Artes Y Artesanias Mayas de Guatemala/Maya Arts and Crafts of Guatemala

This coloring book is intended to provide an informative guide to Guatemalan Maya arts and crafts that can help to increase young people's awareness not only of the value of crafts but also their fragility. For young Guatemalans the hope is that the book can help them appreciate their heritage, to value the role of arts and crafts in their culture, and help them to decide how they will sustain arts and crafts in their changing society. For other young people, the hope is that the book can help them to better appreciate arts and crafts, to recognize the extent to which industrialization has transformed the role of crafts in their own society, and to understand the impact of such transformation on the lives of the Maya and other peoples whose societies are rapidly changing today. For both Guatemalan and other youth, perhaps the book can help them to consider the question "Who gains and who loses if crafts disappear?"As part of an educational effort in Guatemala, supported by the Daniele Agostino Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, the K'inal Winik Cultural Center, Cleveland State University and other donors, a new 2004 edition of this bilingual book in eight Mayan languages and Spanish is available to students and teachers there through the Instituto de Linguistica y Educacion, of the Universidad Rafael Landivar and the Consejo Maya Jun Ajpu Ixb'alamke, both in Guatemala City.