Reviews

February 23, 2008. It was a typical Saturday night in San Juan Gascon.  Mum, dad and the kids were at home.  Luis, the eldest brother – a 19-year-old student – had gone out with friends.  At around 11:30, as the family was going to bed, they heard the spine-chilling screech of a vehicle losing… »

We met Joe Bageant the way we meet many of our best friends, through a mutual acquaintance that may have stepped on the wrong side of the law a few times. The brother in question, Earl Fish, did a couple of stints in the pen for safe cracking, and a couple more for trying to… »

The past month brought singer songwriter, Adam Stokes, back to Antigua for a few days – and he brought with him a long awaited present: his new album, October Sky. Adam hails from Texas, but lived here a few years back with his wife, Jess, an incredibly hot archeologist who spent most of her time… »

We keep hearing, verbatim, the same line, over and over again, from our advertising staff. They say the most common reason new clients give for declining to take an ad is because they believe, “…only locals read La Cuadra.” This has been happening with a regularity that makes us wonder if one of our competitors… »

Paola is in her mid-thirties and has six children. She is deathly afraid to become pregnant again, but her husband wants more children. She is reluctant to have sex with her husband, and he is looking around for other women. He has threatened to leave Paola and their children if she does not submit, and… »

One of my favorite slogans of the 1960s Yippies is, “We are not Marxists. We’re Groucho Marxists.”

Groucho Marxists used comedy and outlandishness as a political tool. They believed revolution should be a party, a circus, a festival of irony and absurdity that raised political awareness and paved the way for real… »

The Internet “gives us instant free communication at the price of universal surveillance.”
This parenthetical observation has nothing to do with the central themes of James K. Galbraith’s new book, “The Predator State.” It’s included in a brief description of technologies which moved from military roots to broader societal application. It marks the moment, however, when… »

Over the past few years, as the planet has fallen further into the shitpile, La Cuadra has featured the good works of many not for profit, non-governmental organizations which struggle to humanize our host country, make life better for the poorest and most at risk Guatemalans, and foster development in Central America. While we remain… »

A couple of years back, at the last Jamtigua concert Tom Graham and Willie Gomez got on stage with their band, The Blue Dawgs. The crowd leapt to their feet for the first time that afternoon and started dancing. I don’t remember their opener, but I do remember Tom, his hair spilling over his shoulders,… »

Byrant Hand, 33, professional educator and entrepreneur, came to Guatemala four years ago and founded the Oxford Language Schools which currently train Spanish speakers in 28 languages ranging from Korean and Mandarin to Portuguese and English. The schools are a successful business, catering largely to adults and corporate clients, but Bryant, who had seen… »