95 Fun Facts About Guatemala

What is the official language of Guatemala?

Spanish is Guatemala's only official language; the 2003 Language Law recognises the Mayan, Xinca and Garifuna tongues as national languages without giving any of them official status.

What is the national currency of Guatemala?

It was introduced in 1925 under President José María Orellana, whose portrait is on the one-quetzal note; the ancient Maya used the bird's tail feathers as currency.

The Castillo de San Felipe de Lara, built in 1652 where Guatemala's largest lake drains seaward, guarded against whom?

Sunken ships still lie near the fort, and the surrounding water is home to manatees and howler monkeys.

What is the national flower of Guatemala?

The White Nun Orchid (Lycaste skinneri var. alba) became the national flower by a 1934 decree of President Jorge Ubico, after a Miami Beach flower-show president suggested it.

What is the highest point in Guatemala, also the highest peak anywhere between Mexico and Colombia?

Volcán Tajumulco, a stratovolcano in the western department of San Marcos, rises 4,220 metres (13,845 feet), the highest summit in Central America.

In what month does Guatemala celebrate the independence it proclaimed in 1821?

September 15 is the date; the young state was briefly absorbed by its northern neighbour before joining a regional federation.

How many other countries share a land border with Guatemala?

Mexico wraps around the north and west, with Honduras to the east and El Salvador to the southeast; the fourth neighbour lies across a disputed 'adjacency zone'.

Which of these agricultural products is among Guatemala's top exports?

The United Fruit Company built vast banana plantations here in the early 20th century, and in 1930 bananas made up 13% of the country's exports.

The estimated population of Guatemala is closest to which of these figures?

About 17.6 million people live there, more than in any other country between Mexico and Colombia; the capital's metro area is the region's most populous.

About how many distinct Mayan languages are spoken in Guatemala?

About 21 Mayan languages are spoken, K'iche', Q'eqchi', Kaqchikel and Mam being the largest; a 2003 law also recognises Xinca and Garifuna as national languages.

After proclaiming independence in 1821, the Captaincy General of Guatemala briefly joined which state?

It joined the First Mexican Empire under Agustín de Iturbide in 1822; after his abdication in 1823 it became part of the Federal Republic of Central America.

What was Guatemala's colonial capital before an earthquake largely destroyed it in 1773?

Antigua, then called Santiago de los Caballeros, had been the seat of the Captaincy General since 1543; after the 1773 Santa Marta earthquakes the capital moved to today's Guatemala City, and its Baroque ruins became a UNESCO site in 1979.

Guatemala is located in which region of the Americas?

Guatemala is a country in northern Central America, bordered by Mexico to the north and west.

Which body of water borders Guatemala to the south?

Pacific Ocean waters wash the southern coast, while the Gulf of Honduras, part of the Caribbean Sea, lies to the northeast.

Temple IV, the tallest pyramid at the Maya city of Tikal, rises roughly how high above the plaza floor?

Temple IV stands about 70 metres (230 feet), one of the tallest pre-Columbian structures in the Americas, topped only by pyramids at Toniná and El Mirador; Tikal became a UNESCO site in 1979.

What is the deep lake in western Guatemala ringed by escarpments and three volcanoes?

Lake Atitlán, about 340 metres deep, is the deepest lake in Central America; the volcanoes Atitlán, Tolimán and San Pedro ring it, and Aldous Huxley compared it to Lake Como.

What is the national instrument of Guatemala?

The marimba, a wooden-keyed percussion instrument played with mallets, was declared Guatemala's national instrument by Congress in 1978 and anchors festival and folk music across the country.

In the colonial era, the Captaincy General of Guatemala was a subdivision of which viceroyalty?

The Captaincy General of Guatemala, stretching from Chiapas to Costa Rica, answered nominally to the Viceroyalty of New Spain in Mexico City, though its own Audiencia ran day-to-day government.

Which Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Guatemala was an indigenous rights activist?

Rigoberta Menchú Tum won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for indigenous rights during Guatemala's civil war, and later ran for president in 2007 and 2011.

What does the white stripe on Guatemala's flag symbolize?

The white stripe stands for purity and peace, set between two sky-blue bands for the Pacific and the Caribbean; the colours descend from the flag of the Federal Republic of Central America.

Which famous Guatemalan author won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967?

Miguel Angel Asturias, born in Guatemala City in 1899, won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Literature - only the second Latin American author to do so - with his novel Hombres de maiz (Men of Maize) central to the award.

