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Guatemala: Countries
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Guatemala is a multi-cultural middle-income country that faces some particularly difficult development challenges. Poverty in Guatemala is high and deep, and the country has remarkably unequal distributions of income, resources and opportunities. Fortunately, Guatemala ... has significant potential to accelerate broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction through trade, regional integration, and tourism. Country brief
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Guatemala A republic in Central America with the third largest area in the region, Guatemala is, after Mexico, the largest of the Central American countries in population, with about 12.5 million people. Homosexuality was made illegal by the Spanish conquest (1524).
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Guatemala’s geography has at times influenced its history. About two-thirds of the country’s total land area is mountainous. The rugged terrain provided refuge that allowed the indigenous peoples to survive the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, while the fertile valleys eventually produced fine coffees and other crops that dominated the nation’s economy. Frequent volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and torrential rains have often brought disaster to the country and made building and maintaining roads and railways very difficult.
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Of special note is that Guatemala has the largest divergence of Power Distance (PDI) to Individualism (IDV) of any country surveyed in the world, with a difference of 89 (PDI-95 minus IDV-6 = 89). Panama is next with 84 and Malaysia third with 78.
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Guatemala is surpassed only by Brazil and the East Indies in the quantity of coffee it exports. The chief plantations are owned and managed by Germans; more than half of the crop is sent to Germany, while three-fifths of the remainder go to the United States and one-fifth to Great Britain. The average yearly product is about 70,000,000 lb, worth approximately £1,300,000, and subject to an export duty of one gold dollar (4s.) per quintal (101 lb). Sugar, bananas, tobacco and cocoa are ... cultivated; but much of the sugar and bananas, most of the cocoa, and all the tobacco are consumed in the country. During the colonial period, the cocoa of western Guatemala and Soconusco was reserved on account of its fine flavour for the Spanish court. The indigo and cotton plantations yield little profit, owing to foreign competition, and have in most cases been converted to other uses.
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Guatemala remained under Spanish rule from 1524 to 1821. Typical Spanish dishes, such as enchiladas, guacamole, tamales, and tortillas, began making their way into the Guatemalan diet. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, an empanada (meat turnover) could be purchased for about twenty-five cents, chicken tortillas for fifty cents each, and a hot beef sandwich for about seventy-five cents. Other countries and their cultures have ... affected the Guatemalan diet, including the Chinese. Most Guatemalan cities and towns have at least one Chinese restaurant.
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