San Pedro de Atitlan
July 8, 2007
There is an American in town named Eric who just drove from Costa Rica with a van loaded full of 2,000 books so that he, his wife, newborn child, and friend/male bimbo sidekick, can open up a book store. A typical bohemian traveling he Latin America, he has a long, spotty beard and pony tail and speaks next to no Spanish. His explanation of San Pedro’s need for a bookstore is simple: San Pedro doesn’t have a place to get books in English and he’s got a van full of banned literature, forbidden historical texts, and metaphysical scientific journals to “keep all of the open-minded travelers in San Pedro happy.” So far he has had trouble finding a store front for his shop, although he has only spent two days looking and spends most of that time blithely enjoying San Pedro’s favorite herbal pastime. The idea might work, although in the hands of a more thoughtful owner it would certainly be more educationally beneficial. The books seem a ragged façade for a desire to linger in San Pedro, a tribute to the town’s intoxicating vibe. His attitude toward the locals is similar to others’: “without the gringos the locals wouldn’t survive.” As though they were eating dirt and cannibalizing babies before the North Americans, Europeans, and Israelis came along. There seems to be a common assumption, which is perhaps partially true, that gringo establishments provide jobs for locals, and that the town flourishes because of foreign currency. However to suggest, as Eric did, that there isn’t more cause and effect involved, with corresponding positive and negative results, is horribly naïve and does not reflect the sort of analytical thinking of someone who has read a van full of books.
