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Guatemala is also known for its antojitos, which include small tamales called "chuchitos", fried plantains, and tostadas with tomato sauce, guacamole or black beans. Certain foods are also commonly eaten on certain days of the week; for example, a popular custom is to eat paches (a kind of tamale made from potatoes) on Thursday.
The history of Guatemala traces back to the Maya civilization (2600 BC – 1697 AD), with the country's modern history beginning with the Spanish conquest of Guatemala in 1524. By 1000 AD, most of the major Classic-era (250–900 AD) Maya cities in the Petén Basin , located in the northern lowlands, had been abandoned.
The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nestled in a mountain valley called Valle de la Ermita (English: Hermitage Valley). Guatemala City is the site of the native Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu, founded around 3,500 years ago around 1500 B.C. in Pre-Columbian America / Mesoamerica.
Upon independence, the Captaincy General of Guatemala was abolished. The captaincy general's former provinces—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua—united under the Consultive Junta, a provisional national government was established in Guatemala to form a formal federal government for Central America. [22]
Guatemala is heavily centralized. Transportation, communications, business, politics, and the most relevant urban activity takes place in Guatemala City. Guatemala City has about 2 million inhabitants within the city limits and more than 5 million within the wider urban area. This is a significant percentage of the population (14 million). [7]
The territory that now makes up Belize was heavily contested in a dispute that continued for decades after Guatemala achieved independence. Spain, and later Guatemala, considered this land a Guatemalan department. In 1862, Britain formally declared it a British colony and named it British Honduras. It became independent as Belize in 1981. [5]
Holiday names are usually pretty straightforward. New Year's, Thanksgiving and — perhaps least creatively, the 4th of July — all have origins that are fairly easy to figure out.
Although the U.S. acquired a large swath of territory from the Spanish Empire and called Spanish borderlands and nearly 20% of the U.S. population identifies as "Hispanic" (or "Latino"), the U.S. is generally not classified as being part of Latin America. However, the significant demographic is sometimes brought under the umbrella of Latin ...