Letter from Founder/N. McGirr Spring 2024

Easter season is early this year. The aroma of incense lingers as the processions wind through the cobblestoned streets, purple robed penitents stepping over the elaborate richly hued carpets of dyed sawdust made by families and neighbors. From my studio I can hear the mournful music from the procession’s band as they walk slowly behind the last anda of the women carrying the Virgen Mary.

There is a seasonal palm that boasts a giant boat-shaped pod, called a corozo, known for its distinctive soft earthy smell, it’s fragrance heralding the coming of Holy Week. In Santiago Atitlán, the little kids use the empty pods as sleds to slide down the Cathedral steps.

Easter in Santiago Atitlan, the Indigenous village where we have one of our schools, is permeated with magic realism, where the traditional Catholic and old Mayan religion intermingle. Maximón, a Mayan god, gets his clothes washed in the Lake to begin Holy Week.

On Good Friday, an articulated wooden figure of Christ is taken down from the cross, a cross that the Mayan brotherhood had inserted into a hole in front of the church altar that goes down to the belly button of the earth. After he is sprayed with large cans of room deodorizer, Jesus is put into a glass coffin and carried on a heavy, ornate anda down the steep, narrow steps that once were part of the original Mayan temple.

Waiting for Christ in the plaza in front of the church is Maximón, carried on the shoulders of a member of the brotherhood he dances to honor him. The Fotokids go into a frenzy taking literally, thousands of photos, which in turn drives their teachers crazy trying to edit them all.

Kids using Corozo pods to slide down the steps ©Urias/Fotokids2022

Maximon gets ready to dance © Diego Angel/2023

I have so many exciting things to report this quarter. We have been invited for a second time to exhibit in New York City at the Bronx Documentary Center in July, exact date to be announced.

The staff of the Documentary Center did such a spectacular job last time around in 2018. In addition to a traditional gallery showing of Fotokids work, they had hung large colored vinyls of the children’s photos all around the exhibition spaces outside.

When I have the exact dates I will let you know and perhaps we will see some of you there. We are really looking forward to it.

Photo@Chris Vail 2018 These are our vinyls outside our exhibition gallery space in 2018 at the Bronx Documentary Center

Movement in purple ©Gretel/Fotokids2024

Next, the World Wildlife Fund, WWF, contacted Fotokids requesting that we offer a workshop to the public at the Guatemalan City Zoo on using smart phones to take better photos. The WWF will post the best photos from the workshop on their website, and of course, mention Fotokids which is fantastic! The event is scheduled to take place later this spring.

There’s more! Berlin and I are going up to West Palm Beach to give a Fotokids photography workshop to underprivileged kids who are part of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. The participating children, ages eleven to fourteen years old, will be given an eight-week program on photo techniques, symbols in photography, storytelling via producing a graphic novel, photo essays, and a myriad of other topics which will culminate this autumn with an exhibit of their work at the Kravis.

We received a $10,000 grant from one of our very generous donors to buy laptops and we are so happy with this support. We can still use any Macs you might have if they are from 2014 or later. Write info@fotokidsoriginal.org if you want more information. Our mid-year annual fundraiser is May 2nd this year, so stand-by! More on this later in the newsletter

One of the most exciting things for me is the introduction of artificial intelligence into all of our classes. Since Fotokids has vocational training goals, as well as inspiring creativity, it will be imperative for the kids to know how to work with artificial intelligence, utilizing AI as a tool. Rocio gave three weeks of workshops to our teachers on Apps that can be used for video, sound, design, experimental art.

I’ll give you some examples of how we are incorporating AI. The little kids, 5th & 6th graders, now in their second year, have an assignment that uses techniques to produce haunting photos of Guatemalan legends – I use the word haunting because none of them are particularly cheerful.

We have La Llorona, who has drowned her children and walks the streets at night crying, the Siguanaba, another woman who has long black hair and entices drunks to follow her. When she turns around she has literally, the heart-stopping face of a horse. Drunks and anyone else, will drop dead after casting their eyes on La Siguanaba.Then there is the Coyote woman who sheds her human skin at night to hunt for meat. But I’m digressing here.

