GUATEMALA
Chuj, is still spoken in San Mateo Ixtatán, a Mayan community located in the Guatemalan highlands near the Mexican border. The Ixtatán Foundation helped support a PhotoStory project with the students of the Centro Comunitario de Educación “Yinhatil Nab’en” (Semilla de la Sabiduria) in January 2006. Assisted by the teaching staff, the students created individual and group photo storybooks about their town, culture and games they like to play. For most students it was their first experience as “photo journalists” telling and sharing stories. The program encouraged visual documentation, literacy (in Chuj and Spanish) and cultural preservation.