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Monday, September 24, 2001 Online Edition 38 |
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Heroes, famous places decorate Honduras' national currency
By ERIC TIMAR Get the answers -- pull out that wad of pisto and follow along on this currency tour! The face of the one lempira note shows Lempira himself, a Lenca chieftain who was killed fighting the Spanish in the 16th Century. Legend has it that he was tricked by the Europeans and shot while negotiating a peace agreement, but some historians doubt this. While the conquistadors were certainly ready to treacherously murder indigenous leaders -- just ask the angry ghost of Atahualpa, the Inca -- it seems Lempira may have been killed in battle. (This debate has been covered in Honduras This Week; check out the July 31, 2000 issue online.) One obvious question involves his portrait -- how does anyone know what he looked like? Did the Europeans draw him before they whacked him? I called Dr. Mario Felipe Martinez Castillo for the answer to this question. (That's something I love about this place, incidentally -- Dr. Martinez Castillo is one of the most prestigious living Honduran historians, and he encourages me to call him at home and chat. Imagine trying to get Stephen Ambrose on the phone.) Anyway, Dr. Martinez Castillo said the portrait of Lempira is an "invention." A council convened in Tegucigalpa in 1930 to establish what he looked like, and this is what they came up with. They did at least use a genuine indigenous Honduran man as a model; you can see his photograph in the Central Bank Museum in the bank annex building in Comayaguela. On the left side of the front of the note is the seal of Honduras amid trees and mines. The reverse of the note (for those profligate or distant readers who don't have any lempiras on them) shows the ball court and hieroglyphic stairway as they stand in the ruins of Copan. The changes Soto made in Honduras are known as the reforms of 1876. He reorganized the monetary system, for one thing; before he came along, several different currencies were in circulation. He hired a businessman from New York, one George Downing, to set up a national mint. Soto also encouraged entrepreneurs to set up agricultural ventures in the countryside. He allowed these investors to take over government land and also -- this may not win him points with a lot of historians -- to take over communal land. Soto also built roads and set up a telegraph system. Soto enacted his reforms with the help of Ramon Rosa. Rosa appears on the five hundred lempira note, so we will jump to that one. On the reverse of the bill is the El Rosario mine in San Juancito as it stood in 1893. A large, U.S.-funded mining operation began exploiting this mine during the administration of Soto and Rosa; Soto himself was part owner of the mine and he rammed through concessions to attract a U.S. company. This firm, The New York and Honduras Rosario Mining Company, was exempt from all taxes; it didn't even pay the one percent municipal tax that today's foreign mining operations cough up. Once again, this self-serving move of Soto's may leave present-day readers wondering why he got on a bill and not, say, soccer hero "Chelato" Ucles. Morazan, of course, is the local hero who served as president of the Federation of Central America from 1830 to 1840. He was born in Tegucigalpa in 1792 (there is a plaque at his birthplace, one block north from the peatonal on Calle Mendieta. This is a block south of that battered concrete elephant by the Almacen El Elefante.) Our friends at the Encyclopedia Britannica online, who are tough to impress, call Morazan "the outstanding military and political hero of Central America from 1827 until his death." Morazan was not only a patriot who was happy to be free from Spain but a democrat who demanded reforms in the Central American government. Longino Becerra, in his 1982 book Evolucion Historica de Honduras, writes that Morazan advocated an egalitarian nation with elections, popular education, and individual rights. Morazan commanded an army that fought Jose Justo Milla in the battle of La Trinidad on Nov. 11, 1827. (La Trinidad is located not far south from Tegucigalpa in, you guessed it, the department of Francisco Morazan.) Milla had been sent by the conservative president of Central America, Manuel Jose Arce, to overthrow the Honduran leader Dionisio de Herrera (more on him later). Milla succeeded in this but then lost to Morazan and fled Honduras. Morazan was soon installed as the new chief of state of Honduras, since Herrera had been hauled off to Arce under arrest. Thus started the career of Morazan, this hometown boy, this populist, this hell-raiser, this stubborn dreamer of whom Hondurans are rightfully proud. The ten lempira bill depicts Jose Trinidad Cabanas, president from 1851 to 1855. Cabanas, a liberal morazanista, took some steps toward restoring Central America as a unified nation. This angered the government of Guatemala, which, according to Becerra, was friendly with England at the time. England felt that a unified Central America would threaten its colonial interests in the area, so it helped Guatemala attack Cabanas; the Brits were hip to proxy warfare long before Ngo Dinh Diem even learned what JFK stood for. In 1852, Guatemala invaded Honduras and eventually toppled Cabanas. On the reverse of the ten is a drawing of the national university, which was not founded by Cabanas. It was founded by President Juan Lindo in 1847. Go figure.