The Maya site of El Mirador, famed for massive pyramids, lies in which region of Guatemala?

El Mirador, a pre-Columbian Maya city, is situated deep within the Mirador Basin in the Petén region of northern Guatemala.

Which neighbor's entire territory has Guatemala long claimed?

Guatemala has a long-running territorial dispute with Belize, claiming a significant portion, and at times, all of Belize's territory.

Guatemala's vibrant traditional textiles are often woven on what type of loom?

The backstrap loom uses sticks and a strap around the weaver's waist to hold tension; it was the only loom of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the treadle loom arriving with the Spanish.

Which indigenous group, Guatemala's largest, had a powerful post-Classic kingdom in the country's west?

The K'iche' are the largest indigenous Mayan group in Guatemala, known for their powerful post-Classic kingdom and epic literary work, the Popol Vuh.

Which near-constantly active volcano looms southwest of Antigua Guatemala?

Volcán Fuego, called Chi Q'aq' ('where the fire is') in Kaqchikel, erupts almost continuously and straddles the departments of Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepéquez southwest of Antigua.

The coat of arms on Guatemala's flag shows two crossed rifles of which make, used in the 1871 Liberal Revolution?

A parchment scroll between them reads 'Libertad' with the 1821 independence date, and the national bird perches on top.

What political event happened in Guatemala in 1944, often called the 'October Revolution'?

The October Revolution was the overthrow of a dictator: on 20 October 1944 officers Jacobo Árbenz and Francisco Arana toppled Federico Ponce Vaides, successor to Jorge Ubico, opening ten years of democratic reform.

Which of these major rivers forms part of Guatemala's border with Mexico?

The Usumacinta River forms a significant portion of Guatemala's western border with the Mexican state of Chiapas.

What are the lay brotherhoods that keep up saints' cults in indigenous Guatemalan towns called?

Cofradías, lay brotherhoods introduced by Spanish friars, keep a saint's image and organise its feast; in Chichicastenango their members carry the saints in procession from the Santo Tomás church.

Guatemala is the world's leading producer and exporter of which spice?

Cardamom, introduced to Alta Verapaz by German planter Oscar Majus Kloeffer in 1914, is grown mainly there; Guatemala overtook India as the top exporter, shipping most of its crop to the Middle East.

What is the predominant religious affiliation in Guatemala?

A 2016 survey put Catholics at 45% of the population, with about 42% Protestant, chiefly independent Evangelicals or Pentecostals.

Which traditional Guatemalan crop is also exported as a raw material for biofuel?

Sugar cane, long grown on the Pacific lowlands, also feeds ethanol distilleries for export; palm oil is the other big biofuel feedstock, and critics say the shift raises prices of staple foods.

What are the intricate sawdust street decorations made for Holy Week processions in Guatemala called?

Alfombras of dyed sawdust, flowers and pine needles take hours to lay and are destroyed within minutes as the procession passes over them; Antigua's are the most famous.

How many 'nameless' Wayeb' days closed each year of the Maya Haab' calendar?

The five days of Wayeb' were considered dangerous; the 365-day Haab' meshed with the 260-day Tzolk'in to form the 52-year Calendar Round.

What is the thick Guatemalan meat stew, thickened with gourd seeds and considered a national dish, called?

Pepián, a stew thickened with toasted pumpkin seeds, sesame and chiles, was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Nation in 2007 alongside Jocón, Kaq'ik and Plátanos en Mole.

Which conquistador conquered Guatemala and became its first governor and captain general?

Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés's lieutenant in the conquest of the Aztecs, invaded Guatemala in 1524, defeated the K'iche' and became its first governor; he later governed Honduras as well.

Which lake, the largest in Guatemala, lies in the east and drains into the Caribbean Sea?

Lake Izabal's surface lies barely a metre above sea level; it drains through the Río Dulce into the Caribbean and is home to manatees.

The name 'Guatemala' comes from a Nahuatl word meaning what?

Cuauhtēmallān renders a Mayan word for 'many trees', perhaps referring specifically to the cuate tree, Eysenhardtia.

Which tree, sacred to the Maya as a symbol of life, is the national tree of both Guatemala and Puerto Rico?

Ceiba pentandra is the national emblem of Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Equatorial Guinea, and a sacred symbol in Maya mythology.

Chichicastenango, famous for its market and Maya culture, is in which Guatemalan department?

Chichicastenango lies in the department of El Quiché, northwest of Guatemala City; its Santo Tomás church dates from the 1540s, and its famed market runs on Thursdays and Sundays.

