Lifestyles of the Not-So-Rich But Famous

In popularity, basketball is second only to soccer in Guatemala.  Some would argue it’s second to none.  In a night sky filled with stars, Pablo Mauricio Garcia Sajquiy is Guatemala’s brightest basketball star in its favorite constellation.  He has played on the national champion basketball team several years in a row and hopes to win again in December.  Everyone knows him as Mauricio Garcia.  We know him as our host in San Pedro.

In Life in the Home of Our Guatemalan Host Family, I briefly introduced our host family before spending most of the post writing about the modest home in which it lives.  Over meals, we’re gradually learning the stories of the family members.

There’s not enough money in basketball for Mauricio’s hobby to be a source of income for the family.  No endorsements.  No TV contracts.  No revenues from ticket sales to cover any more than facilities and equipment.  Mauricio’s day job is as a full-time school-teacher.  On weekdays, he alternates between schools in neighboring towns teaching a variety of subjects.  On Saturday mornings he offers well-attended, free basketball instruction to local kids at the nearby outdoor court.

Mauricio gathers the youngest kids for the start of Saturday basketball practice.

All told, Mauricio likely brings in about $5,000 per year in income and is the breadwinner for the family.  In a discussion of politics, economics, and culture he told me that he offers basketball instruction not to make the kids better players (though that is a fringe benefit) but to establish rapport with local kids who can be influenced to bring positive change to the community.  Similarly, his chosen profession of teaching is not easy nor high-paying but is what he feels is the best platform for helping educate the future of the broader community.

No less community-minded and certainly no less progressive, Mauricio’s wife Mayda is highly conscious of how her daily decisions impact the family and community.  She has shared with us how she selects the vegetables from the farmers at the market to ensure family health and encourage sustainable farming practices.  Though as a young child she ate many meals consisting of nothing more than salted corn tortillas and coffee, she has a robust appreciation for nutrition.  We are benefiting from an almost exclusively whole food diet heavy in fruits and vegetables.  

Mayda at the edge of the kitchen.

Though food-related chores occupy the majority of Mayda’s day, she also washes the household’s laundry by hand, cleans the house, and helps raise her still-nursing 2 year-old daughter Aweex (pronounced Avesh).  On a pie chart of her time spent in a week, relaxation and entertainment would be almost imperceptible slices.

Mayda’s mother-in-law Magdalena shares in almost all Mayda’s chores, despite being in her seventies.  Magdalena also participates actively in San Pedro’s catholic church. She smiles at the relative modernity around her, but holds to some of her own traditions such as eating all her meals next to the wood-burning hearth.

Magdalena making tortillas on the hearth she so often sits beside.

The patriarch in the family is Magdelena’s husband Santos.  If Mauricio is the family’s breadwinner, Santos is the family’s “tortillawinner.”  Santos farms a plot of leased land an hour’s uphill walk from the house.  He raises just enough corn to feed the family (and its guests) for the year.  The corn is used almost solely for making tortillas.  Though he helps with other family chores, growing and processing the corn by hand is his focus.

Santos gives us a tour of the farmland near where he'll plant corn next week.

Despite his mundane contribution to the family, Santos is as famous locally as his son.  Completing only two years of school as a youngster, Santos is self-educated largely through books.  Thanks to a donation of books from a generous friend, Santos has been pivotal in building San Pedro’s library.  He has served as the town’s volunteer librarian for 20 years.  On the streets, he’s often greeted by his nickname: El Profesor.  At first wary of our ability to navigate San Pedro’s nameless streets and alleys, we were comforted when we learned that all we ever needed to do in this town of 13,000 was to say “Take me to the home of Santos (or Mauricio) Garcia” and we’d be ushered straightaway.

Of Mayan descent like most of the town’s residents, the Garcias' first language is Tzutujil. Spanish is the second language spoken by all in the house, but really only mastered by Mayda and Mauricio.  English is a third language spoken respectably by both Mayda and Mauricio.

And clearly, generosity is a language spoken fluently by our host family.  In a way, it is what has made them locally famous.