As each Central American country is different from one another, so are the villages that comprise Guatemala. Guatemala encompasses approximately 42,040 square miles, about the size of Tennessee.  The country is bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize and the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast.  Guatemala is a mountainous region with an average elevation of 4,000 feet.  The highest peaks, in the west, reach 10,000 feet.  And, to the south there exist a series of active volcanoes, which play a large part in that region’s mythology.  This range of volcanoes also separates the Guatemalan highlands from the tropical Pacific costal zone.  With this altitude, and at a latitude of 15° 30’ N, Guatemalan highland climate is temperate, with an average temperature of 59°, and with dry and rainy seasons.

The native people of highland Guatemala are Maya.  In 1980, it was estimated that more than half of the seven million people living in Guatemala are of native descent.  The ancient Maya occupied a vast geographic area in Central and South America from around 2000 BC until 1500 AD.  Until the Spanish Conquest led by Pedro de Alvarado in 1525, there existed in what is today’s Guatemalan highlands several small kingdoms.  These were warring kingdoms and were divided according to the various existing language groups, all of which exist under the larger language category of Maya.  Yet although the Maya are still differentiated by as many as twenty distinct languages, throughout the scores of highland villages, Guatemalan women have maintained the tradition of traje, weaving and wearing the traditional Maya costume using the backstrap loom.