Chichicastenango

Chichicastenango
Municipality
Iglesia de Santo Tomás Iglesia de Santo Tomás
Nickname(s): Chichi
Chichicastenango Location in Guatemala
Chichicastenango
Coordinates:
Country	Guatemala
Department	El Quiché
Municipality	Chichicastenango
Government
• Type	Municipal
Area
• Municipality	400 km2 (200 sq mi)
Elevation	1,965 m (6,447 ft)
Population (Census 2012)
• Municipality	152,833
• Urban	45,549
• Ethnicities	K'iche' people (98.5%), Ladino (1.5%)
• Religions	Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Maya
Climate	Cwb
Website	Chichicastenango online

Chichicastenango, also known as Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, is a town in the El Quiché department of Guatemala, known for its traditional K'iche' Maya culture. The Spanish conquistadors gave the town its name from the Nahuatl name used by their soldiers from Tlaxcala: Tzitzicaztenanco, or City of Nettles. Its original name was Chaviar.

Chichicastenango serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name.

Chichicastenango is a large indigenous town, lying on the crests of mountaintops at an altitude of 1,965 m (6,447 ft). As of 2012, 98.5% of the municipality's population is indigenous Mayan K'iche. 92% of the municipality's population speaks the K'iche language, with the remaining 8% being monolingual Spanish speakers. 71% of the municipality's population was bilingual, speaking both K'iche and Spanish, and an additional 21% were monolingual K'iche speakers. The K'iche people and language dominate the municipality. It is located about 140 km (87 mi) northwest of Guatemala City.

Market

Chichicastenango Market

Chichicastenango is well known for its famous market days on Thursdays and Sundays where vendors sell handicrafts, food, flowers, pottery, wooden boxes, condiments, medicinal plants, candles, pom and copal (traditional incense), cal (lime stones for preparing tortillas), grindstones, pigs and chickens, machetes, and other tools. In the central part of the market plaza are small eateries (comedores).

Among the items sold are textiles, particularly the women's blouses. The manufacture of masks, used by dancers in traditional dances, such as the Dance of the Conquest, have also made this city well known for woodcarving.

Church of Santo Tomás

Main article: Iglesia de Santo Tomás

Next to the market is the 400-year-old church of Santo Tomás. It is built atop a Pre-Columbian temple platform, and the steps originally leading to a temple of the pre-Hispanic Maya civilization remain venerated. K'iche' Maya priests still use the church for their rituals, burning incense and candles. In special cases, they burn a chicken for the gods. Each of the 18 stairs that lead up to the church stands for one month of the Maya calendar year. Another key element of Chichicastenango is the Cofradia of Pascual Abaj, which is an ancient carved stone venerated nearby and the Maya priests perform several rituals there. Writing on the stone records the doings of a king named Tohil (Fate).

The Chichicastenango Regional Museum lies in its grounds.

In music

At least three songs have been written about the town.

• “Chichicastenango” Xavier Cugat 1937
• "In Chi-Chi Castenango" Edmundo Ros Mambo Jambo: Original Recordings 1941-1950
• "In the Land of The Maya" Lennie Gallant In the Land of The Maya

In addition, the character Rosie from Bye Bye Birdie sings sarcastically of being the toast of Chichicastenango.

Geography

Chichicastenango is composed of the municipal seat and 81 rural communities. Nearby village communities include Paquixic (1.0 nm), Chucam (1.0 nm), Chujupen (1.4 nm), Camanibal (2.2 nm), Chontala (2.2 nm) and Chucojom (1.0 nm).

Gallery

• Chichicastenango-010.jpg

  Local band

• 

  Mayan Women

• Mother buying flowers.jpg

  Mother buying flowers

• Indoor produce market, Chichicastenango.jpg

  Indoor produce market

• Chichicastenango-005.jpg

  Chichicastenango pots

• Cemetery of Chichicastenango.jpg

  A view of the cemetery

In films

The New Adventures of Tarzan' (1935)

Main article: The New Adventures of Tarzan

See also: Tarzan and Edgar Rice Burroughs

Puerto Barrios

Livingston

Quiriguá

Chichicastenango

Río Dulce

Antigua Guatemala

Puerto San José

Selva Petenera

Ciudad de Guatemala

Film locations for The New Adventures of Tarzan.

In 1935, the film The New Adventures of Tarzan, was filmed on location in Guatemala, taking advantage of the help from the United Fruit Company and president Jorge Ubico. The places where the filming was made were:

• Chichicastenango: scenes of a native town where the explorers first met.
• Antigua Guatemala: The Green Goddess temple
• Río Dulce
• Puerto Barrios: arrival and departure of the boats carrying the explorers
• Tikal: jungle scenes
• Quiriguá: Mayan city where they get lectured on the maya civilization
• Guatemala City: then luxurious Palace Hotel was used to shoot the scenes of the hotel in the imaginary town of At Mantique

See also

• Guatemala portal
• Geography portal
• List of places in Guatemala

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website
• Map with information and pictures of the touristic points of interest in Chichicastenango