- Mateo Flores
Mateo Flores (born Doroteo Guamuch Flores on February 11, 1922), is a former Guatemalan long-distance runner who won the Boston Marathon in 1952. Flores was born in Cotió, Mixco, a town near Guatemala City. During his career, which spanned from 1941 to 1957, he won multiple events, notably the marathon at the 1946 Barranquilla Games, the half marathon at the 1950 Central American and Caribbean Games in Guatemala, …
- Myrna Mack
Myrna Mack Chang was a Guatemalan anthropologist. She was born in Barrio San Nicolás, Retalhuleu department, to a mixed Maya/Chinese family. She studied antropology in the United Kingdom, at both the University of Manchester and Durham University. Upon returning to Guatemala, she conducted fieldwork among several of the many Maya "campesino" communities uprooted during the Civil War.
- Óscar Berger
Óscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo, born on 11 August 1946 in Guatemala City, is the current President of Guatemala. His family was a part of the upper class with large sugar and coffee holdings. He graduated in law from the private, Jesuit Rafael Landívar University. In 1967 he married Wendy Widmann, also from a land owning Guatemalan family. From the mid seventies he ran a successful skittles parlor.
- Justo Rufino Barrios
Justo Rufino Barrios (July 19, 1835 - April 2, 1885) was a President of Guatemala known for his liberal reforms and his attempts to reunite Central America. Barrios was born in the village of San Lorenzo, in the department of San Marcos. He was known from his youth for his intellect and energy, went to Guatemala City to study law, and became a lawyer in 1862. In 1867 revolt broke out in western Guatemala, …
- Álvaro Arzú
Álvaro Enrique Arzú Yrigoyen was President of Guatemala from January 14, 1996 until January 14, 2000. He became Mayor of Guatemala City for the second time in January 2004.
- Miguel Ángel Asturias
Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales was a Guatemalan writer and diplomat. He was awarded the 1967 Nobel Prize in literature "for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America." Asturias was born in Guatemala City and died in Madrid, Spain. In 1904 his family moved from the capital to Salamá, Baja Verapaz, where they remained until 1908.
- Regina José Galindo
Regina José Galindo is a Guatemalan performance artist who specializes in body art. She was born in Guatemala City.
- Carlos Merida
Carlos Merida was born in Guatemala and studied at the Instituto de Artes y Artesanias in Guatemala City and Queltzaltenango. From 1910 to 1914 he lived in Paris, and after traveling through Europe, he made his home in México where he became active in the Mexican mural painting school. In 1927 he abandoned his figurative style to became one of México's first non-figurative artists. His later works formed a link to the Mayan world with geometric elements.
- Ricardo Arjona
Edgar Ricardo Arjona Morales, known as Ricardo Arjona (pronounced), is a popular Guatemalan singer. He has won two Grammy Awards from three nominations: The 2007 Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album and the 2006 Latin Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Album, both for his album "Adentro", (2005). He was born in the village of Jocotenango, near Antigua, Guatemala to Ricardo Arjona Moscoso and Noemí Morales de Arjona.
- Manuel Colom Argueta
Manuel Colom Argueta (8 April 1932 - 22 March 1979) was mayor of Guatemala City and an important progressive leader of the opposition in Guatemala. Born in Guatemala City, Colom studied at the El Rosario school, the Liceo Infantil and Costa Rica School, completing his secondary schooling at the prestigious Central Instititute for Boys ("Instituto Central para Varones") where he became student association president. He graduated as one of the top students.
- Guatemala City Guatemala Temple
The Guatemala City Guatemala Temple is the 34th constructed and 32nd operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Located in Guatemala City, capital city of Guatemala, it was built with a modern six-spire design. In 1956, while Harold B. Lee (then a member of the Quorum on the Twelve) visited Guatemala City, he felt that it would be a center for Lamanite gatherings and prophesied that a temple would be built there.
- Dwight Pezzarossi
Dwight Pezzarossi born (September 4, 1979 in Guatemala City, Guatemala) is a professional football forward who has played for several teams in Guatemala and other countries, currently for Deportivo Marquense in Guatemala on loan from CD Numancia. Pezzarossi, nicknamed "El Tanque" ("the Tank", due to his size), started his footballing career with Guatemalan lower division club "Deportivo Escuintla".
- Rodrigo Asturias
Rodrigo Asturias Amado was a Guatemalan guerrilla leader and politician. Asturias was born in Guatemala City, the first-born son of Nobel Prize-winning author Miguel Ángel Asturias. He studied law in Chile and travelled extensively through the Southern Cone. He later taught at the University of Chile and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Rebel Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, or FAR) guerrilla group.
