Santa Catarina Palopó, Guatemala – A group of indigenous women proudly served a portion of pepián chicken alongside hand-wrapped tamales and a cup of atole. Pepián chicken—recognized for its thick, rich sauce that boasts roasted chiles, pumpkin and sesame seeds, tomatoes and onions—is a traditional dish for Sara* and the Maya K’aqchikel people.
On this warm day of November, Sara and other volunteers at the Gastronomical Festival continued to serve a long line of residents and tourists at this community on the shore of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala’s leading tourism destination, nominated as one of the seven wonders of the world.
This popularity is a double-edged sword. Tourists are drawn to the area’s natural beauty and heritage, but Maya K’aqchikel youth are losing their identity as they drift away from many of the cultural bonds, including traditional cuisine, that united them.
“If we do not maintain our traditions, our culture will be lost,” lamented a woman at the festival.
For the 3,000 residents of Santa Catarina Palopó in the Sololá Department, the loss of the Maya K’aqchikel identity has other tangible consequences, including missed opportunities to boost their incomes (critical as 70 percent of the residents live in poverty) and poor diets. “Our grandparents lived longer because they were better fed. The difference now is that everyone thinks it is easier to buy processed food,” says Sara, who is part of the Municipal Women's Commission.
USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives’ (OTI) Central America Regional Initiative (CARI) partnered with the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala to organize the Gastronomical Festival to celebrate the Maya K’aqchikel’s rich culinary culture—and as part of a larger plan to build a sense of community that started weeks before serving that first dish of pepián chicken.
In anticipation of the Gastronomical Festival, 20 women and 20 youth gathered to exchange traditional recipes, talk about the foods that bind the Maya K’aqchikel, and decide on the event’s menu—a total of 18 items that included tamales called “tayuyos de frijol,” a soup called “caldo de hierba mora,” and four types of atoles. Simultaneously, a local group called Molaj Naoj, and the university, held a workshop for 20 youth on customer service to help ensure the event ran smoothly.
OTI, the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, the Municipal Women’s Commission, and other organizers, aired radio spots, and posted outdoor banners in K’aqchikel and Spanish to encourage residents to attend the food fete.
More than 400 residents and tourists streamed through the Gastronomical Festival on November 20, 2022, days before the celebration of Saint Catherine of Alexandra, which is the area’s most important holiday.
“I am happy to be here and to share how the food is prepared so that more people know about the dishes of this place,” says a Maya K’aqchikel youth who attended the cultural exchanges and the festival.
The event also highlighted participation of the municipality’s Association of Women Weavers, who filled the festival with color through their textile creations.
Meanwhile, tourists were given a QR code connecting them to an explanation of the Maya K’aqchikel culture and cuisine, plus the recipes for all 18 dishes.
Efforts like the Gastronomical Festival are part of OTI’s strategy to address the root causes of irregular migration from the Western Highlands. The goal of these activities is to cultivate hope and strengthen residents’ collective sense of belonging, revitalize their cultural identity, emphasize shared experiences, and provide them with skills to find solutions to the challenges they face in their communities.
*Names were changed for security reasons
USAID/OTI/CARI
USAID/OTI/CARI