My Story

Chuchuca, where your child lives, is an area located high on the side of a mountain in the state of Quiché, Guatemala. Life in this area is very difficult and very isolated from the outside world. It is more than a two-hour walk to the nearest market town of Zacualpa. Chuchuca is a farming area where corn and black beans, the staple elements in their diet, are the major crops. The Quiché Indians who inhabit this area trace their ancestral roots to the ancient Mayan civilization. They normally speak an Indian dialect called Quiché - however, Spanish is becoming more common. Very little money ever changes hands in this area as they live on a barter system.

Hello! I am Cristian Alexis Omar Garcia de Leon. I was born in Aldea Xoljib Zacualpa Quiche on March 2, 2014, and I am already 10 years old. At school I am in 4^th grade. My pastime is to play football. I like cats and my favorite color is blue. The food I like the most is fried chicken. I live happily with my parents, two brothers and one sister. My father is Arturo Garcia Calachij. He mostly works on the coast and does whatever kind of work he finds. My mother is Lucia de Leon Garcia. She usually stays busy with the housework. She also raises hens and pigs. I am in good health as well my family.

We are members of the Prince of Peace Church. My family and I are living in my maternal grandmother´s house, we share the house with her. There are two rooms made of adobe with a tile roof and a cement floor. The kitchen is separate. We get electricity from the house of one of my uncles and we pay Q50.00 = $7.00 every month. We have running water and we only pay if repairs or needed maintenance of the pipes. We are a humble family and the greatest for us are groceries and corn to make our tortillas. I live nearby to the feeding program and walk only 5 minutes to get there. Thank you for reading my information. Every kind of blessings over you!

Huge hugs,

Cristian Alexis Omar Garcia de Leon

Translated by: Violeta Hernandez / A-A-C Secretary-Antigua Guatemala