es una nueva itinerancia de mis fotos. La primera itinerancian llegó a solo cuatro de los 12 pueblos programados, porque fue cancelada inesperadamente a mitad del camino y sin autorización mía, supuestamente por ser demasiado controversial en su contenido. Ahora, gracias a Isaac de los Reyes de CANEK, y la Embajada de Estados Unidos, habrá una nueva itinerancia la cual se inaugurará el jueves 2 de diciembre en el Palacio de la Cultura (2 diciembre-3o enero). Durante la primera mitad de 2011, las fotos viajarán en dos rutas a 14 municipios incluso Barillas, Nebaj, Rabinal, y Playa Grande. La culminación de la misma será una exposición en la USAC en julio 2011. Randy Barrios, de la USAC, será el encargado de la itinerancia. La inauguración es el jueves, 2 de diciembre a las 18 horas en el Palacio: admisión gratuita, por sup.

El tercer proyecto, el cual involucra a Luisa González-Reiche y Andrés Asturias en conjunto con Lucía Menéndez y la ODHAG, se trata de una masiva distribución de las fotos por DVD y un suplemento tipo periódico todo lo cual será distribuido por el territorio nacional de forma gratuita, gracias a un "grant" del Open Society Foundation(Nueva York)/Documentary Photography Project. El proyecto fue escogido entre más de 60 competidores.

Photos by Chauche!

2010-09-16T07:14:00.000-07:00

Check out Daniel Chauche's upcoming exhibit at Artecentro Paiz!

Lanzamiento Revista RARA

2010-08-21T10:52:00.001-07:00

Felicitaciones a todo el equipo de Estudio A2, Guatemala, por el lanzamiento de RARA y su inauguración en la galería Carlos Woods el 26 agosto!

The Disappearing Photo Exhibit

2010-08-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is a response to recent emails.

In July, the Spanish Cultural Center/Guatemala (CCE/G) cancelled an exhibit of my photographs that was scheduled to travel to 12 rural municipalities from May to October 2010. The photographs document the height of Guatemala’s civil war, and especially the Army’s counterinsurgency program in rural areas, including Nebaj, Barillas, and Playa Grande, three towns on the exhibit route.

I was never informed by the CCE of the exhibit’s cancellation. At about the same time, however, the photographs were returned to Guatemala City after completing only 5 of the 12 scheduled stops on the two circuits. The photos now sit in storage in Guatemala City.

This is a disappointment to me and to my colleagues in Guatemala, especially those at CANEK and the PNR, who invested a good deal of sweat equity toward this effort. It is also discouraging to think that, 25 years after these photos were taken and 14 years following the signing of the Peace Accords, this is the net result.

The question now is: How to re-organize this exhibit. The towns where the exhibit was scheduled to show and did not are: Nebaj, Barillas, Livingston, Tucurú, Playa Grande and La Libertad/Petén and CPR Primavera del Ixcán. We would also like to expand this exhibit also to include other communities such as San Martín Jilotepeque; Chajul/Cotzal; Huehuetenango, Panajachel; Flores, etc., as well as urban centers including high schools and universities public and private; government buildings; and other locales you may wish to suggest. Please email me with a message through facebook if you have any ideas.

Sophos Book News and Amazon Link; Exhibit Information

2010-07-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía is available in Guatemala at Sophos Bookstore, 4 Avenida, 12-29, zona 10, where it was #1 in June sales! It is also available online at amazon.com.

Here are the links to Sophos and amazon:

*Sophos: http://www.sophosenlinea.com/libro/guatemala-eterna-primavera-eterna-tirania_58606

Also note: The SOPHOS online link is back in full-force, and better than ever:

http://www.sophosenlinea.com/

*amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Guatemala-Eterna-Primavera-Tiran%C3%ADa/dp/9789929803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279815403&sr=8-1

My heartfelt thanks to my print and radio media colleagues in Guatemala. Your reviews of the book and the photographs are deeply appreciated.

