The dream of Guglielmo, cooperating in Guatemala, and that of the peasants of Petén

I’m Guglielmo. I identify myself as a man but I don’t see this as a boundary within which to build my identity. I am the son of a mother and a father and brother of a brother, but at the same time I am the son and brother of hundreds and hundreds of people met and lived on a journey spread over three different continents. Sometimes I was also a father, sometimes a mother.

I was born in a patch of land that a handful of men a few hundred years ago chose to call Italy. My biological roots are far away and embrace half of the Mediterranean. The sense of belonging to a much wider land grows stronger every day I discover a new piece of it.

I received a Catholic education and over the years I have learned that spirituality is a much deeper and more intimate universal voice than religion. I believe in God, Allah, Mother Earth, Inti, you, me, us and in every manifestation of this one voice. I am this today, who knows who and how I will be tomorrow.

The thing that worries the most in these days of appointments and new teams is the possibility that all this complexity is reduced to a digestible truth made up of a few syllables, good to make us feel at peace in the lullaby of fear. Thinning the infinite depth of the soul and the dream that each one carries with four slogans to shout in the face of those who are more fragile, just to pretend we are on the right side.

An ocean away – as well as a stone’s throw from home – my right side will continue to be the intricate, contradictory and complex side of doubt and research. Simply put, the weak side. Fortunately, in good company. Elena and me we are in Petén, Guatemalafor just over six months, living and working in some of the oldest and most fragile communities in the country together with AMKAan association that is also part of the latest FDCB22 – and I hope it has entered your hearts a little too.

In this period we have had the opportunity to discover an ancestral beauty, a thousand colors and, unfortunately, a widespread poverty accentuated by the lack of space for the trade of basic products. This inequality mainly affects women, forced to suffer the side effects of an extremely patriarchal economic system.

This is why together with AMKA we have decided to launch one fundraising campaign and contribute to the construction of a new community shop intended to support the farmers of the community of Nuevo Horizontewhich has now become our home, and the surrounding areas.

Every penny raised and every share represents one more brick towards achieving real emancipation for the Guatemalan women of the area. If you can, if you like, donate or share the campaign now. Elena and I will be in Guatemala until the end of the works and we can guarantee the correct use of every penny.

We will be part of the same journey of dignity. Thanks in advance for helping us make this a path of redemption for dozens of women an ocean away. All this makes us feel closer and working towards a single goal of equality. If you want to know more about the projects we are carrying out, do not hesitate to write at any time.