The photographer who took the picture of the girl on the cover of The Guatemala Reader, Cliff Nagel, managed to find her ten years after he took the photo (she was six) to show her the picture on the cover of my book. She was thrilled and hugged Cliff.

Albina still lives in Santa Catarina Palopó on the shores of Lake Atitlan, the deepest lake in Central America. She comes from a very modest Indigenous family. Her father died when she was young, and her mother brought her up in a humble home with dirt floors.

Several years ago, I connected with the photographer Cliff through his brother, with whom I worked as a fundraising consultant with a client in Guatemala. I'd admired his photographs of people, often in isolated parts of the world, for years. I was impressed with the picture of the young Indigenous girl's stare and asked Cliff if I could use it as the centerpiece of my new book's cover, and he said, "Sure."  We had lunch at the Atitlan Hotel recently, where I gave him a copy of the book in appreciation for the photo, and much to my surprise, he found Albina the next day to show it to her.

This collection of life histories provides the reader with first-hand information about the creativity and resiliency of Guatemala’s indigenous population as they struggle for freedom and democracy. This is a unique book recommended for travelers and students who want to immerse themselves in a culture that is truly multicultural, with roots connecting the ancient Maya culture with the present, while constructing a promising future. Victor Montejo, Maya writer and anthropologist. The author of The Adventures of Mr. Puttison Among the Maya, Voices from Exile and Kidnapped to the Underworld.

The author begins with a truth that all travelers will endorse. There is always one place, one culture, and country, that becomes your personal lodestar. Your sense of the world in its ragged variety is guided by it. For Walker, Guatemala is that country…Mark Jacobs is the author of Stone Cowboy & Silent Night.