FIRST CHIEF OF STATE The fifty shows Juan Manuel Galvez, who evidently looked like Martin Landau. He was president from 1949 to 1954 and was lucky enough to serve in prosperous times -- the worldwide economic upswing after World War II swept along Honduras as well. Galvez is also remembered for allowing the United States to use Honduran territory to launch a military coup against Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. (Guatemalans did most of the shooting.) The back shows the annex of the Central Bank, located in Comayaguela. The one hundred shows Jose Cecilio del Valle, an intellectual who advocated independence from Spain. He served in the government of Central America from its founding in 1823 -- he was one of the authors of its first constitution -- until his death in 1834. The back shows the house where he was born, which is located next to the central park in the southern Honduran city of Choluteca. Next to del Valle's portrait on the front of the bill is a drawing of the imposing bridge that crosses the river Choluteca in that city. So that's the gallery of Honduran heroes. We should enjoy them before the nation switches to dollars and we Yanks have to start explaining why we have that slave owner/Indian killer Andrew Jackson on our twenty. |
Alvarado-Juarez: A contemporary mythologist "par excellence"
Francisco Alvarado-Juarez's large-scaled installations are an hallucinatory experience. By SUYAPA CARIAS Born in the port city of Tela on the northern coast of Honduras, Alvarado-Juarez moved to New York City at the age of 14. After studying fine arts and photography, he held his first exhibit in 1976. Alvarado-Juarez, who has a master's degree in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art, spoke about his most recent, current and future projects during a brief visit to Honduras in August. The other part of the exhibit consisted of one of his acclaimed three-dimensional installations. Displayed along the entire gallery space, Fauve New York was a vibrant integration of several elements dominated by more than 4,000 recycled paper shopping bags pasted over the 25-feet tall walls. As a result, viewers were able to immerse themselves into a totally different environment. Suddenly, the spectator experienced the feeling of standing in the middle of a tropical forest, inside an ocean cave, or of a humid, hallucinatory atmosphere. "The installation is intended to pull people a little below conscious thought, to a place where it's possible to simply stand in the room and enjoy everything one sees," wrote art columnist Carl Mellor of the Syracuse Times. The idea of the supermarket bags, which has become his very own seal, came to Alvarado-Juarez's mind in 1992. "By cutting and painting the bags I add life to them, they become a living, organic materia... they emerge from the walls as moving tentacles," he explained. "I started with 800 paper bags. With time, installations have become bigger and bigger. But I'm still using some of the bags I made in '92. They have traveled around the world with me," he said. In La mitología de la flora y la fauna held last year at the Pablo Serrano Museum in
Zaragoza, Spain, the installation took over a space equivalent to half a block. Alvarado-Juarez teaches Spanish and Arts in Manhattan's school system. Currently, he is working on a special project at the Metropolitan Museum of New York City and he is preparing his next exhibit that will be held in Oaxaca, Mexico.
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CULTURAL EVENTS PANAMANIAN PAINTINGS -- OCTOBER 4 -- The Hotel Real Intercontinental in Tegucigalpa will be host to an exhibit of paintings by Panamanian artists sponsored by Botticelli's art gallery and the Honduran Institute of Interamerican Culture (IHCI). |
MUSEUMS &
GARDENS TEGUCIGALPA MUSEO DE HISTORIA REPUBLICANA The
Museum of Republican History is located at the Villa Roy building in
Tegucigalpa's Barrio Buenos Aries.
