I met Rita Golden Gelman in Antigua, Guatemala, 18 years ago. I was recently divorced, reeling and trying to figure out how to make a new life for myself and my 5-year-old son. I don’t remember HOW I met her, nor WHERE, but I have never forgotten what an impression she made on me. She too was newly divorced and starting on a new path — what would be the beginning of a nomadic existence that has lasted these past 18 years and shows no sign of slowing down. What I remember most about Rita is that she was so adventurous, independent and intelligent. She was an extremely dynamic, accomplished woman — an inspiration and role model!

What ideals do teenagers hold? How would teens describe the ideal man or ideal woman? How are the ideals of Guatemalan adolescents like or unlike those of their counterparts in other regions of the globe? These are the questions addressed in a recently published book titled The Thoughts of Youth: Adolescents’ ideal man and ideal woman in international perspective by Judith L. Gibbons & Deborah A. Stiles, (Information Age Publishers).

Printing was initially introduced in Mexico with the first printing house established in 1539. The Jesuit, Franciscan and Hieronymite missionaries initiated printing in Peru in 1584. The British Colonies in America followed with the Cambridge press in 1638. In 1660 Bishop Fray Payo Enríquez de Rivera brought the first printing press of its kind from Mexico to Guatemala. This marked the beginning of an independent printing era in Central America, heralding cultural perseverance and art voyaging.

The Forgotten Guatemalan of the Père Lachaise

by Arturo Echeverría

Enrique Gómez Carrillo 1873-1927

On the fifth and final day of my vacation in Paris, I didn’t want to leave without visiting the Cimetière du Père Lachaise, the cemetery of intellectuals and artists. Being a Guatemalan by birth and attracted by literature, I wanted to see the graves of two of the most significant writers from my country buried at the Père Lachaise: the Nobel prize winner Miguel Angel Asturias as well as Enrique Gómez Carrillo.
Essential to the quest was the Itineraire des Ecrivains, the Writers’ Route, an attractive brochure with biographies of 33 writers buried here, with pictures of their tombs and a map to each. Molière, Balzac, Oscar Wilde, what an impressive neighborhood. Asturias — just around the corner from Chopin — is the only Nobel Prize winner buried here.
However, Gómez Carrillo isn’t in the guide. Is he actually buried here? Not until two years later did I learn the (affirmative) answer.

So who was Gómez Carrillo?
Born in Guatemala City in 1873, the son of Agustín Gómez Carrillo and Josefina Tible, Enrique grew into a well-traveled yet rebellious youngster who challenged a wide range of punishments and rigid boarding schools. On the other hand, he became a passionate reader of French literature. Sometime in his youth, Enrique replaced his family names Gómez Tible — peers mocked him by calling him “comestible,” Spanish for grocery or edible — with those of his father, Gómez Carrillo.