My Umbilical Cord Tied Upon a Tree
Chapter 2
This photograph was taken in Santa Eulalia, around 1987, a few weeks after my dad was forced to leave for the US, running away from the Guatemalan war. My mom, Lucía, holds my little sister Juanita while Leonardo, one of my older brothers, poses with his hands on waist. My sisters were there, Eulalia, red sweater and María, green blouse. Little Antonio has the orange ball and at the right side of my father, is me with a cap.
Photographs with printed backgrounds were frequent during annual village festivities. Our mom, Lucía, poses with my siblings Eulalia, María, Juanita and Antonio. Girls wear traditional q’anjob’al skirts, called “cortes”.
I was born in this whitewashed house. It still stands on a hillside of Nancultac, a little rural community located 10 kilometers from Santa Eulalia’s urban village. My family eventually left this home because my parents wanted us to attend elementary school. The other house, in the background, was also made with mud bricks, called “adobe”. One can also observe the wooden slates which are traditional material on ancient q’anjob’al roofs.
My elder brothers, Andrés, on red sweater and Leonardo, with green stripes shirt. Juana was the second sibling, but she died about two years before I was born. I wore a wool hat because of my weak health in my first years.