Upcoming reviews in the U.S. include: Harvard Law Alumni Bulletin; ReVista/Harvard publications and Américas Magazine/Americas Society-Council of the Americas (all in October, all online and in print).

Many of you have been emailing me asking about the traveling exhibit. Stay tuned.

Hmm...Ruts in the Road of the Traveling Photo Exhibit.

2010-07-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

The traveling photo exhibit of photographs taken from Guatemala: eterna primavera, eterna tiranía has had an interesting little life so far.

The show's inaugural exhibit, in Comalapa, coincided with Agatha, and had a delayed opening.

Then, the photographs were vandalized in Santiago Atitlán. Details on this one are sketchy, but that's as much as I know.

Next, one of the powers that be in Estanzuela insisted that the photographs have a change of venue, for political reasons.

Now, I just learned that the exhibit in Nebaj has been cancelled following the assassination of the mayor's brother.

What next?

Guatemala's thirtysomethings.

2010-07-04T13:20:00.001-07:00

Guatemala: eternal primavera, eternal tiranía: Thirty-somethings.

On June 23, the Centro de Cultural de España (CCE) hosted the launch of my book, Guatemala: eternal primavera, eternal tiranía, and the opening of the related exhibit of 38 photographs at (Ex)Céntrico art gallery in downtown Guatemala City. Both events were packed; CCE was SRO, and someone mentioned that the (Ex)Céntrico opening was the largest crowd to date.

For me, the events were a watershed event in two respects.

First, I was happy to have my book published in Guatemala and to be well received. Guatemala: eternal primavera, eternal tiranía is number one on the Guatemala bestseller charts, beating out even Stieg Larsson’s girl wonder, Lisbeth, in June sales at Sophos bookstore. It has been reviewed in every newspaper and featured on the inimitable Ángel Elías radio program (see links below). With respect to the photo exhibits, (Ex)Céntrico’s zone one address is an appropriate venue; the location lends itself to viewing by lots of Guatemalans, not just folks who buy art. A smaller traveling exhibit of the photographs in 12 communities, sponsored by CANEK/CCE, has made the photographs available in places like Nebaj, Zacapa, Xela, and Comalapa. Despite Pacaya, Ágatha, Álex, and sinkholes, CANEK reports that thousands of people have viewed the show; the comment book in Santiago Atitlán contained 198 comments.

I was especially fortunate to have our daughter, Renée Simon Anderson, at the CCE and exhibit opening. Her presence that night – meeting friends, taking snapshots of Mommy and old acquaintances -- meant more than I could have imagined.

Speaking of my 17-year-old daughter, the second watershed event: youth. At the CCE question-and-answer, someone asked if today’s Guatemalan youth is a lost cause. The answer is simple: No.

First, the thirty-something generation largely produced this book: the contributions of Andrés Asturias, Lucía Menéndez, Jorge Castrillón, Pamela Escobar, and Claudia Méndez Arriaza reflect talent, hard work, and commitment. Isaac de los Reyes, Laura Luja, and Johanna Barrios are responsible for the traveling exhibit, which entailed hundreds of hours traveling to highland communities In addition, several “almost thirty-somethings” also contributed: José Fahsen, the general manager of Print Studio, is a businessman who heads Guatemala’s best printing house. He also believed in this book and has good ideas for the next popular edition. Juan Luis Font, managing editor at elPeriódico, was passionate about the idea of resurrecting my two-decade-old English edition for the Spanish version.

In retrospect, perhaps what struck me as most unusual about working with this group of people was that we never actually talked politics. For one thing, everyone was working so hard that there wasn’t much time for chitchat. At the same time, however, everyone in the group was committed to the idea that historical memory is important, and the book was worth it for that reason alone.

Second, I was floored by the crowd that showed up for the CCE presentation and the exhibit, since two-thirds of them were the under-forty crowd. Some of the people there have disappeared relatives, and a few have vague memories of the 1980s, when the war was most intense. However, most of the younger crowd was curious: I watched in amazement as they stood in the CCE for the presentation, or made their way through the exhibit.

George Bernard Show, you’re wrong; youth is not wasted on the young.

