ABOUT GUATEMALA

Guatemala, country of Central America. The dominance of an Indigenous culture within its interior uplands distinguishes Guatemala from its Central American neighbours. The origin of the name Guatemala is Indigenous, but its derivation and meaning are undetermined. Some hold that the original form was Quauhtemallan (indicating an Aztec rather than a Mayan origin), meaning “land of trees,” and others hold that it is derived from Guhatezmalha, meaning “mountain of vomiting water”—referring no doubt to such volcanic eruptions as the one that destroyed Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (now Antigua Guatemala), the first permanent Spanish capital of the region’s captaincy general. The country’s contemporary capital, Guatemala City, is a major metropolitan centre. Quetzaltenango, in the western highlands, is the nucleus of the Indigenous population.