Football (soccer) is Guatemala’s most popular sport. The national team competes internationally, and Guatemalan players figure prominently in clubs in other national leagues, especially those of Mexico and Uruguay.

In 1950 Guatemala hosted the Central American and Caribbean Games, a quadrennial competition organized in 1924 in which Guatemalan athletes have participated since the games were first held in 1926. The country also competes in the quadrennial Pan American Games and participated in its first Olympic Summer Games in 1952 in Helsinki.

Outdoor sports are main recreational activities. The most popular are white-water rafting near Acatenango Volcano, kayaking on inland Lake Atitlán and along the Pacific coast, spelunking in the limestone labyrinths of the Petén plateau, and volcano climbing and mountain biking in the sierras above Antigua Guatemala. Snorkeling, deep-sea fishing, scuba diving, and surfing are also popular recreations among visitors to the Caribbean coast. In larger communities throughout the country, recreational parks draw crowds on weekends.

Media and publishing

Major newspapers and publishing houses, as well as radio and television stations, are located within the capital. Among the most widely circulated newspapers are La Prensa Libre (“The Free Press”), El Gráfico (“The Graphic”), La Hora (“The Hour”), and Siglo Veintiuno (“21st Century”). Siglo News is an English-language newspaper, a companion to Siglo Veintiuno. Diario de Centroamérica (“Central America Daily”) is published by the government. Radio and television have assumed a major role in reaching large numbers who are illiterate or who reside in remote areas of the country. All means of communication are ostensibly free of government censorship. Censorship has been imposed in times of crisis, however, and intimidation and threats of physical harm have often hindered the free expression of thought.

Precolonial period

The ancient Maya were one of the most highly developed peoples of precolonial America, boasting a sophisticated calendar, astronomic observatories, and construction skills. During the Classic Period dating from 300 to 900 ce, the Maya built the majority of their cities. The causes of the sudden abandonment of many Mayan cities starting about 850 ce are still being debated, but a combination of soil exhaustion, climate change, and armed conflict may have contributed to the cities’ decline. When Spanish conquerors arrived in the 16th century, they found many cities in ruins and encountered little organized resistance. Still, isolated bands of Maya-speaking peoples avoided Spanish control for many years in the colonial period.

The colonial period

Under the Spanish, a capital was established at what is now Antigua Guatemala. The capital achieved a certain magnificence, and the other major towns acquired some aspects of Spanish culture, but the outlying areas were only lightly affected. When the capital was razed by a series of earthquakes in 1773, it was moved by royal order to the present site of Guatemala City.

Compared with colonial Mexico or Peru, both of which had large deposits of precious metals, colonial Guatemala developed no great degree of economic prosperity. The cultivation for export of agricultural staples, principally cacao (the source of cocoa beans) and indigo, by Indigenous or African slave labour was the major economic activity, exclusive of production for subsistence. Toward the end of the colonial period, the production of cochineal, a red dye derived from the bodies of insects, competed with the other agricultural exports. Industrial products from England, despite the efforts of Spanish authorities to exclude them, came to Guatemala via the Caribbean and Belize. Commerce, however, was never extensive; a satisfactory port was never developed, internal transportation was difficult, and pirates harassed the coasts and preyed on shipping. The importance of Guatemala City lay in its function as the administrative and religious centre of the entire region between Mexico and Panama, being the headquarters of the captain general, the high court (Audiencia), and the archbishop. The modern states of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Chiapas, Mexico, were provinces under Guatemala’s jurisdiction in colonial times.