Andrés Asturias: Peeling the Onion

2010-05-30T11:21:00.002-07:00

Author David Lipsky's comment that "a book has friends before it has readers" seemed created for my book, and no one faster comes to mind than Andrés Asturias, photographer and owner of Estudio/A2 which, according to Daniel Chauche, is the only place to pay for Photoshop in the Isthmus.

Back to the beginning: In June 2009, while I was in Guatemala, Daniel pronounced my low resolution jpgs inferior. We had a meeting with the book's administrative staff and he told us all that we'd have to buy high resolution scans of my Kodachrome transparencies and Photoshop them. Everyone blanched. More money? More time?

Enter Andrés Asturias, a friend and colleague of Daniel. I didn't meet Andrés until September, but he had begun to assist with the technical end of the book early in the process, before we met. Andrés and his team at Estudio A2, Víctor Martínez and Cedrick Arenales, had googled scanning studios in the Washington area and recommended National Geographic, based on its reputation and its proximity to my house. And Daniel told me that Andrés was The Guy to do the Photoshop. Since I was saying "okay" to everything else Daniel was suggesting, there was no reason to break the streak.

The first rendez-vous with Andrés was meet and greet: we were both busy and I was running around Guatemala just before my classes resumed in DC. My only salient memory of that meeting was being assaulted by his three dogs who are the most affectionate canines ever encountered. The second time I met with Andrés, in November, things were getting serious. National Geographic had produced the 170 scans and I took them down to Guatemala along with my original chromes, for Andrés to use as comparison. Andrés and I spent five hours huddled in front of his Mac screen reviewing the images one by one.

What I really like about Andrés's Photoshop method is that he is not trigger-happy with Photoshop or cropping. He's kind of like that one in a million plastic surgeon (not that I would know) who makes you look better and whose work is imperceptible. We went through all the images, stopping only for coffee, and he labelled a light crop here and there, schmutz on the image, and danger signs on the color balance.

On that trip, I realized that Andrés did a lot more than Photoshop enhancement for photographers with boo-boos. As we were packing up, Andrés mentioned that he had photographed Holy Week at the beach. He pulled out a bunch of prints, and I was shocked, since these were great photos. Andrés then mentioned in passing that he had a show coming up in 2010, and then mumbled something about PhotoEspaña. Then, a propos of I forget what, he mentioned that his grandmother was a poet. He gave me a copy of her poems.

I realized that getting to know Andrés is like peeling an onion: it's one layer after another. Andrés's Arena Negra series, which I loved, was going to be a major exhibit in Guatemala, and PhotoEspaña was a highly competitive event. When I mentioned Andrés's grandmother to Minayú Zamora, she informed me that Luz Méndez de la Vega is Guatemala's premier poetess, and one of its most valued poets, period. I read her book twice on the plane home, and realized why.

During my next five trips to Guatemala, Andrés became a huge part of the book in ways unrelated to Photoshop or his grandmother. He contributed big-time to the layout; he and Lucía created a postcard advertising the book, which Andrés distributed all over Guatemala and Antigua; he wrote the legal copyright language at the end (blush; I'm a lawyer); he had Estudio A2 add a map; and we even spent a morning checking out alternative venues for an exhibit. When the Central Cultural de España offered up ExCéntrico for the exhibit, Andrés and his partner, Luisa González-Reiche, a talented graphic artist, took me on a tour of ExCéntrico to check out the space and the flow of photos.

Most significantly, Andrés created a Website for the book which indeed has given a lot of people a little taste of the book in advance. The Website is great, it even includes a "Virtual Museum" which includes a baker's dozen photos of friends and colleagues of mine from the 1980s, with a short description of the role each person played in shaping Guatemala during that period. When I asked Andrés how long he had spent creating the Website, he mumbled (he mumbles a lot when talking about himself), he said "a week, more or less." Luisa sort of snorted. Clearly, "one week" requires some multiplication.