It is open 8:30 to 3:30, Tuesdays through Sundays and features
portraits, paraphernalia, and other interesting items from past
presidents. Admission is
Lps. 20 for non-resident foreigners and Lps. 10 for Hondurans and
Central Americans. For
more information, call 222-3470 or 222-1468. CENTRAL BANK MUSEUM The
Central Bank of Honduras located at the Comayaguela annex building is
open from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
It has a permanent coin and painting exhibit. For special presentations, call the Emision y Tesoreria
department at 237-2270 (-78), ext. 2117 (-2120). [CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER
NOTICE.] NATIONAL ART GALLERY The
Galeria Nacional de Arte features rock art, pre-Columbian ceramics,
colonial paintings, religious art and a wide selection of 20th century
Honduran painters. The
gallery is located at the Plaza de la Merced in downtown Tegucigalpa.
It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10-5 p.m. and Sunday
from 10-2 p.m. Admission
is Lps. 10 for adults, Lps. 5 for senior citizens, Lps. 3 for students
and Lps. 1 for children accompanied by adults. IGUANA FARM The
Biosfera Ecocentro Iguana Farm in Colonia La Joya invites the public
to come and learn everything about iguanas.
Admission is Lps. 5 for adults, Lps. 3 for children.
The facility is open every day (except Wednesday) from 9 to 5. For more information, call 230-6346. COMAYAGUA,
COMAYAGUA COMAYAGUA MUSEUM OF
ARCHAEOLOGY Located
in the city of Comayagua, two hours north of Tegucigalpa, the
Comayagua Museum of Archaeology is in the building that served as the
seat of government in the 19th century.
Exhibits include prehistoric fossils, cave art, ceramics, and
objects used by indigenous cultures during the pre-Colombian era.
The museum, which also has a small library, is open to the
public Tuesdays through Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. COMAYAGUA RELIGIOUS MUSEUM Located
in the Casa Cural in front
of Comayagua's cathedral, this museum features religious paintings and
objects dating back to the 16th century.
Hours are 8-12 and 2-4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.
For more information, contact Leonardo Letona at 772-0348.
LA
PAZ, LA PAZ LA PAZ HOUSE OF CULTURE The
La Paz Casa de la Cultura is
located in downtown La Paz. It
features an attractive exhibit of the Lenca handicrafts and culture.
It is open Mondays through Sundays. SAN
PEDRO SULA, CORTES SPS MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY The
Museo de Antropologia e Historia de San Pedro Sula features exhibits
on the development of Sula Valley, from 1500 B.C. to the middle of
this century. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Tuesdays through
Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.
Admission is Lps. 10 for adults, Lps. 5 for students and
children under 12, and Lps. 2 for senior citizens.
For more information, call 557-1496/557-1798 or fax 557-1874. MUSEUM OF NATURE OF SAN PEDRO SULA Sponsored
and managed by the Fundacion Ecologista H.R. Pastor Fasquelle, this
new museum was inaugurated last December in its current location at
the Biocentro on 3 Avenida and 9 Calle Noroeste.
It has 24 exhibits on the environment, natural resources and
biology of Honduras. Hours
are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and 8 a.m. until noon on Saturdays.
Admission is Lps 5 for students from public schools and Lps.
10.00 for everyone else. YUSCARAN,
EL PARAISO YUSCARAN HOUSE OF CULTURE Yuscaran's
Casa de la Cultura is
located at the former Casa
Fortin in downtown Yuscaran, El Paraiso department, just 45 km
from Tegucigalpa on the road to Danli.
It is open Mondays through Saturdays. OLANCHO PECH CULTURAL CENTER The
Pech have built a small house in El Carbon, Olancho to display their
modern handicrafts. An
exhibit of archaeological finds in the area is planned.
You can ask to see the collection and/or get a tour of a Post
Classic era fortified site. The
Pech Cultural Center also offers medicinal plant tours, nature hikes,
Pech dinners, etc. There
is no admission fee to the cultural center.
Hours: If you ask, they will open it. COPAN COPAN ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Located
in the village of Copan Ruinas, Copan department, the museum exhibits
a splendid assortment of Mayan pieces that have been found in the
Copan Ruins Archaeological Park just 1 km away.
LA PUENTE ARCHAEOLOGICAL
MUSEUM Featuring
a sizeable collection of Mayan handicrafts and photographs as well as
a room with Japanese antique ceramics, this museum is located at the
El Puente Archaeological Site, about an hour's drive from Copan Ruinas. MAYAN SEPULTURAS MUSEUM Inaugurated
in 1996, this is the premier Mayan museum in the Mundo Maya, featuring
the finest examples of Copan's tombs, sculptures and architecture.
