“The land where the rainbow begins.” This is how the traditional Mayan people of Guatemala describe their country. A land of striking and sometimes violent contrasts,Guatemala’s vivid colors reflect a varied land and a people with ancient roots. The colors of this land are echoed in the hues of traje, the traditional costume of the Mayans. Ancient and contemporary weavers dye their hand-woven cotton the same dark orange and red tones as molten lava from the country’s volcanoes. Luxuriant greens of the rain forest are duplicated in depictions of the Resplendent Quetzal. The iridescent green, red, and white feathers of this tropical bird have symbolized the land since ancient times. Other depictions of ancient life and symbols use the blue of Lake Atitlán, a mountain lake that English author Aldous Huxley called the most beautiful place in the world. Outside the spectrum of rainbow colors are found the black volcanic sands of the Pacific coast and the bleached chalk white colors of the lost cities of the Maya. So close to North America, yet so distant in many ways, Guatemala is home both to modern culture and to one of the world’s most ancient civilizations. The effects of globalization and reverence for the ancient god Quetzalcoatl coexist somewhat uncomfortably here. Its natural beauty and cultural richness are appealing, but Guatemala has another face as well. It is a place of recent civil war and ongoing political and economic turmoil. Ethnic bitterness and social inequality are not uncommon. Ruled by military dictatorships for most of the past hundred years, the country only now is transitioning from repressive tyranny to uneasy democracy. Guatemala is one of the original “banana republics,” a derisive term for Central American countries long dependent on agricultural exports to the United States. It is a fact that much of the country’s infrastructure—its railroad, telegraph lines, and ports—was built and controlled by U.S. interests, principally the United Fruit Company. Like its Mayan heritage, this aspect of the country’s past is still alive as well. Despite economic advances of the last five years, Guatemala is still dependent on banana, coffee, and sugarcane production for most of its export revenue.