Otavaleños; indigenous with dignity

August 1st, 2009

Otavalo, south of the Colombian border is an example for all indigenous Guatemalan towns.

Here, vendors have dignity. They are a business, tourists are customers, and notheing more.
Here, handicrafts are made by the people of the region, sold to the poeple of the region, some Quiteños, and, amongst all the others, tourists.
The problem is that tourists come with piggybanks, and spend on gifts in an unnatural and unsustainable way, turning them into constant sources of dollars! DOLLARS! Everyone dies for dollars. The market ends up being shaped by the gringo demand.
And that´s what´s happening in Lake Atitlan and its surrounding country.
There´s something wrong with the way the tourism industry works in Guate, and im sure in many other places.

It does unnnatural and unhealthy things to locals over time. Think about Pana.

In Otavalo, tourists aren´t incarnated idols worth hundreds of quetzales. They don´t turn into caricatures of people who must be related to in an idiotic, slow and over-enunciated Santiago Atitlan english accent.

In Otavalo, the indigenous in the handicraft merchants have adapted their labor to the most lucrative market, and not their identity.