Located at the Copan Ruins Archaeological Park, the museum is
open Monday through Sunday. TELA,
ATLANTIDA LANCETILLA BOTANICAL GARDENS Located
2 kilometers from Tela on the Atlantic coast highway, the gardens
feature one of the largest collections of tropical and subtropical
plants, shrubs and trees in all Latin America.
It is open from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Mondays through
Sundays. There is an
admission charge. LA
CEIBA, ATLANTIDA TROPICAL BUTTERFLY FARM The
Tropical Butterfly Farm & Gardens of La Ceiba is open to the
public Wednesday to Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The farm is located at The Lodge at Pico Bonito in the village
of El Pino, about 25 minutes west of La Ceiba.
Admission is Lps. 30 for adults, Lps. 15 for children and $6
for international visitors. BUTTERFLY AND INSECT MUSEUM Thousands
of butterflies and insects from Honduras and 18 other countries are on
display in La Ceiba' private Butterfly and Insect Museum.
It is located in Colonia El Sauce, 2nd etapa, casa G-12. Visiting hours are 8-12 and 2-5, Monday through Saturday.
The museum is closed Wednesday afternoon.
Fees are Lps. 15 for adults and Lps. 10 for students.
Tel. 442-2874, e-mail: rlehman@ns.gbm.hn TRUJILLO TRUJILLO RUFINO GALAN MUSEUM A
private museum which has a memorabilia section, old chairs, anchors,
silverware, beds of famous people locally.
There is an industrial archaeology section on how lights, axes,
stoves, sewing machines, typewriters have changed over time.
They have a good collection of Garifuna handicrafts and the
best collection of NE Honduras archaeological pieces -- all unmarked.
A written guide to the museum is available at the Trujillo
Tourism Office in English and Spanish.
The museum is open 8 to 4, closing for lunch.
Adults Lps. 20, children Lps. 10.
Located on Calle 18 de Mayo, next to the Crystales River and
the famous "piscina" or pool, about a 15-minute walk out of
town. ROATAN,
THE BAY ISLANDS CARAMBOLA BOTANICAL GARDENS The
private Carambola Botanical Gardens and Nature Trails is located in
Sandy Bay, Roatan, Bay Islands. A
wide variety of exotic plants is featured here, including "Roatan's
most extensive orchid collection."
It is open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information, call 445-1117 and ask for Bill or Irma
Brady. BAY ISLANDS MUSEUM A
private museum at Anthony's Key Resort, Sandy Bay, Roatan, Bay
Islands, it mostly includes archaeological pieces, but there is a
small section on the modern Bay Islanders.
Museum admission is included in the cost of the dolphin show at
Anthony Key's Institute of Marine Sciences.
Small buses or taxis will take you to Sandy Bay from most
Roatan towns. The Maya Calendar is a public service for our readers. If you would like to announce an event taking place in Honduras, please send the information to: Calendar Editor, Honduras This Week, Fax 232-2300, e-mail: hontweek@hondutel.hn |
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Monday, September 10, 2001 Online Edition 35 |
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Honduras squeaks by Jamaica Despite controlling the ball for much of the game, Honduras' strikers were unable to take advantage of numerous scoring opportunities in part due to the outstanding play of goalie Aaron Lawrence and the tight Jamaican defense, leading many soccer fans to think the match might end in a scoreless tie. However, the fans' suffering ended at the 53rd minute when a pass by Milton Nunez into the box was deflected by Dawes into the Jamaican goal for the match's only score. With the triumph, Honduras has moved into second place in the standings behind Costa Rica, which qualified for the World Cup with their 2-0 victory over the United States in San Jose. Honduras needs 4 points in their remaining two matches against Trinidad and Tobago at home (Oct. 7 in San Pedro Sula) and Mexico away (Nov. 11 in Mexico City) in order to clinch one of the two remaining berths. Honduras currently has 14 points, followed by Mexico and the United States with 13 points. Meanwhile, the United States must win their final two games against Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in order to qualify. The U.S. team has now lost three straight matches -- including a stunning 2-3 loss to Honduras at home -- after finishing the first round unbeaten. |
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