All the work stuff aside, I am also grateful to Andrés and Luisa for opening up their home to me. The line between professional and personal time became blurred, to say the least, in the past few months, and time and again I found myself at their table, eating lunch or spearing carrot cake. In April, Andrés's parents, who are delightful, came over for coffee. His dad insisted that I meet the Italian cultural attaché; the next day, Andrés and I were off to the Italian consulate where we ended up spending two hours with Paola Viero, discussing how further to disseminate the book.

More recently, Andrés printed all the photos for the itinerant exhibition that is traveling to 12 municipalities through August, and the 40-print exhibit that will open at ExCéntrico in zone one on June 23. In addition, we are beginning to talk about the next edition of the book, a smaller, popular edition with more photos and just captions for text. I consider myself lucky to have Andrés on board for this next project. This is a guy with vision, and a guy who is going places.

Daniel "Xox," not "Shoush"

2010-05-01T04:17:00.000-07:00

In May 2009, I realized that doing a book meant more than getting money to do it. Tani Adams told me in a phone call that there was one person capable of putting together a photo book in Guatemala. That person was Daniel Chauche, a French-American photographer who has lived in Guatemala since the 1970s.

I did not know much of Daniel's work, but I had admired greatly his black and white portraits that appeared on the cover and interior of Victor Perera's, Guatemala: Unfinished Conquest (University of California Press, 1993). Daniel travels around Guatemala with a portable studio (white sheet, reflector) and different format cameras. While many of his photographs are posed, it is clear that his subjects are comfortable around him. Indeed, it is impossible to walk down the street with Daniel without half a dozen people coming up to greet him.

Daniel is also prolific. In 2009 he had a solo show at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in San Salvador, another at Panza Verde in January 2010, and in September he will have a third solo exhibition at Artecentro de Paiz in Guatemala City. His photographs are part of permanent collections at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Mueseum of Art in Jacksonville, Florida, among others. Since 1983, Daniel's been the owner of the Sombra y Luz photo studio in Antigua, Guatemala. More to the point, he's a master photographer, printer and teacher. Almost every time I'm at Daniel's house in Antigua, a student is in the darkroom, trying to make the perfect negative or an acceptable print. (Daniel is pretty picky.)

In a nutshell, Daniel made clear what one needed to produce a book: high quality scans, designer, Photoshop expert, and a decent printer. Daniel re-wrote the book agreement by insisting that all these parties, first, be part of the process and, second, that they be first-rate. I will never forget the day when the organization administering the funds challenged Daniel on the utility of a designer. "Why do you need a designer?" they asked. Daniel looked at them and, without moving a muscle, replied, "So that page five follows page four." Since April 2009, Daniel has overseen virtually every aspect of this book right down to the publicity; in June 2009 he snagged interviews with Siglo XXI and Diario de Centro América; once I was so hungry that all I wanted to do was eat lunch (I don't care what anyone says about Panza Verde; I like it) and he handed me his cell phone and had me do an interview with Gabriel Arana of Siglo XXI. Then we had a toast.

In truth, what I learned about this process was how much I didn't know about the book process and I realized just how much I had been absent for when my first book was done, and what a different world it is now.

In addition, he introduced me to Guatemalans, including Andrés Asturias, the owner of Estudio A2, who held this book to high standards. Together Andrés -- more on him in the next post -- and Daniel saved this book from gathering dust in the sorry pantheon of photographic disasters.

Book Design..

2010-04-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

When the English version of Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía was published in NY 22 years ago, I was living in Guatemala, and I did not pay much attention to the design. I thought designers were people who fretted about details that were not important to me or to what I wanted from a book. I was, of course, wrong.

Lucía Menéndez, who designed Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía, spent two months shepherding the book through its various design stages. This included the photo layout, the photos' interface with the text, the sequencing and "rhythm" of the text and photos together, and delivering a camera-ready product to Print Studio last week.

Guatemala is unusual if not unique in that it contains equal parts of photo and text. Although good photos can -- and probably should -- stand on their own, Guatemala was so under-reported in the press in the 1980s that I wanted my book to be a compendium of testimonies. To that end, I devised three levels of reading: short bold-faced captions for the photo crowd; long captions for people who wanted solid information without having to slog through a lot of text; and the text for the hardcore readers.