Most of Guatemala's major cities lie in which topographical region?

Most big cities sit in the highlands: Guatemala City at about 1,500 m and Quetzaltenango at 2,350 m, while the northern Petén lowlands are sparsely populated.

What is the woven tunic worn by indigenous Guatemalan women called?

Huipil panels are joined with stitching, ribbons or fabric strips, and the most traditional ones are still handwoven.

Which highland crop became Guatemala's key cash export in the 19th century?

Coffee overtook cochineal as Guatemala's main export in the 1860s and 1870s, pushed by Justo Rufino Barrios's Liberal land reforms; Antigua and Huehuetenango are among its best-known growing regions.

Guatemala's premium rum is called 'Centenario' because it marked the 1976 centenary of what?

That town is Zacapa, in the east of the country, and the rum is aged at high altitude, where cool temperatures slow maturation.

Which group was primarily targeted in the genocidal violence of Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war?

The 1999 UN-backed truth commission found that 83% of identified victims were Maya and ruled that army massacres of the early 1980s amounted to genocide against the Maya population.

Which actor, Poe Dameron in the Star Wars sequels, was born in Guatemala City?

Oscar Isaac was born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada in Guatemala City in 1979 to a Guatemalan mother and a Cuban pulmonologist father; the family moved to the United States when he was a baby.

Which Guatemala City native invented reCAPTCHA and co-founded Duolingo?

Luis von Ahn, born in Guatemala City in 1978, sold reCAPTCHA to Google in 2009; its puzzles digitised words from old books that optical character recognition could not read, and he co-founded Duolingo in 2011.

Tikal's temples stood in for which Star Wars location in the 1977 film?

Tikal's Great Plaza temples appear as the Rebel Alliance base on the moon Yavin 4 in Star Wars (1977); the crew shot the establishing views from atop Temple IV.

Which US reality show set its 11th season, subtitled 'The Maya Empire', at Yaxhá?

Survivor: Guatemala — The Maya Empire aired in 2005 from the Yaxhá ruins near Tikal; its two starting tribes were Nakúm and Yaxhá, and Danni Boatwright won.

Which singer-songwriter from Jocotenango once played basketball for Guatemala?

Ricardo Arjona, born in Jocotenango in 1964, played on Guatemala's national basketball team and worked as a schoolteacher before the album Historias (1994) made him a Latin pop star across the Americas.

Guatemala's first Olympic medal, a silver in 2012, came in which event?

Erick Barrondo, from Alta Verapaz, took silver in the men's 20 km race walk at London 2012 behind China's Chen Ding, Guatemala's first Olympic medal of any colour.

Adriana Ruano won Guatemala's first Olympic gold in 2024 in which sport?

Adriana Ruano won the women's trap shooting event at Paris 2024 with an Olympic-record final, a year after taking Pan American Games gold in Santiago.

Guatemala is divided into how many departments?

Guatemala has 22 departments; the department of Guatemala alone holds about a fifth of the population, while El Progreso has the fewest people.

Guatemala's brightly painted 'chicken buses' mostly began life as what?

A US school bus, retired from North American routes, is rebuilt and decorated for a second life on Central American roads.

Where are Guatemalan worry dolls traditionally placed after being told one's troubles?

Children tell a worry to each doll and tuck it under the pillow so it carries the worry away overnight; the tiny figures are made of wire, wool and textile scraps.

What code name did the CIA give its 1954 operation to topple Jacobo Árbenz?

Operation PBSuccess, run by the CIA from late 1953, forced Árbenz to resign on 27 June 1954; Carlos Castillo Armas took over within days and was shot by a palace guard in 1957.

Fiambre, a chilled salad with dozens of ingredients, is eaten on which day?

Fiambre is served on All Saints' Day, 1 November, when families visit cemeteries; ingredients run from sausages and cold cuts to pickled vegetables, pacaya flower and sometimes Brussels sprouts.

Which town's basilica holds the Black Christ, Central America's most revered shrine?

Esquipulas, in Chiquimula department, holds the Black Christ carved by Quirio Cataño in 1595; pilgrims buy clay 'Tierra Santa' tablets there, and New Mexico's Chimayó shrine is closely linked to it.

In the deadly June 2018 eruption in Escuintla, most victims were killed by what?

Pyroclastic flows racing down the volcano's flanks on 3 June 2018 buried San Miguel Los Lotes and El Rodeo; the official death toll was about 190, though residents put it far higher.

