Cuilco is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in the
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
n
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango () is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American High ...
. It is located in the
Cuchumatanes mountains in the Southwestern portion of Huehuetenango. In 2018 it served approximately 57,000 people, most of them Ladinos (who are ethnically Mam Maya), living in over 100 aldeas and caserios, which are smaller communities served by the municipality. While most of the population identifies as Ladino, this was not the case many years ago, when most people identified themselves as Mam Maya. Nowadays it’s mainly people living in certain Aldeas like Aldea Cancuc, Aldea
Chejoj, El Chilcal, and Aldea Shequemebaj who still identify as Maya.
The municipality covers a total area of 592 km
2. The
dirt road
A dirt road or track is a type of unpaved road not paved with asphalt, concrete, brick, or stone; made from the native material of the land surface through which it passes, known to highway engineers as subgrade material. Dirt roads are suitable ...
connecting it to the
Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...
has recently been improved and asphalted, which reduces travel times considerably. However, the highway ends at Cuilco, so travellers wishing to continue on to other parts of Guatemala or to Mexico still must navigate rough dirt roads. Given the poor condition of municipal roads, travel times may exceed 8 hours from one side to the other. Export crops include corn, coffee and ''panela''. Panela is a
molasses
Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods ...
-like substance made from processing
sugar cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...
.
Cuilco, as the municipality's head town, contains the municipal government housed in the municipal building near the center plaza of town. As of 2007, the municipal building ("muni") employed approximately 15 people, providing many services to the surrounding villages and to Cuilco itself.
Tourism to Cuilco is fairly limited given its location more than 2 hours from Huehuetenango. The majority of Cuilco speak Spanish, the Mam Maya language isn't spoken as much as it used to be before.
Since the civil war started affecting Cuilco in the 1980s, many Cuilquenses have migrated to the Mexican state of Chiapas, and to the United States, mainly Indiantown, Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Immokalee, and Fort Myers Florida, as well as Mississippi, Illinois, Morganton North Carolina, Ohio, Marydel Maryland, and to California.
References
{{coord, 15, 24, N, 91, 58, W, display=title, region:GT_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki
Municipalities of the Huehuetenango Department