As a result, the English version of the text was too busy: there were photos, double-spaced text and footnotes on the same page. Lucía's version of the book is a huge improvement in lots of ways.

First, Lucía gave the photos their due by blowing up the verticals to cover the page, and by running ten photos as double-page spreads. (There is a double-page of Vinicio at the beach; as Frank Goldman put it, "¡Qué pu@#$%%^ foto!" (not homage to my photography skills but to Vinicio + Speedo + gun across two pages.) She and Andrés Asturias also made photo combinations that never would have occurred to me: Mico Sandoval Alarcón, the former head of the "movement of organized violence" juxtaposed with a beleaguered civil patroller holding a torn copy of the 1985 Guatemalan Constitution, and a near-naked worker hauling sugar opposite a near naked Mardi Grass reveler at Ad Astra disco.

Second, Lucía used a cleaner typeface: Chronicle text. The captions are more compact but, at the same time, more readable than those in the U.S. version. It's clean and aesthetically pleasant.

Third, Lucía killed herself putting the book together. It is hard enough to design a photography book, but try doing a photography book where the text could be a separate tome. That was hard. I think I owe Lucía 100 beers at the Bar Central, or six months of therapy as a result. Lucía also let a whole bunch of people -- Daniel, Andrés, me -- breathe down her neck during the last part of the design process. I don't know a lot of designers, but the ones I do know keep humanity at arm's length while they work. Lucía's accommodation was unusual.

Finally, Lucía has a long-standing relationship with Print Studio, where the book was printed last week. This helped a lot, because when changes had to be made, either in the photos or the text, Lucía's relationship with PS management made a difference.

Next post: Photoshop and Andrés Asturias; Daniel Chauche at the printer

The Yellow Shirts

2010-04-14T04:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of me with Andrés Asturias, boy photo wonder, and Lucía Menéndez, girl design wonder, in Lucía's loft. The yellow shirt coordination was unintentional, but it does prove we all have good taste in ... color.

2010-04-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

1. Daniel Chauche: http://lamiradadedanielchauche.blogspot.com

2. Estudio/A2: www.a2foto.com

3. Print Studio: http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_8whhd4

4. National Geographic Imaging: www.ngimaging.com

I would like to acknowledge the photography component of this endeavor. In a subsequent post, I’ll note the translator’s role and the process of copyediting.

The scan of 175 Kodachrome transparencies was carried out at National Geographic Imaging in Washington, DC.

With the exception of the photo scan, however, every other aspect of the design, execution, and publication of Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía, took place in Guatemala City.

***

In Absolutely American, author David Lipsky remarked that a book has friends before it has readers. Certainly this was true for Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía. Below is a short description of the people who shepherded the photo process.

Anyone who lives in Guatemala knows the work of photographer Daniel Chauche, who has resided in Antigua for almost three decades. Daniel is a great photographer, but he is also an expert on book publishing. Indeed, the invisible publisher of this book is Daniel Chauche; without him this book would have been relegated to the sorry pantheon of photographic disasters that gather dust on bookstore shelves everywhere. Even as he organized his own show in El Salvador (see Website above) and another in Antigua in January, Daniel kept an eagle eye on this book’s progress. This included lining up a competent team of people in Guatemala to work the photos and put the book together. During the photo galley process at the end, when a dummy print run of the photos is printed, Daniel was indefatigable in his scrutiny of each image and his insistence on quality standards. In short, Daniel treated me photos as his own – and that is saying a lot.

Daniel introduced me to the following people:

First, Andrés Asturias. Andrés is a Photoshop genius. Estudio A2, which Andrés owns, is the place to have your photographs perfected. Andrés has state-of-the-art equipment and a team of experts in photo restoration. Just as important, Andrés is a great photographer. His photos of “Arena Negra,” literally, “Black Sand,’ which depict an unorthodox look at Holy Week in Guatemala (do not expect weeping Jesuses), is innovative and worth checking out. Andrés was also one of two Guatemalans selected for FotoEspaña 2010.

