Treading Responsibly

We met our guide and took off through the Nebaj market to the microbuses. The clouds were heavy and the music was repeating a Spanish song “God, please bring the rain!” as if to tempt the heavens into bringing the rainy season early. Just in time to ruin the views on what some consider the most picturesque hike in Guatemala, I thought to myself.

Diego, our guide for the coming trek, was a small man with distinguished indigenous features. His face was leathery and the stark lines on his face seemed indicative of the resolve I had heard is common in the Ixil people. He wore a rigid Stetson on the top of his rain poncho. He had a calming strength about him. Without seeming upset, only short, occasional one-word responses were given the entirety of the rain-saturated hike on that first day.

Upon reaching the town, an odd sense of poetry washed over me as my exhaustion faded and my senses regained. Diego opened up and shared with us his tragic history as a Cotzul citizen. We were standing in a town that had been hit as hard as, if not worse than, any town during the 30 years of conflict. In the mist-shrouded town, people went about their business, and as he spoke hymns of praise tinged with heart-wrenching pain echoed over the town from an evangelical church.

Diego was just 16 when the civil war came to Cotzul. Both of his parents were killed during the struggle because they refused to join with the Army. Upon learning of this, he decided to return home from Nebaj to look after his brothers and sisters. Upon returning, he was forced to be a patrolman for the Army. “I had to,” he lamented, “because they would kill me too if I did not.” The guerillas had the same method of recruiting: come into towns in the countryside and kill everyone who refused to join their cause.

After showing us the campgrounds for the troops and recanting a tell of a gruesome raid, we returned for dinner cooked by a local woman. His prior stoicism was lifted and a sincerity in his gaze and handshake lightened the mood. "Few people understand the extent of tragedy that occurred here. Thank you for coming and supporting our community."

The following day, Diego was laughing and joking all the way back to Nebaj. Once his story was told, he was no longer carrying the weight of having to recant the horrors of his life.

He looked 10 years younger.