Although industry is rapidly establishing a foothold within Guatemala, agriculture still employs about 50 percent of the nation's workers. Very few of these workers, however, actually own the land that they work on and those that do are often unable to produce enough food to live on.
Guatemala's annual per capita income is about $ 1,000, but this is a widely misleading figure since a rural farmer may earn less than $ 100 in a year. Unemployment is estimated at 20% nationwide, while estimates of under-employment reach as high as 60%.
The Guatemalan currency is the Quetzal, named after the beautiful, long-tailed bird of the Ancient Mayans rumored to carry special mystical powers. The quetzal bird is exceptionally rare, and lives mostly in the Coban region of Guatemala and a few parts of the Andes.
The life expectancy in Guatemala is just 55 years (as compared to 73 years in the United States), and 8 out of every 100 children die in their infancy. Poor nutrition, poor sanitary conditions, and parasite-caused diarrhea are the main causes for the high infant mortality.
Most of the modern medical facilities throughout Guatemala are centered in three or four of the largest cities. Pneumonia, measles, whooping cough, tuberculosis, polio and bronchitis are often fatal diseases in Guatemala.
Poor sanitary conditions have led to a current cholera epidemic which periodically sweeps the nation. This problem is aggravated by a shortage of clean water; the result is that the same water is often used to drink, cook in, wash in and flush latrines before being allowed to continue its flow downstream where it is used once again.
The average nutritional intake is about 2,000 calories per day, with carbohydrates comprising 80% of these calories and proteins only about 10%. The average diet is usually deficient in vitamin A and riboflavin, both of which are essential for growth and resistance to disease, and there is a great lack of the animal protein normally needed for healthy growth.
The rural Guatemalan lives on a diet of corn and black beans. Fruit is rarely available except where it is grown, and is almost never found in isolated rural and mountain villages. Milk, rice, bread and green vegetables are luxuries that the poor can very seldom afford.
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