Departamento del Quiché

In 2018, a group of cinematographers contacted Martin. They wanted to tell a story about a Guatemalan child, from the rural area. The idea was part of a larger project for a series of documentaries about the life of individual children across the world and their everyday path to school; a portrait of 199 "little heroes" (The project's German name is "199 Kleine Helden". For more info see: https://www.199kleinehelden.org/helden.html).

Martin took the team to the Ixil Region. And so, the village of La Esperanza Amakchel became the setting of the Guatemalan chapter of "199 Kleine Helden". They portrayed the life of Diego, a 12 year old boy who attended the primary school that APEI built and kept managing back then.

Today, we visited this village. And as it turns out, La Esperanza Amakchel is a very special village for many more reasons.

First, La Esperanza Amakchel is the first village we have visited so far (it's only been 3), where people only speak limited Spanish. Thus, Aroldo interpreted the meeting with the community leaders. Which meant we were doing a double translation from Ixil to Spanish and from Spanish to German.

Second, the school built by APEI has a very special place in Martin's heart. The funding for the construction was fully donated by the late nunn Käthe Müller, Martin's favorite aunt. And for this reason, when the school was finished, it was baptized as "Escuela Hermana Käthe". A picture of Sister Käthe is also hanging in the school's office.

Third, and very sadly, the current conditions of the primary school in La Esperanza Amakchel are a perfect example of the dysfunctional public system of education in Guatemala. According to current Covid guidelines, classes should take place every day in this village, but the teacher only appears once a week. Parents are quite frustrated and took the chance today to ask Aroldo for support in solving the issue.

Fourth, La Esperanza Amakchel is home to the family of Doña Jacinta, the wife of one of the village's leaders, who Martin met in one of his former visits to La Esperanza Amakchel. Her family has always been very welcoming and Martin photographed some very nice portraits of the family's beautiful ladies and her children on one of his last visits. Today, Martin brought the prints of the photographs to Doña Jacinta, who received them with a smile on her face.

And fifth, the story of Diego, the heroe of the documentary which was filmed in La Esperanza Amakchel, naturally didn't stop when the filming team left the Ixil Region. Indeed, while Diego's portrait in "199 Kleine Helden" is representative of the life of most children in rural areas of Guatemala, the plot of his current story is the plot of many stories across Central America.

In 2020, Diego took on the expensive and risky journey of migrating illegally to the United States. He's chasing the dream of a better life for him and his family, which his unequal, unjust and failed country couldn't give him.

Today, we visited Diego's mom María. According to her, Diego lives now in Phoenix, Arizona, where he found work at a restaurant. He frequently calls his mom and brothers and already started sending money to the family to repay the credit they had to take to afford his journey. That's the only way, as the people traffickers ("coyotes") that organize the trip demand amounts of money which are unpayable for these people.

While Diego is following the example of many others before him (neighbors, friends, his own uncle...) and his fate is a reflection of deeper social issues in Central America, his story suffered some plot twists which probably only few people around him have experienced.

After finishing primary school, Diego moved in 2019 to APEI-managed boarding school in the village of El Sumalito to attend middle school, fully funded by the joint scholarships program of APEI and La Sonrisa de los Niños, another NGO. According to his teachers, he was a good-performing student. Between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, however, Diego left to the north, leaving his studies behind.

It is frustrating to know he didn't continue his studies. It is a shame. Yet one cannot blame him.  One cannot blame him for hoping for a better, different life, which he would unlikely ever get in Guatemala. Time will tell what this step really meant for him.

***Note: The opinions expressed in this blog are based on my personal experience during this trip and are only mine. They do not represent the opinion of Asociación Amigos Para las Escuelas Ixiles (APEI) or that of any of my fellow travelers.Read more