Explore Cobán and the Verapaces
Less than an hour from Salamá via a gap in the hills, RABINAL is a dusty, isolated farming town where the one-storey adobe and cinderblock houses are dominated by a large colonial church. Founded in 1537 by Bartolomé de Las Casas, Rabinal was the first of the settlements he established in his peaceful conversion of the Achi nation. The proportion of indigenous inhabitants is high here and the fine fiesta has a uniquely Achi character.
Market days (Tues & Sun) are fascinating in Rabinal – look for some high-quality local artesanías, including carvings made from the árbol del morro (calabash tree) and traditional pottery.
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Rabinal’s UNESCO fiesta
Rabinal’s UNESCO fiesta
Rabinal’s fiesta, which runs from January 19 to 24, is renowned for its dances, many of them pre-colonial in origin. The most famous is an extended dance drama known as the Rabinal Achi which re-enacts a battle between the Achi and K’iche’ tribes and is unique to the town, performed annually on January 23 – it’s recently been bestowed UNESCO World Heritage recognition. Others include the patzca, a ceremony to call for good harvests, using masks that portray a swelling below the jaw, and wooden sticks engraved with serpents, birds and human heads.
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Rabinal and the civil war
Rabinal and the civil war
The Rabinal region suffered terribly during Guatemala’s civil war – there were four massacres in 1982 alone. Local people have exhumed several of the mass graves that pepper the hillsides and reburied some of the 4400 victims from the municipality, in an effort to give those killed during la violencia a more dignified resting place. In 2004, the Inter-American Court ordered the Guatemalan government to pay US$8 million as compensation to the surviving families of one massacre. The legal battle continues but the army generals who directed the campaign of terror have hitherto escaped justice, though three PUC (paramilitary conscripts) and four Kaibiles (special forces) were jailed in 2011 for their roles in the massacres. In December 2011 President Colom apologized to relatives of the victims of the 1982 Dos Erres massacre near Rabinal, calling it “a stain on Guatemala’s history”.
