History of San Bernabé

1. History of San Bernabé

2. In 1985 a group of workers from different coffee farms in the town of Acatenango was set up. They were paid low wages, were exploited, because they could not work at the farms where they were badly treated.

3. As theyassessedtheirsituation, theworkmendecidedtoorganize a group, elected a council and startedplanning. Theirfirstprojectwastofindtheirownpiece of land.

4. Theywantedto do thisbecausewheretheylived, therewas no wateramd no landtobuy. They set up a committeethatwenttoknockonthedoors of alltheinstitutionstheycouldthink of.

5. By luck, they found la Fundación del Centavo and visited to talk with its diretcors. And the directors told them to wait a month and so they waited a month. A telegram arrived thenthat there were two farms found for them in Parramos.

6. Patzunuy was a farm some 3 and half kilometers from Parramos, Chimaltenango and this was the place chosen for the members of the project.

7. Now came the moment to overcome the first obstacles, while they started prepoaring the land. The men suffered nine months without their families, living in nylon tents.

8. They had to put up with a poor life when they started, in 1987 and they ate plain tortillas, had no money or water, but they started working anyway.

9. When they arrived at the farm where San Bernabé is now, it was a wilderness. They cleared a piece of land by the roadside, to construct the nylon tent, and they all lived in it.

10. They did not have money to build anything then, all they could afford was some nylon to build a tent and to build a tiny kitchen in it with firewood.

11. Afterthis, theyfoundthat la Fundación del Centavo couldonlysupportfewerfamiliesthanthoughtoriginally.

12. La Fundación del Centavo demanded that they started to work and perpared fields of 60 “cuerdas” on which, the first year, they planted wheat.

13. Duringthisfirstyear, theyselectedthosewhowouldbenefit and at theendtherewereonly 10 families, becausetherewasonlyenoughlandfor 10, and 6 returnedvoluntarily, because at thebeginningtheystartedwith 16.

14. Among the ten that stayed, the Foundation formed a council, through which they sent loans for the farming activities.

15. Now that la Finca Patzunuy was changed into a community, it was necessary to give it a name: they called it San Bernabé in honor of the patron saint of the place where they lived before.

16. In spite of setbacks, during hard times, they continued their efforts to develop the community. They accepted the help of a parish priest who was serving the communities of San Andrés Itzapa, Parramos, Chimaltenango.

17. Father Adán was helping the community and some children of the project. Father Adán helped install water, build a school and a church.

18. Father Adán Francisco García genereouslycommittedtopayfortheland and toldthecommunitythattheycould re-payhimwhentheycouldaffordit. Father Adán managed a project in whichmoneywassentfromtheUnitedStatesto Guatemala

19. He managed the projects in the parishes and villages and was able to repay the debt to la Fundación del Centavo. After this, the village did not owe money to la Fundación del Centavo but only to Father Adán.

20. Nowthecommunityfinallystarteddeveloping. In a fewyears, thevillage of San Bernabé hadthefollowingfacilities.

21. Nowithadelectricty, a school, a church and water. Theyoung and themenworkedontheconstruction of theseprojects. Theyalsobuilt a communalwashingfacility, “tanque de agua” forthevillage.

22. The women were involved in the work projects. They no longer could practice the customs and traditions of their predecessors, but still managed to hold on to their culture, such as their typical clothes.

23. They also kept their language and typical food, but above all they maintained the tradition of living together and support for one another in the community.

24. Some people spoke only Spanish and some spoke Cachiquel. Their children wanted to learn each other’s langiages and their parents tried to teach them both.

25. With regard to religion, the people of the village San Bernabé practiced the following religion.

26. Catholics. They met Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays in their charismatic meetings.

27. Access toorganizededucationwaslimited, but in spite of theirsufferings, theylearnt and organizedclasses, so thatthemajory of peoplelearnttoread and write and attend a school.

28. Nowthechildrenwerelearningtobethefirstleadersand agents of change in thecommunity.

29. The people of the village of San Bernabé were now employed in various activities, such as construction, agriculture and others.

30. They were worried about how to pay the debt for the land, on which they worked and where a new generation was being born.

31. Theywereworried, becausetheyonlyhad 48 monthstopay back 23,000 Quetzales. Each and everyonehadtopay 500 Quetzales, buttheyeachearnedlessthan 500 Quetzales a month.

32. This was very hard on them, because if they did pay the 500 Quetzales a month, they did not have money left for food.

33. Theyhaddebtstopay, butnowtheyhadthingstheyhadwanted, becausebeforetheydidnothavea school, didnothave a church, didnothavewater and womenhadtocarrywaterfrom a place onekilometerawayfromthevillage.

34. The villagers greeted visitors as mambers of the community with smiles on thefces that knew only suffering before, with a refrain that says: “Arriero somos y en el camino andamos”

35. They encouraged all people in the community to follow their example of self-improvement.

36. In 2005 a foundationcalledtheRotary Club of La Antigua Guatemala decidedtohelpthecommunity and gavethefirstgrantto a group of youngstersfortheirstudies.

37. The village committee told them that the dream was to have a more advanced edication in a village school. They were told they would have their wish, but the same year, because of all the paperwork and permits and licences that had to be obtained.

38. TheRotary Club Rotario alsohelpedwiththeconstruction of a computerlab. Theystarted in 2006 and in 2007 thecomputerlabwasfinished.

39. In 2007, while they started the paperwork to realice their dream of a village school, they also stared the second phase of the computer lab construction.

40. Onthe 13th of January 2008, theSchoolopenedunderthename “Colegio Bilingüe en Computación San Bernabé”.

41. Theschoolopenedfromtheyear 2008 witheducationforstudents in thePrimarySchool and the Junior High. • Thishistorywasnarratedby a student of the segundo básico María Griselda Laria Cancax. • Colegio Bilingüe en Computación San Bernabé Presented “TheHistory of San Bernabé”.