Guatemalans are increasingly exposed to the intrusion of foreign influences upon their way of life. All aspects of communication—periodical news, the comics, soap operas, film—are primarily of foreign origin. A multitude of products, from soaps and boxed cereals and bottled drinks to automobiles, bear foreign brand names. Nevertheless, in local Mayan villages, colourful native attire is still common and varies according to the village and language group.

Heavily attended fairs and religious festivals are scheduled in every part of Guatemala throughout the year. Semana Santa (Holy Week), at Easter, is marked by festivals throughout the country, but many Guatemalans travel to Antigua Guatemala to attend services at its great Baroque cathedral. Guatemala’s national day of independence from Spain, September 15, is also celebrated across the country with fireworks, dances, parades, football (soccer) matches, and cockfights. At these festivals, Indigenous crafts are sold, including the embroidered huipils (smocks) worn by Maya women. Guatemalans celebrate All Saints’ Day on November 1 with unique traditions: giant kites are flown in the cemeteries near Antigua Guatemala, and many Guatemalans feast on a traditional food known as fiambre, a salad made from cold cuts, fish, and vegetables. The town of Todos Santos Cuchumatán holds horse races and traditional dancing on this day. Guatemala City celebrates the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15. Weekly market days in Indigenous villages are important social gatherings; one of the best known is the market in Chichicastenango.

The basic food of the Maya consisted of corn, beans, squash, and, depending on the region, cassava (manioc), papaya, and plantains. Fishing and hunting also added to their diet. The beans of the cacao plant provided a cocoa drink that was primarily limited to the nobility. Modern-day Guatemalan cuisine is a mixture of Spanish and local dishes. These include appetizers such as tamales de elote (corn cakes) and turkey soup; drinks made with rum, lime juice, and sugarcane and horchata (cold milk mixed with rice, cocoa, and cinnamon); and entrées such as chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers), rellenitos de plátano (mashed plantain with black beans), salpicón (chopped beef salad with cilantro and onions), arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), and Mayan chicken fricassee (chicken cooked in a pumpkin and sesame seed sauce with chopped almonds). Desserts include pompan (candied sweet papaya) and flan.

The arts

The evidence of Maya culture pervades the country. Today, although native crafts involve a variety of forms of expression, they are best represented in colourful handwoven textiles and costumes, unique to each community. Traditional dances, music, and religious rites that have survived in the more rural regions are important tourist attractions. The art of the colonial period is chiefly represented in the architecture and decor of Roman Catholic churches.

For the most part, the recognition of modern painters, composers, and authors tends to be limited. A major exception is the writer Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899–1974), a poet and novelist who won the Lenin Peace Prize in 1966 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967. Despite his 10-year residence in Paris (1923–33), his work is strongly rooted in Guatemalan history, such as his 1946 novel El señor presidente, a powerful attack on Guatemala’s military dictatorship. As with Asturias’s writings, expressions of the various art forms in Guatemala tend to focus on Maya heritage. From antiquity is the epic Popol Vuh, a historical chronicle of the Quiché people. Originally written in hieroglyphics, the story was translated into Spanish in the 16th century and is viewed as one of the most important documents of the pre-Columbian Americas. Indigenous-rights activist Rigoberta Menchú is internationally renowned for her poetry and short fiction but more so for her memoir I, Rigoberta Menchú, first published in 1983 and since translated into many languages. Carlos Mérida (1891–1984), a contemporary and colleague of the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, is the best-known Guatemalan painter. The painter and printmaker Alfred Jensen (1903–81), of Danish, Polish, and German descent, was born in Guatemala but settled in the United States in 1934.

Cultural institutions

Most of the more highly recognized centres of cultural activity are concentrated within Guatemala City. These include the National Theatre, the Conservatory of Music, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Arts, the Ixchel Museum of Indian Attire, a museum of natural history, and the National Museums of Archaeology and Ethnology and of Arts and Popular Crafts. The National Archives have a rich collection of materials on colonial Central America and on the Central American republics except for Panama. The Society of Geography and History ranks as one of the oldest and most highly respected learned societies in Guatemala. Visitors are attracted not only to the variety of museums but also to the Palace of the Captain’s General, the Casa Popenoe (a restored colonial mansion), and numerous convents and churches.

In recent years a number of foreign universities have established programs in Antigua Guatemala, and many language institutes also have taken up residence there, resulting in scholarly conventions, bookstores, book fairs, and greater cultural activity. Since 1978 the Center for Mesoamerican Research, which is headquartered in Antigua Guatemala, has sponsored interdisciplinary research on Central America.