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Museum object · Time-based Media - Moving Images

Todos Santos Cuchumatan: Report from a Guatemalan Village

1982

Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America

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Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A documentary film with the title Todos Santos Cuchumatan: Report from a Guatemalan Village. It consists of a single reel of color 16mm polyester film with optical sound. The documentary looks at the life of the residents of the Mayan village Todos Santos Cuchumatan in the Guatemalan highlands just before a violent military coup in 1982. Some of the topics discussed in the documentary include the increasing role of cash in the community, which largely consists of subsistent farmers; the Fiesta of Todos Santos celebration, which includes dancing, drinking and a horse race; as well as the mass migration of Todosanteros to Guatemala’s lowlands in search of work on cotton plantations.

Sources & collection details

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — original record ↗

Source collection ↗

Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

Catalog reference: 2017.55.33.1a

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