What is the active lava-dome complex growing in Santa María's 1902 crater called?

Santiaguito began extruding in 1922 inside the crater left by Santa María's 1902 eruption; its lahars repeatedly ravaged El Palmar, forcing the town to relocate.

Ash from which volcano's May 2010 eruption rained on Guatemala City's airport?

Pacaya's eruption on 27 May 2010 showered ash over Guatemala City and shut La Aurora airport for days; a television reporter, Aníbal Archila, was killed by falling rock near the volcano.

A huge sinkhole swallowed a building in Guatemala City in 2010 after which tropical storm?

Tropical Storm Agatha's rains in late May 2010 opened the hole, about 20 m across, under a three-storey building in Zone 2; leaking sewer pipes had eroded the volcanic pumice beneath.

The turquoise pools of Semuc Champey sit on a limestone bridge over which river?

The Cahabón River plunges into a cave through a sinkhole locals call El Sumidero and runs beneath a 300-metre natural limestone bridge, re-emerging downstream of the pools.

In the Popol Vuh, the Hero Twins defeat the lords of which underworld?

Xibalba is the K'iche' underworld whose lords the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque outwit; their father's severed head, hung in a calabash tree, had spat into the hand of the maiden Xquic to conceive them.

Nojpetén, capital of the last independent Maya kingdom, fell to Spain in what year?

Martín de Ursúa stormed the island city on 13 March 1697 from a large oar-powered galeota built on the lakeshore; the Spanish renamed it Nuestra Señora de los Remedios y San Pablo.

Which site's sandstone stelae are the tallest freestanding monuments in the Americas?

Quiriguá's Stela E, raised in 771 by K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat, stands 10.6 m tall; one of its stelae appears on the 10 centavo coin, and later kings carved boulders into mythical zoomorphs.

What is the name of El Mirador's giant pyramid, roughly 72 metres tall?

La Danta rises about 72 metres from a huge platform and holds roughly 2.8 million cubic metres of fill, making it one of the largest pyramids on Earth by volume.

Which city, now in Mexico, was Tikal's great Classic-period rival?

Calakmul, in Mexico's Campeche state, led the 'Snake' alliance; its ally Caracol defeated Tikal in AD 562, opening a 130-year hiatus until Jasaw Chan K'awiil I crushed Calakmul in 695.

Which Kaqchikel capital was declared the first Spanish capital of Guatemala in 1524?

Iximché became Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala on 25 July 1524; the Kaqchikel deserted it within months over Spanish tribute demands, and Spanish deserters burned it in 1526.

Which Maya lord, named national hero in 1960, is said to have fallen in battle in 1524?

Tecún Umán, the K'iche' commander, was declared Guatemala's national hero in 1960; legend says he killed Alvarado's horse, taking horse and rider for one beast, before being speared through the heart.

Which Mam capital near Huehuetenango was restored by a fruit company in the late 1940s?

Zaculeu, 'white earth' in K'iche', was the Mam capital; Gonzalo de Alvarado's months-long siege in 1525 starved its defenders into surrender, and the United Fruit Company rebuilt it in 1946-47.

Which range in Huehuetenango is Central America's highest non-volcanic chain?

The Sierra de los Cuchumatanes tops out near 3,800 m; some 1,500 km² of it lies above 3,000 m, the most extensive highland area in Central America.

How do travellers reach Livingston, the Garifuna town on the Caribbean coast?

Livingston has no road link, so travellers arrive only by boat, across the Bay of Amatique from Puerto Barrios or down the Río Dulce from the town of Río Dulce.

The spicy red Q'eqchi' soup kak'ik is made from which bird?

Kak'ik is a turkey soup, the bird called chompipe locally; its Q'eqchi' name joins 'kak' (red) and 'ik' (chile), and achiote and tomato give it its colour.

Pedro de Betancur, Central America's first saint, was born on which island?

Pedro de Betancur was born in Vilaflor on Tenerife in 1626; a cave near El Médano where he sheltered as a shepherd is now a shrine, and he sailed for the Americas in 1649, dying in Antigua in 1667.

Bishop Juan Gerardi was beaten to death in 1998, two days after presenting what?

The report, 'Guatemala: Nunca Más', documented wartime atrocities; his body was identified by his episcopal ring.

Which country's embassy in Guatemala City burned during a 1980 police raid, killing 37?

