NOTE: This version of this week’s episode is in Spanish. You'll find the English translated version in your podcast feed too.

Bienvenidos de nuevo a Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, para continuar con una serie especial desde Guatemala, Centroamérica.

Deseo que hubiera grabado cómo encontré al invitado de hoy. Al regresar a este lugar que fue mi hogar durante unos años a principios de siglo, no sabía quién estaría, aún seguiría vivo.

Pensé que mis viejos amigos Cándido Reyes y su esposa Maricela, si todavía estaban aquí, seguirían en la comunidad de retornados que ayudaron a fundar 30 años antes, llamada La Nueva Libertad, a solo unos kilómetros del pueblo de Fray. Pero después de tantos años, no tenía forma de recordar cuál era su casa, una vieja dirección de correo electrónico no funcionaba, y una antigua oficina suya en el pueblo ya es un restaurante.

Así que pregunté por ahí y al fin recibí la información que los encontraría en las instalaciones actuales de la legendaria ONG para la que siguen trabajando, Adelina Caal Maquín (ACM). Esa trabaja con mujeres, jóvenes, soberanía alimentaria, agroecología y, más recientemente, una escuela secundaria de desarrollo comunitario sostenible.

Al día siguiente, sin poder avisar y con cierta timidez, fui a buscarlos. La conversación fue tan maravillosa, que luego Cándido y yo grabamos esta conversación mientras dimos un paseo por La Nueva.

Comenzamos en ACM, paseamos por los huertos, la comunidad, sus escuelas, su innovadora cooperativa, y nos adentramos en las extraordinarias historias de sus vidas y de este lugar. Tras los horrores de la guerra, exploramos la época de Cándido como joven organizador de la resistencia, y cómo luego regresó como líder en la formación de la cooperativa y la comunidad.

Hablamos de los enormes éxitos y desafíos de la cooperativa, de la reconexión con los ancestros, los cambios de Fray y de Guatemala, de la empresa de procesamiento de alimentos, de reflexiones sobre su vida hasta ahora, y de su irreducible fe en lo posible.

Cándido es un tipo muy inteligente y bien chistoso. Y aquí, están iluminando un camino para Guate y, en muchos sentidos, para todos nosotros.

Grabado el 14 de enero de 2025.

Foto por Olivia Cheng.

Vea más fotos en el sitio de web y, para ver más del detrás de cámaras, conviértase en oyente colaborador a continuación.

Música:

Salta Montes, de Migra (fuente: Artlist).

Regeneration, de Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration pla

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Welcome back to Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, as we continue a special series from Guatemala, Central America.

I wish I’d recorded how I came to find today’s guest. In returning to this place that was home for a few years back at the turn of the century, I didn’t know who’d still be around, alive even.

I figured that my old friends Cándido Reyes and his wife Maricela, if they were still around, would be in the returned refugee community they helped set up 30 years prior, called la Nueva Libertad (the New Freedom), just a few kilometres out of town. But after so many years, I had no chance of remembering which house was theirs, an old email address didn’t work, and an old office of theirs in town was now a restaurant.

So I asked around, and eventually got the tip I’d find them in the current facility of the legendary non-profit they continue to work for called Adelina Caal Maquín (ACM) – working with women, youth, food sovereignty, agro-ecology and, more recently, a residential secondary school in sustainable community development.

Anyway, next day, unannounced and with some timidity, I went to find them. Catching up was so wonderful and compelling, later Cándido and I pressed record on a walk around La Nueva.

We start at ACM, wander around the gardens, the community, its schools, its innovative cooperative set up, and delve into the extraordinary stories of their lives and this place. Emerging from the horrors of war, we explore Cándido's time as a young resistance organizer, and how he later returned as a leader in the formation of the coop and community.

We talk about the coop’s enormous successes and challenges, reconnecting with ancestors, the changing face of Fray and Guatemala, the exciting food processing venture, reflections on a life so far, and his unflinching belief in what’s possible.

Cándido is sharp, resilient and very funny. And out here, they’re lighting a beacon for Guate, and in many ways, for us all.

Thanks again to Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott for generously translating and speaking the Spanish in English.

Let’s head to la Nueva Libertad.

Recorded 14 January 2025.

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Music:

Salta Montes, by Migra (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

Send us a text

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.

With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!

Welcome to a series within the series from Guatemala, Central America – three stories from three men I admire most in the world. Each different but related. Each from a different generation. And each navigating the last couple of decades differently since I spent time with them, in the municipality of Fray Bartolome de las Casas, in the central province of Alta Verapaz.

This is the story of a place too, in that sense. A place that’s been through the worst of things and some of the best of human endeavours as well. Offering us all some hard-won wisdom on how to transcend the former and tend the latter, even achieve some remarkable outcomes at times, but perhaps above all, how to live well regardless of those outcomes.

First up, then, it’s a privilege to share my conversation with Don Ceferino de Paz González. Don Cef was Mayor of Fray when I arrived offering my services, a gringo with, at that stage, no organisational or financial backing.

Don Cef had not long been elected, only a few years after the Peace Accords that formally ended a bloody decades-long war. He was then part of the political party that emerged from the guerrilla resistance. A mere boy when he joined that resistance, he’d dodged death, rose through the ranks, and then in peace time, became Mayor not once, but twice.

21 years since I last saw him, we met at his home in Fray. He’d hardly changed, still looking sprightly at age 80. And generously, this proud, articulate, still optimistic elder, was up for a chat – full, frank and open.

We sat out on the patio, late morning. The humidity and heat were on the rise amidst the lush green of these traditional Mayan tropical lowlands. And as we go, we drift deeper into personal terrain. And to take us out, he agrees to pick up the guitar.

Today’s episode is also tribute to my late mentor, systems thinking pioneer and much-loved figure, Professor Frank Fisher, on the 82nd anniversary of his birth.

Thanks again to Dana Scott for so generously translating the Spanish into English.

Recorded 14 January 2025.

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Music:

Salta Montes, by Migra (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

Send us a text

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.

With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!