Arts & Crafts

The Guatemalan indigenous arts and crafts have as many facets as the landscape of the country. Still to this day the descendants of the Maya, especially in the highlands, fabricate hand-made products of all kinds. However, many products gained the status of being considered as handicraft not till then they got replaced by cheaper industrial manufacture and younger generations lost interest in ancient traditions. Most objects were originally commodities and articles of daily use. The increasing interest of foreign visitors in arts and crafts benefited several sectors such as traditional weaving.

Additional proceeds through sales of handicraft are a welcome extra income for many indigenous families. But just few of them succeeded in establishing major production to live exclusively from their arts and crafts. Most of the goods are produced in family businesses and sold at markets.

Weaving: Guatemalans traditional textile products are with good cause among the most beautiful in Latin America.

Pottery: The Classic Maya achieved with the processing of clay such a high standard that is still today unattainable. After the Spanish have destroyed many of the artistic pots, the descendants of the Maya confined themselves to the production of basic commodities. Hand-formed ceramics for domestic use is burnt over open fire and usually do not have any decoration. However, plastic products increasingly replace hand-made potteries and heavy water jars. The same has happened to the comal (a flat tortilla pan) made of clay whose rivalry consists of metal sheet and iron. In Antigua, Chinautla and Rabinal vases and figurines are made of glaze ceramics, a technique from colonial times.

Gourd / Calabash: The fruits of the jicaro or palo de morro have always had multi-purpose. Gouged and cut in half, bowls and ladles are made out of them.  Men are taking the gourd with them to their fieldwork as a drinking vessel. Colorful gourd bowls (guacales) that are painted with natural colors are made in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. Decorated bowls are used by indigenous people for various ceremonies like at Día de todos los Santos (All Saint’s Day) to fill the bowls with food for the dead.

Plaiting and Basketry: Articles made of osier stakes, sand couch or cane can be found at the markets in all kind of forms and seizes. The uses range from bags to baby cradles. Baskets (canastos without handle; canastas with handle) serve for transporting bread, fruits and vegetables or poultry. The Classic Maya considered reed mats as a symbol of power. Stony illustrations of crossing fibers can be seen at many ruin sites. Today the reed mats are principally used as mattresses, carpets or wall decoration.

Agave: Guatemala counts more than twenty different types of the agave genus. The versatility of the plant barely can be beaten by any other species of plant. Although the plant is not as famous as in Mexico, Guatemalans also take advantage of its multi-usage. Commodities such as ropes, nets, bags, clothes, hammocks or strings for the violin are made out of the agave’s fibers.

Woodwork: In the past wood has been used almost exclusively for the production of furniture or articles of daily use. Nowadays the production is oriented on tourist’s demand. Wooden masks, colonial style furniture and carvings of animals or jewel cases are popular items.