The Mayan people of Guatemala gave us one of our favorite indulgences: chocolate. Already by the year 600, they grew cocoa trees, roasted the beans, mixed them with water, added a bit of spice and made "the drink of the gods." They used the beans for currency: Four beans could buy a pumpkin, and 10, a rabbit.
Guatemala is a country of entrepreneurs and is the biggest economy in Central America today, according to the World Bank. Sadly, it also has one of the highest inequality rates in Latin America, the World Bank reports, with "some of the worst poverty, malnutrition and maternal-child mortality rates in the region, especially in rural and indigenous areas." In 2014, 59.3 percent of the country lived in poverty, and 52 percent of those affected are indigenous.
https://www.globalsistersreport.org/blog/gsr-today/ministry/founded-amid-war-guatemala-missionaries-eucharist-persevere-55372
https://www.globalsistersreport.org/blog/gsr-today/ministry/founded-amid-war-guatemala-missionaries-eucharist-persevere-55372
