My Story

Chuchuca, where your child lives, is an area located high on the side of a mountain in the state of Quiché, Guatemala. Life in this area is very difficult and very isolated from the outside world. It is more than a two-hour walk to the nearest market town of Zacualpa. Chuchuca is a farming area where corn and black beans, the staple elements in their diet, are the major crops. The Quiché Indians who inhabit this area trace their ancestral roots to the ancient Mayan civilization. They normally speak an Indian dialect called Quiché - however, Spanish is becoming more common. Very little money ever changes hands in this area as they live on a barter system.

Hello! I am Walter Simaj Gutierrez. I was born in Zacualpa Quiche on Apr 23, 2017, and I am already 7 years old. I am in 1^st grade at school this year. I like doves and my favorite color is yellow. The meal I love the most is fried chicken. I enjoy playing ball. I live happily with my father and mother; I have two brothers and one sister. Thank God, we are in good health. My mother´s name is Maria Gutierrez Garcia. Most of the time she stays busy with the chores, and she also raises hens. My father is Rolando Simaj Luis. He works both as a farmer and day laborer in our village, and he also goes to pick coffee beans on the coast for three months to get more income. We do not grow anything due to a lack of space; we have to buy corn to make our tortillas.

My family and I attend the Assembly of God Church. The house in which we live belongs to one of my mother´s cousins and fortunately, we do not pay anything to live there. There are three rooms and we use two of them. The kitchen is separated. the house is made of adobe, tin sheets roof and a dirt floor. We do not have running water and we get it from a natural spring with the help of a jar and plastic containers. We have electricity and my mother pays for it every month. My family and I need corn and groceries; those are the essential for us. I thank God for allowing me to be registered in the feeding program and I usually walk one and a half hours to get to the program. I say goodbye to you for now and I hope to receive news from you very soon. May God bless you in each area of your life!

Every kind of blessings over you!

Walter Simaj Gutierrez

Translated by: Violeta Hernandez / A-A-C Secretary-Antigua Guatemala