In addition, Andrés was the jack-of-all-trades with respect to seminal additions to the book: Andrés, along with Daniel, made crucial editing decisions; he inserted copyright language that a lawyer could love; and he even tightened the text.

Second, Lucía Ménendez. Andrés said that one designer he trusted to do the work reliably – Lucía Menéndez. Lucía lives in zone one, in a studio near the post office. When she undertakes a project, she lines her studio with black and white photographs of the job. Lucía is detail-driven; she belabors every last detail. I have never seen anyone devote this much effort to a book. Indeed, when I show the book to writers here in DC, the immediate query is, “Who designed this book?”

Third, Print Studio. Daniel insisted that one printer was capable of producing high-quality photo books: Print Studio in zone eight of Guatemala City. José Fahsen, the general manager, is enthusiastic about the business of printing. Even though our print run is tiny – 1,000 copies – José treated us like a corporate client because he is proud of Print Studio’s ability to deliver the goods. When the book reached the galley stage last week, when I was in Guatemala, José was at the plant during Holy Week (a miracle) to ensure quality control.

Luisa Fernanda Ruiz Lainfiesta, who was in charge of quality control, was professional and unflappable, even after a death in the family.

Next entry: Copy editing and distribution.

What Paris and Nebaj Have in Common.

2010-03-06T07:09:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it is because I have a book coming out that two articles in today's Financial Times caught my attention.

In the first, How to judge a book by its cover (FT, March 7, 2010, Life and Arts, p. 18), Edwin Heathcote reviews the cover art of Three Tragedies, a compendium of Federico García Lorca's Bodas de Sangre, Yerma and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (New Directions, NY, 1955) by illustrator Alvin Lustig. According to Heathcote, Lustig's covers were credited with tripling New Direction's sales of serious literary fiction. Although some believed that Lustig's real talent lay in painting, an endeavor Lustig never pursued as a profession, Heathcote remarks that by designing books, Lustig attained an immortality that may have escaped him otherwise.

Lucía Menéndez is designing Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía. I never realized how intense design can be until, during a Skype call earlier this week, Lucía panned her apartment, which was lined with photographs from the book. I will post a photo of Lucía's apartment in a later entry.

The second FT article, Snapshots of a lost Paris, (FT, March 7, 2010, Life and Arts, p. 19) is excerpted from author Eric Hazan's book, The Invention of Paris: A History in Footsteps (Verso Press U.S., 2010, $30). Although it principally is a history of photography in Paris, from 1838 on, what struck my attention was the section devoted to the work of Charles Manville, an illustrator turned photographer who was commissioned in 1865 to photograph Paris' old roads, before they were destroyed to make way for the -- oft-despised -- architectural metamorphosis of Paris. Hazan writes that Manville's photographs of the old Paris on the eve of its disappearance, "without any detectable sentimentality (no human beings), "rendered the photographs all the more striking." "The demolition was under way," Hazan writes, "but here were the old corner posts, the little shops, the paving whose irregularity was fashioned over centuries, the bars, the cant walls with bay windows, the lamp posts, the signboards, the courtyards -- a whole world would disappear."

I wondered if Manville foresaw the historical importance of his 425 photographs; Hazan notes that these photographs are the only ones that today exist of pre-Haussmann Paris. This reminded me of Edweard Muybridge's work in Guatemala. Did Muybridge foresee how valued his photographs of Guatemala's Metropolitan Cathedral, then under construction, or the 19th century view of Antigua would be, and how these photos were destined to become more cherished, with time?

When I photographed Guatemala 25 years ago, I thought I was photographing a war. It never occurred to me that anyone would look at the photos later and say, "This is what Nebaj looked like before the roads were paved."

***

Link to The Invention of Paris by Eric Hazan:

http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Paris-History-Told-Footsteps/dp/1844674118/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267890686&sr=8-1

(Note: When I went on the amazon Website, I realized that this is not a photography book; there are only 20 b/w illustrations. However, it looks fascinating just the same. List price is $30; $21 on amazon.com)

Link to FT Article on Hazan's Book:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/829256d8-27e0-11df-9598-00144feabdc0.html

Making a book in Guatemala: Part 1.

