page_title: Virgilio Rodríguez Macal
section_title: Guayacán
hierarchical_section_title: Virgilio Rodríguez Macal / Noted books / Guayacán
caption_attribution_description: Tikal rising above the jungle canopy
context_page_description: Virgilio Rodríguez Macal was a Guatemalan writer, journalist, and diplomat who won various international and national prizes. As a novelist he is noted for integrating his deep knowledge of Mesoamerican and Guatemalan history and geography into his stories, often setting his novels in colorful Guatemalan jungle settings including its biologically rich flora and fauna.
context_section_description: This book contains some similarities with the author's life as the main character Valentine Ochaeta returns after several years studying abroad, his hometown, with a suitcase full of hopes and dreams that are contrary to the reality of their families who are in misery. This forces the subject of the novel to become more adventurous in the jungles of Peten as he seeks fortune out of the plight of his family. Through this journey he explores the roots of Guatemala history and their ancestors as he matures and becomes a man.
  The novel addresses the issues facing the hopes and dreams experienced by the young juveniles juxtaposed against the stark reality that confronts them as an adult. The novel won the Central sciences, Literature and Fine Arts Award on September 15, 1953.
caption: The Peten Basin jungle, setting of many of Rodríguez Macal's novel
exif: {}