In 2022, the María and Antonio Goubaud Foundation (MAG) began to implement the vision of the now defunct International Institute of Learning for Social Reconciliation (IIARS). For a decade, IIARS offered a tour at the Railway Museum in Guatemala City entitled “Why Are We the Way We Are?”, which took visitors on a tour of Guatemalan history to explain the country’s present. IIARS entrusted the idea of creating “Memory Tours” to the MAG Foundation, which rose to the challenge, designed the tours and trained the first generation of guides. In 2022, the first certificate program was held, which some 40 people of different genders, ages, ethnicities, life experiences and academic disciplines participated in. It was a process of continuous mutual learning.
Sadi Car is one of those memory guides, who recalls that “initially we designed a route at the University of San Carlos (USAC) since there are many sites of memory located there. However, given the situation that was unfolding there [the occupation of the USAC President’s Office], we had to change the route and move it to the historic center. We discovered that there were many important sites related to student and popular movements, so we remained in the historic center.” They currently offer five memory routes with different areas of focus.
The creation of these routes was a collective effort that emerged from the stories that each course participant contributed. In the historic center there are many places to discover and remember with their own history. For example, the Paraninfo and the USAC Museum (MUSAC) are important for the student movement. The participants in the two certificate courses that have been offered thus far sought, investigated and located plaques about events that took place on these sites. They also gathered information about certain people who do not have a specific place dedicated to their memory, so they identified places where those people spent their time or where something significant happened in their lives.
These tours last about three hours. They begin with a meeting at the MAG Foundation where the participants get to know one another. Then the group visits six to eight sites where the guides share stories of people’s lives and struggles, as well as the historical context in which the people lived. At the end of the walk, the group meets back up at the MAG Foundation to share what they have learned and how it made them feel.
They plan to open another training program for volunteer memory guides by 2025. It will be an open call. One future challenge they face is the decentralization of the initiative, in order to support the creation of such routes in other parts of the country, though some do already exist in certain regions.
Location: 8 Calle 3-51, zona 1, Ciudad de Guatemala.
Contact Information: 2298-3398 / recorridos@fundacionmag.org
Website: https://fundacionmag.org/
More information about the Memory Tours on the Facebook page: Fundación María y Antonio Goubaud Carrera