2010-02-28T11:48:00.000-08:00

One of the several exciting aspects of doing a Spanish language edition of Guatemala: Eternal Spring Eternal Tyranny that most of the work, with one exception, was completed in Guatemala.

The photographic scans were produced at National Geographic Imagining at NG headquarters in Washington, DC. NG used a Hasselblad Flextight scanner to make 60MB scans from 167 Kodachrome and Ektachrome 200 (very few, yuck to Ektachrome). The scanning took about five business days (150 Kodachromes); cost was $12 per chrome for a 60MB scan. The result was spectacular. The scans were copied to two DVDs and a back-up hard drive for insurance. I took the scans to Guatemala in November, and sent a few stragglers via overnight in November.

In Guatemala, photographer Daniel Chauche (see Victor Perera, Unfinished Conquest: A Guatemalan Tragedy (Univ. of California, 1995) introduced me to a group of professionals who produced the book from that stage on. Without Daniel's intervention, this book would have been a disaster: not only does Daniel have a good eye for photographs and the editing process, but he is also connected to all the top photographic experts in Guatemala.

The process in Guatemala began with editing the photographs. Andrés Asturias, owner of Estudio/A2 in Guatemala City, is a great photographer and a technical wizard. (Check out the blog post below for his current show, Arena Negra, in Guatemala City.) Using 27-inch screen Macs and professional-standard PhotoShop software, Andrés enhanced the images. There is as much ethics as aesthetics built into the PhotoShop process, and if you have someone do this part, make sure you have similar ideas regarding the amount of manipulation you are comfortable with in a photo. Andrés' views on the subject were virtually identical to mine: I hate cropping and am uncomfortable with a lot of digital magic. Because all my pictures originally were taken with emulsion-based film (read: non-digital), in truth a good PhotoShopped image should have re-produced what was on the Kodachrome image. Since Kodachrome is unforgiving, I tried to give Andrés photos that were good quality in terms of saturation.. On a later post I will try to show some before and after images.

More on the design and printing process later.

***

National Geographic Imaging:

http://www.ngimaging.com/2_scanning.html

Daniel Chauche:

http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Conquest-Guatemalan-Victor-Perera/dp/0520203496/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267709880&sr=8-1

Andrés Asturias:

http://elazarcultural.blogspot.com/2010/02/andres-asturias-en-sol-del-rio.html

A photo from Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía

2010-02-25T13:54:00.000-08:00

Here is another photo from Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía, which will be published in June 2010 under the imprint of the Fundación Soros Guatemala

2010-02-21T15:22:00.001-08:00

In response to people who have asked about my photo exhibition in Guatemala: It's in the works. Stay tuned.

Here is another photo from the book. Enjoy.

Another Guatemala book: For Every Indio Who Falls, Dr. Betsy Konefal (College of William & Mary)

2010-02-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

Professor Betsy Konefal of the College of William & Mary, Virginia, has a new book: For Every Indio Who Falls (Univ. of New Mexico Press), which describes the Mayan resistance movement in Guatemala between 1960 and 1990. I will post the amazon link when it is published in April.

Andrés Asturias: Arena Negra, Exposición, Galería Sol del Río zona 10, 25 febrero 19 horas

2010-02-18T17:27:00.001-08:00

Exhibit in Guatemala

2010-02-18T17:12:00.000-08:00

The exhibit of my photos at Ex Céntrico will not take place in March. Stay tuned. I am also posting the information for a photo exhibit by Andrés Asturias, a wonderful photographer who has done a killer series on Holy Week at the beach in Guatemala, and specifically, photos of all kinds of Guatemalans covered in sand. When you see these photos you can almost feel the sand between your fingers.

In the meantime, here's a photo! Enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend.