Police stormed Spain's embassy on 31 January 1980 and fire killed 37, among them former vice-president Eduardo Cáceres Lehnhoff and the Spanish consul; a guerrilla front later took the date as its name.

Which president signed the accords that ended the 36-year civil war in December 1996?

Álvaro Arzú, president from January 1996, signed the Accord for a Firm and Lasting Peace on 29 December 1996; he and URNG commander Rolando Morán shared the UNESCO Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize.

Which former dictator was convicted of genocide in 2013, a verdict later annulled?

Efraín Ríos Montt, who seized power in a March 1982 coup, was sentenced to 80 years in May 2013 for genocide against the Ixil Maya; the Constitutional Court voided the verdict ten days later.

Bernardo Arévalo, president from 2024, was born in which country during his father's exile?

Bernardo Arévalo was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1958 while his father, former president Juan José Arévalo, lived in exile; he took office in January 2024.

Which president, in office 1898–1920, inspired the dictator novel El Señor Presidente?

Manuel Estrada Cabrera ruled for 22 years, the longest presidency in Guatemalan history; the National Assembly declared him insane in April 1920 and he surrendered after a week of fighting in the capital.

Who declared Guatemala an independent republic in 1847 and became its first president?

Rafael Carrera, the conservative strongman, proclaimed the Republic of Guatemala on 21 March 1847 and served as president until his death in 1865; coins struck the next year called him 'Founder of the Republic'.

Which president, sworn in during 2016, had found fame as a TV comedian?

Jimmy Morales starred for years in the comedy series Moralejas alongside his brother Sammy before winning the 2015 election and taking office in January 2016.

CICIG, the commission that helped oust a president in 2015, was set up with which body?

CICIG was created by a 2006 agreement between Guatemala and the United Nations; its investigations with prosecutors brought down a sitting president in 2015, and the government ended its mandate in 2019.

In 2010 the US apologised for 1940s experiments infecting Guatemalans with what?

US researchers under John Cutler deliberately infected Guatemalan prisoners, soldiers and patients with syphilis and gonorrhoea in 1946-48; Wellesley historian Susan Reverby uncovered Cutler's papers, and President Obama apologised in 2010.

Which army special-forces unit carried out the 1982 Dos Erres massacre?

The Kaibiles, named for the Mam leader Kayb'il B'alam who evaded the conquistadors, killed more than 200 villagers at Dos Erres in December 1982; recruits famously raise a puppy, then kill and eat it.

The words of Guatemala's anthem were secretly written by a poet from which country?

Cuban poet José Joaquín Palma submitted the lyrics anonymously for an 1896 competition and admitted authorship only in 1911, shortly before his death; José María Bonilla Ruano softened the warlike verses in 1934.

The national stadium was renamed for Mateo Flores after he won which race in 1952?

Doroteo Guamuch Flores, who raced as Mateo Flores, won the 1952 Boston Marathon; the Estadio Olímpico in Guatemala City was renamed for him, and it later took his full name, Doroteo Guamuch Flores.

Carlos 'El Pescadito' Ruiz won the 2002 MLS Cup with a golden goal for which club?

His 39 World Cup qualifying goals were a world record until Cristiano Ronaldo passed them in October 2025.

Stanley Rother, a priest murdered in 1981 and beatified in 2017, came from which US state?

Stanley Rother, a farm boy from Okarche, Oklahoma, served the Tz'utujil parish of Santiago Atitlán; he returned knowing his name was on a death list and was shot in his rectory in July 1981.

Monterroso's seven-word story finds what creature still there when the narrator wakes?

'El dinosaurio' reads in full 'Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí': on waking, a dinosaur remains there; Honduran-born Augusto Monterroso, a Guatemalan national, published it in 1959.

The British deported the Garifuna's ancestors to Roatán in 1797 from which island?

After the Second Carib War the British shipped more than 5,000 'Black Caribs' from Saint Vincent to Roatán in 1797, only about 2,500 surviving; Garifuna is an Arawakan language, an offshoot of Island Carib.

The Maya Biosphere Reserve protects the largest tropical forest north of what?

The reserve, created in 1990 across some 21,000 km² of northern Guatemala, is part of the Selva Maya, the largest tropical forest in the Americas north of the Amazon, home to jaguars and scarlet macaws.

Which volcano do hikers climb overnight to watch its neighbour erupt from their campsite?

Acatenango, 3,976 m, is joined to its erupting neighbour by the saddle called La Horqueta; hikers camp on its upper slopes to watch the explosions light the night sky.