The class for these kids includes a 15 minute discussion, learning to use the app, then putting their own written story of the legend into AI, asking it to help determine what photos they need to illustrate their legend. The students then take those photos, photoshop them, and insert them into the written story.

All Pre- AI, all of these created only with Photoshop-La LLorana ©JenniferRivera/2016, The woman who turns into a Coyote©Amelia/Fotokids2018, La Siguanaba ©Oswaldo Batres 2012

Recently, I saw a photo of a young man standing in our school garden dressed in a toga. Were we going Greek? Were we teaching philosophy? No, the 16 year old’s were doing a video, an historical drama. When I asked about the urban background, Evelyn told me no worries, with AI they could change the background to anything they wanted, a jungle if necessary.

Students, Julio and Jennifer are using AI to professionally improve a video they shot last year. Other students are using AI in recording audio, uploading photos to go with audio, and then having artificial intelligence create the video.

For the students finishing their 8th and last year of the program in Santiago Atitlán, Gerardos’s class is using AI on final design for the graphic arts work in their portfolio. They are working on their final portfolios showcasing both photo and design, and using Adobe Illustrator to create a catalog for local clients

In addition to these technological updates to the curriculum, I am enthusiastic about the meetings for mothers being held in both the City and Santiago Atitlán. The mothers feel like no pays attention to them. They sacrifice for the family and work so hard. Fotokids initiated Saturday workshops, the themes of which are determined by the mothers’ interests.

In the city last week, Rocio’s mother who is a professional cook and caterer, volunteered to give instructions on how to make two new recipes, banana bread (in a pressure cooker or in the oven – people do have pressure cookers here sometimes to cook their beans) and how to make tasty rice balls with leftover rice and vegetables.

Thirty mothers showed up and were excited to have the time to learn new ideas, but I think as important as the new recipes, was for them to have the chance to talk to other mothers from a variety of barrios. Talking, while preparing the recipes, they brought up family problems, worries many had as single mothers, and even awkward feelings around discussing sex education with their children. Many young girls are now developing at 10 years of age.

The moms overstayed the allotted schedule, though many had previously said they weren’t sure if they could allocate the time for a workshop. They went home satisfied by the recognition, with banana bread and rice balls for the evening meal, and a market tote designed by Fotokids.

In Santiago Atitlán, the mothers wanted to get better ideas as to what was going on with their teenagers, so our staff brought in a psychologist, who spoke on how to manage adolescent emotions. Also brought up was the use of cell phones that had been introduced during the pandemic for classroom zooming.

The mothers, many of whom speak no spanish and are unfamiliar with the internet, thought that many of the kids were on the phones all the time to complete school assignments. I think we can give a guess as to what some might really be doing, right? Games, games, FB, more games, WhatsApp, Tik- Tok.

The mothers’ workshops appear to be a great success and we are fortunate to have Josefa, a licensed social worker from Santiago Atitlan who was a Fotokid from age 9 or 10, and Yamilet, who has worked with families for many years in the City, both of whom regularly reach out to lead groups of mothers on a monthly basis.

Some of the mothers who attended the workshop left,Yamilet, behind her Evelyn, rt. Rocio w/camera and her mother behind her ©Berlin Juarez staff

We are also providing more meals to the kids these days, as malnutrition still looms here in Guatemala, especially in the areas where we work. Kids don’t get a chance to eat meat, often it’s just beans and tortillas, so our lunches include meat, carbs and a green vegetable. Food prices have gone up here as in most of the world due to inflation and it now costs us approximately $6,500 a year to feed just 40 kids and we have close to a hundred. If you want to help out, anything you can give, would be great!

May 2nd is fast approaching! Can you help? Let’s keep all this ball rolling! There are a lot of positive activities happening that you can be a part of, something that actually works.

We still need to buy more laptops and professional SLR cameras. Thank you all who have donated cameras, we do need the chargers though, especially for the older models which are hard for us to find.

We have a dollar for dollar match leading up to and including May 2nd for the first $15,000. You can get your donation in early if you want. If you are sending in a check for that reason before May 2nd, let us know at info@fotokidsoriginal.org. If I see it in our PayPal account, no need to message, we have it!