Guatemalan Idol

Car horns are wailing. People are sprinting up and down the streets screaming. Fireworks are exploding. And last time I checked Guatemala did not have a Super Bowl, nor a World Series.

So why all the commotion and ruckus?

Carlos Peña, that’s why! A Puro Chapin! A native of Guatemala City! And he has beaten Ricardo Caballero to become the new Latin American Idol! I completely understand that for some people this appears to be a ridiculous thing to be exuberant over, but if you were here, in Guatemala City, you’d understand.

There’s overwhelming pride, and even though I’m not from Guatemala, even though I’ve only been living here for a couple months, I feel it too. It’s powerful. His face was just on my shirt earlier today as I walked around campus sporting a black Carlos Peña t-shirt and now people are honking their horns to show their support for his victory. (And I’m blogging about him.)

But this is all because he wasn’t just singing for himself. He was singing for an entire country. He was representing Guatemala, and even now as I type this people are outside screaming his name in unison because he has shed positive light on his country.

And I think we forget this sometimes. We fail to realize that we are not independent of our families, friends, countries, jobs, etc. How we carry ourselves, and how we act does end up representing our ethnicity, age, gender, country and so much more. If only we’d realize this more often, and truly understand how powerful and impacting our actions can be we might alter them a bit.

I even wonder if we’d act differently knowing a whole country was supporting us? And I wonder if we’d act differently if our actions supported an entire country?

Yo apoyo Guatemala y Carlos Peña!