Associated Press reported on the excavation in Panabaj of 100 bodies buried in the landslide caused by Hurricane Stan in 2005. There was a line in the report that touched on an issue that's not usually discussed:


A simple search on Flickr brings up a number of photos taken of Panabaj (although probably not from this particular ceremony). Not to judge these particular photos, but this line about 'curious tourists' touches on an important issue that outsiders* must grapple with.

To be sure, there's a very fine line between informative reporting and intrusive disrespectful recording, between wanting to learn, and satiating curiosity. It's a line that as outsiders we're not always on the right side of. When I worked in and around the municipal rubbish dump in Guatemala City, I remember the huge quantity of tourists that would come, usually remain on the coach they came in, and take hundreds of photos of the people who lived and worked amongst the refuse. This type of 'social tourism' is abject.

There's a secondary point here. It's so often the case that people from outside of Guatemala are usually either exposed to two contrasting images of Guatemala- one is the touristic colour and natural beauty, and the other is the dark and ugly violence. On the outside as we are on this blog, despite years of commitment and living in the country, it's a constant concern that we avoid simply satiating curiosity and that we manage to go beyond the simplistic outside perceptions of Guatemala. Anyway, this is a massive issue and one we'll be returning to shortly.

---

* I use the term 'outsider' loosely, it could refer to non-Guatemalans, Guatemalans living outside Guatemala or even Guatemalans from the capital visiting the 'interior'.