¡GUATEAMALA!

HOW DO WE DESIGN A SOCIAL MOVEMENT TO IMAGINE A BETTER FUTURE?

In 2004, after almost four decades of civil war, peace was new to much of Guatemala. The country’s minister of education asked us to join a group of Guatemalans looking to design a better future. Our aim was to demonstrate that this process was already in progress, with many Guatemalans working to build their country’s future. 

Our strategy allowed these diverse activists to come together, see one another, and reinforce what each of them was doing. Together we created a movement: the ¡GuateAmala! (Love Guate) Movement. 

It’s hard to imagine what 36 years of violence does to the creative spirit. We had to help galvanize the process of building a culture of life and the critical social foundations many of us take for granted. Design is a practice that believes in a better future—that is the real core of the ¡GuateAmala! movement.