Kickapoo Guatemala Accompaniment Project (KGAP)
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Doña Julia Making Tamales

​When Blessings Flow Through the Hands 
by Andi Alexander
​

I am so grateful to be welcomed to this community. Each time we come, there is always at least one invitation to sit down to a great feast of tamales, prepared with love and magic like the people around the table. Last January I accompanied my sister-in-law, Connie, to the home of Emiliana Diaz Cruz, also known as Doña Julia, where Connie learned to maketamales. My job was to take notes, and my mission to photograph.

For this photographer, the light in Doña Julia’s kitchen was spare and strong. The warmth was everywhere. By watching, listening, attending some would say beholding – I photographed Doña Julia, daughter-in-law, Lucy, and my “querida cuñada” as they made tamales together. These people, these homes, this community is my blessing. How can I be so lucky?

As a John O’Donohue has written, “May we all receive blessing upon blessing. And may we realize our power to bless, heal, and renew one another”.
​
Such is Chacula. Such is Guatemala.
All photos by Andi Anderson.  Copyright 2016.
“I want to tell you that every day that passes, we remember you because you have love in your hearts for us and for other communities that suffer poverty, extreme poverty. Thank you for all the affection and the firm commitment that you have made with us from when we were refugees in Mexico, on our return and still here with us, living in this beautiful place.”  
Don Gilberto Gutierrez, Nueva Esperanza –Chacula, Guatemala, 1999

KGAP funding comes from individual donors and small grants.
ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE. 
Kickapoo-Guatemala  Accompaniment  Project (KGAP) is a  project  of  the Youth Initiative High School (YIHS), a 501c3 nonprofit organization registered in Wisconsin.  

In addition, KGAP is affiliated with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA, www.nisgua.org)  a national non-profit organization that supports many projects and efforts in Guatemala.