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After my whistle stop tour of a few countries in Central America I decided that I was time to settle down and relax in the central highlands of Guatemala in the second largest city of the country. The city is named Quetzaltenango, (literally, “the place of the Quetzal”. The Quetzal is the national symbol of Guatemala. It’s a beautiful bird with an amazingly long tail. Renowned throughout Central America, it appears on the flag of Guatemala and even gives name to their currency. However, in one of life’s more bitter ironies the Quetzal is fast disappearing due to deforestation and consequently the destruction of its habitat. Hence there are no Quetzals in “the place of the Quetzal” but I will diligently report back if I happen upon any) however, perhaps in recognition of the sad plight of the Quetzal most people refer to the city by its Mayan name of Xelaju or just plain Xela (pronounced shayla). In the past few years Xela has become renowned for its Spanish schools and as I am always heavily tempted by every nerdy pursuit I enrolled in a school for 2.5 month.

Xela - Songs of Praise and Showers of Death

Patrick Gatland
2006-08-21 14:52:37

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After my whistle stop tour of a few countries in Central America I decided that I was time to settle down and relax in the central highlands of Guatemala in the second largest city of the country. The city is named Quetzaltenango, (literally, “the place of the Quetzal”. The Quetzal is the national symbol of Guatemala. It’s a beautiful bird with an amazingly long tail. Renowned throughout Central America, it appears on the flag of Guatemala and even gives name to their currency. However, in one of life’s more bitter ironies the Quetzal is fast disappearing due to deforestation and consequently the destruction of its habitat. Hence there are no Quetzals in “the place of the Quetzal” but I will diligently report back if I happen upon any) however, perhaps in recognition of the sad plight of the Quetzal most people refer to the city by its Mayan name of Xelaju or just plain Xela (pronounced shayla). In the past few years Xela has become renowned for its Spanish schools and as I am always heavily tempted by every nerdy pursuit I enrolled in a school for 2.5 month. The school I chose is name the Proyecto Linguistica Quetzalteca (PLQ) and appealed to me because of its heavy political focus. Not only does the school provide language instruction it also offers an in-depth perspective of the struggles in the daily lives of Guatemalans an of the bitter civil war that lasted for almost 40 years which only came to a nominal end in 1996.

The school is involved in projects to better the living conditions of whole communities of Guatemalans and also employs several former guerillas who were active during the years of the war in resisting the systematic oppression and slaughter of Guatemala’s indigenous and indigent peoples.

The teaching is 5 hours a day one-on-one and is intensive to say the least. I’m pleased to report back that my Spanish has improved in leaps and bounds during my time at the school.

Part of the experience with the ...