BBtv WORLD: Through the eyes of the pueblo (Guatemala)

BBtv WORLD is our recently-launched series on Boing Boing tv featuring first-person views of life around the globe. This third episode in our series is the last of a three-part report I filed from a K'iche Maya community in Guatemala.

Few foreigners come to this village at 10,000 feet in the highlands. Most glimpses we have of remote indigenous communities like this are through the lenses of outsiders -- like myself. But how better to see their story than through the eyes of the people themselves?

Before I left the US for this pueblo a few weeks ago, we asked two companies that produce small, inexpensive, USB camcorders -- Pure Digital (makers of the Flip) and RCA (makers of the Small Wonder) -- to donate a few devices. I brought them to the village, so that some of the adults and young people here could explore what is possible with the tools of video storytelling in their own hands.

Today's BBtv WORLD is the result: stories shot by the K'iche people in this village. The world they see around them, through their own eyes and in their own language.

Some of what the children shot really surprised me. They caught on right away, faster even than the adults, and quickly taught each other how to record and play back video. Some of them seemed to transform into instant YouTube stars -- new alter-egos showed up out of nowhere. One boy we'd come to know as quiet and well-mannered over the course of many previous visits here shot himself throwing gang signs against the sunlight, like shadow puppets, while he walked a path that leads to a Mayan altar. Another girl who was very shy with us in person recorded video of herself making outrageous silly faces, and speaking in a boisterous, confident voice to her new handheld lens.

When I downloaded the footage from their devices, I felt as if I were seeing this place, and these people, for the first time.

More BBTV WORLD episodes: http://www.boingboing.net/bbtv-world/

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• BBtv
• World
• Guatemala
• K'iche
• Mayan
• indigenous
• world
• xeni
• jardin
• maya
• indian
• guatemalan
• central
• america
• mexico
• video
• gadget
• technology
• flip
• camcorder
• review

[larte20]

Why do I have a feeling that most of you are ignorant? Why can't we just have something nice to say and get along? And why would and should they kill her? She did nothing wrong at all on the contrary she is helping them. And they are young kids I am sure they do not know what sign they are using like any other young kid wouldn't as well. And btw, common signs like the one shown above, can mean a multiple of things around the globe...do some research. God bless you all.

[HDdaniex]

very good job

I speak CAKCHIQUEL native language of guatemala

and this video is interesting!!! God Job...

wana see more jeje

[gelito21]

@MessivoKaxto exactly, im guatemalan, and thats exactly what i used to do when i was kid, i got hit by dad sometimes for doing this, and i didnt really understand why dad hit me, coz for me i wasnt doing anything bad, i was just doind those signs because i saw grown people doing it,, actually i understood until dad told me that those signs only gangsters do,, so then i felt guilty

[HDdaniex]

lol great video MY country!!! I love mY Guatemala

thanks for share this video!!!

[fenixz5]

What scares me most is that "maras" (gangs) are already there, near the pueblo, not the child showing his finger...

Now that's sad!

[fenixz5]

Guatemala has a unique set of things happening in it that you can't actually define "Guatemalan". I'm guatemalan and haven't been able to do so this far.

Guatemala has a lot of faces!

You can see this litltle villages in th middle of "nowhere", where time passes by as it did centuries ago...and you can also note that Guatemala is one of the countries with most private aircarfts of latinamerica.

So to say that this is the "true" face of a country is naïve...is one of them!

[larte20]

These people will have more love than you will ever know...they know the true meaning of life.  Not like other people who seem to be very ignorant and judemental just by their looks.

[larte20]

Why would you call them ugly and such and the 'n' word? Have some respect for the children do you even know the reason for the video? If you don't have something nice to say don't say it please. God bless you all

[Coins4Cheese]

LOL 1:14. He gave them the bird :D.

[d0861]

Because she looks Mexican and I can tell. I'm half Mexican, myself.

[SexCyberGuideCom]

thanks