Guatemala

"At last we reached the end of the town and sat down on the edge of a little bridge. There was no point in going on into the darkened countryside. Daudi was impatient; he was getting tired of our adventure. 'But that is what an adventure is,' I explained, 'You don't know what's going to happen next, but it usually works out.'

Just then Daudi saw headlights, and in a moment he and Pavel were in the road. It was the same car which had brought us to Villa de las Rosas, and they would take us on to San Cristobal for the price of the gas. 'See,' I said to Daudi, 'how well it has turned out!' "

"The chairman of Los Palmas is Alonso, a man of great dignity and gentle warmth. He asked his wife, Katerina, to put on her huipil, so that I might draw her in it. She does not use it for everyday. These garments are too precious and too conspicuous in this small island of Maya in a Mexican world.

I was busy drawing Katerina, her kitchen, her house, her children, her flock of chickens and turkeys."

"The children's art is pinned up on these cardboard walls, and it is excellent. After recess, I ask Alonso if the children would make drawings for me. I want, I say, pictures of their life here, their homes and families.

After an hour of concentrated effort, the drawings were presented, each child proudly handing a drawing to me and writing on it his or her full name and age. I see a few houses and people as I requested, but most of the art work has suffered a creative explosion soaring out of everyday into a magnificent world of flowers, animals, and birds. Many birds. Birds with long brilliantly colored tails. The national symbol of Guatemala is a bird, the Quetzal bird. It is the bird of life, of freedom, and of hope."