2010-02-06T13:39:00.001-08:00

Print Studio is a color printing company located in zone eight, Guatemala City. Print Studio has a triple-A reputation for quality color printing, and I am fortunate that they are printing Guatemala: Eterna Primavera: Eterna Tiranía this spring. When I was in Guatemala in January, José Fahsen, the general manager, took us on a tour of the facilities. It was the first time I had ever seen the inside of a printing house; Print Studio prints everything from cornflake boxes to six-color coffee table books. Their facilities run the technological gamut from high-tech German presses to an over sized book "sewing machine" for book spines. Print Studio even is able to affix scents to its products; Mr. Fahsen had us smell a few pages for perfume and soap ads.

Here is a picture of the scale PS uses to measure paper weight. In this photo they were weighing the paper used in the U.S. edition of my book.

Exhibit at Ex-Céntrico, Guatemala City

2010-02-04T04:16:00.001-08:00

The exhibit of photographs from Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía will be held sometime in Spring-Summer 2010., in Guatemala City.

The exhibit will feature approximately three dozen color photos from my upcoming book, Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía (June 2010). I am posting a few of those photos on this blog site. Enjoy!

Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit, by Virginia Garrard Burnett (Oxford, 2010)

2010-01-30T08:19:00.000-08:00

Commemorating the Spanish Embassy Massacre

2010-01-28T14:01:00.001-08:00

Making a Book in Guatemala

2010-01-27T04:12:00.000-08:00

Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny (New York, WW Norton, 1988) will be published in Guatemala in June 2010. The process is far from over: in January and February, the designer, Lucía Menéndez de la Riva, will be reviewing the photos with photographer Daniel Chauche and Andrés Asturias of Estudio A2, and laying out the book. Pamela Escobar, the copy editor, is making corrections and ensuring grammatical and substantive consistency throughout the text. In March I will be in Guatemala again, and we will be proofing the Sherpas (the photos pages and text) and taking the book to the printer -- Print Studio -- before Easter.

We hope the final product will turn out well for two reasons.

First, out aim is to create both a memory and a memorial to Guatemala's civil war. The book, though far from perfect, covers a good deal of ground from those years, namely 1980 through 1989. That period is represented by over 150 color photographs; fifty new photos have been added, some of which replace others in the old edition which either no longer seem relevant or simply were not strong photos in the first place. In addition, the text, which includes synopses of the various governments during that time as well as first-person testimonies, has remained unchanged, with the exception of new introductions by Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Institute, and Juan Luis Font, managing editor of elPeriódico.

The second purpose of this book, and one that developed in great part thanks to Daniel Chauche, was the notion that it could become a model for future color photo books published in Guatemala. With the exception of the photo scan -- National Geographic Imaging in Washington DC digitized 30-year-old Kodachrome transparencies --every other technical portion of the book's execution has been carried out in Guatemala. This includes the English to Spanish translation, copy editing, photo

editing, layout and design, PhotoShop enhancement and, last but not least, the printing.

In a future post, I will summarize how the book was put together.

Guatemala: combatants in the Javier Tambriz Front, ORPA, Sololá, 1985.

2010-01-25T17:05:00.001-08:00

Guatemala Book 2010: Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía

2010-01-24T07:15:00.000-08:00

During the 1980s, I was a photographer in Guatemala. At the same time I wrote human rights reports for Human Rights Watch (then Americas Watch). In 1988, W.W. Norton (New York/London) published my color photos and testimonies on Guatemala's civil war. The book, which sold in hard and soft cover, was titled Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny. It sold 20,000 copies in the U.S. and the U.K., and then it went out of print.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Fundación Soros Guatemala (FSG), the book is being re-printed and re-distributed in Guatemala in June 2010.

The new edition is in Spanish. Photographically, the book is also improvement over the original version: the new edition contains more photographs, and 40% of them were not previously published. The photos -- all color -- have also benefited from digital scanning at National Geographic Imaging (Washington DC) and professional PhotoShop enhancement at Estudio A2 in Guatemala City.

From time to time I will be posting a selection of photos from Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía on this blog site. I look forward to your comments, and any suggestions you may have for getting the word out in Guatemala.