Jobs are scarce. Many men seek very low-paying pickup work, in addition to working a small plot of land on a subsistence basis. There is no social safety net for the poor in rural Guatemala. For most of us in the United States it’s hard to imagine a subsistence existence where you have to grow almost everything you eat. A bad growing season will mean hunger for you and your children. It’s surprising how many children live on one meal a day or less—that meal often consists of only a homemade tortilla or two. Poor nutrition is as endemic as poverty. The two go hand-in-hand.

The educational level of the parents in these rural communities averages around one or two years of school. Most adults cannot read or write and many cannot speak Spanish. There are local government primary schools in most pueblos but the educational crisis is more complicated than that, because crafts often take up a good part of the school day.