- Mario Monteforte Toledo
Mario Monteforte Toledo was a Guatemalan writer, dramatist, and politician. Born in Guatemala City, he played important roles in the governments of both Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, including periods as Ambassador to the United Nations between 1946 and 1947, as a deputy in the National Congress from 1947 to 1951, and being both leader of the Congress and Vice-President between 1948 and 1949 before retiring from politics in 1951.
- Fernando Romeo Lucas García
Fernando Romeo Lucas García (b. San Juan Chamelco, Alta Verapaz, 4 July 1924 - d. Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, 27 May 2006) was the President of Guatemala from 1 July 1978 to 23 March 1982. Although he was democratically elected, during General Lucas' regime political repression and assassinations of major progressive opposition figures (former progressive Mayor Manuel Colom and Social Democrat Party founder Alberto Fuentes in 1979) reached an alarming high.
- Alberto Fuentes Mohr
Alberto Fuentes Mohr (1927 - 25 January 1979) was a Guatemalan politician, one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party, a progressive opposition political party. He had also served as foreign minister during the 1960s. He was trained as an economist at the London School of Economics. Fuentes Mohr was assassinated in 1979 (as was former Guatemala City Mayor and leading opposition politician, …
- José Cecilio del Valle
José Cecilio del Valle was a leader of Central American independence and the first president of United Provinces of Central America. José Cecilio del Valle was born in Choluteca, Honduras. In his youth he moved to Guatemala City, where he later studied philosophy and law at the Universidad de San Carlos. He was admitted to the bar on September 1, 1803. He became known for his well reasoned arguments and decisions and was nicknamed "El Sabio" ("The Wise").
- Irma Flaquer
Irma Flaquer Azurdia (born in Guatemala City, Guatemala in 1938), a psychologist and reporter known for her vicious critiques against the Guatemalan government. Born to a Catalan, theater producer father, Fernando Flaquer, and Guatemalan opera singer mother, Olga Azurdia, she spent her childhood traveling and living throughout Central and South America. In 1955, she married Fernando Valle Avizpe and later divorced in 1958.
- David Unger
David Unger is a famous Guatemalan-American author and translator. He was born in 1950 in Guatemala City. In 1955, he emigrated to Hialeah, Florida with his parents. Unger graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a B.A. and received an MFA from Columbia University. He is currently teaching at the City College of New York.
- Luis Cardoza Y Aragón
Luis Cardoza y Aragón was a Guatemalan writer, essayist, poet, art critic, and diplomat born in La Antigua Guatemala but who spent a good part of his life living in exile in Mexico. Cardoza y Aragón attended primary school in La Antigua Guatemala and at the Colegio Centroamericano in Guatemala City. His received a secondary education in the city's Instituto Nacional Central para Varones. In the 1920s, Cardoza y Aragón moved to Paris, …
- Ted Hendricks
Theodore (Ted) Paul Hendricks (born November 1, 1947 in Guatemala City, Guatemala) was an American football linebacker for the 1968 to 1973 Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts), 1974 Green Bay Packers and the 1975 to 1983 Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders.
- Carlos Batres
Carlos Alberto Batres González is a Guatemalan football referee. He has refereed FIFA World Cup qualification and final tournament matches, and at Olympic tournaments.
- Willie Sims
Willie Sims (born January 18, 1984 in Guatemala City) is a Guatemalan-born soccer player, who currently plays forward for the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer. He was drafted in the 2nd round (23rd overall) of the 2006 MLS SuperDraft. Sims played college soccer at California State University, Northridge from 2003 to 2005 after redshirting in 2002. Sims was named the Big West Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Year in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, …
- Karl von Spreti
Count Karl Maria von Spreti was a German diplomat. He is best known as the West German Ambassador to Guatemala from 1968 until his assassination in 1970. The story of his assassination by Guatemalan guerillas was pictured in a 1970 book "Why Karl Von Spreti Died" by Ryszard Kapuściński. He was born in the Kapfing Castle near Landshut to a aristocratic family (his direct ancestor was Leo von Klenze). Like his forefather, Karl von Spreti studied architecture.
- José María Reina Barrios
José María Reina Barrios was President of Guatemala from 15 March 1892 through 8 February 1898. He was nicknamed "Reinita", the diminutive form, because of his short stature. He was a moderate of Guatemala's Liberal Party, who worked to solidify the less controversial of the reforms of late president Justo Rufino Barrios. The power of the landowners over the rural peasantry increased during his presidency.
- Rodolfo Abularach
Rodolfo Abularach is a Guatemalan painter and printmaker focusing mainly on the human eye. He attended the Escuela Nacional de las Artes Plásticas in Guatemala City starting in 1947 and graduating in 1954. Later on, he studied in New York City on a Guatemalan government grant, studying at the Arts Student League and Graphic Arts center.
- Jon Cortina
Jon Cortina is credited with using basic detective work, then later DNA testing, to solve the disappearances of about 310 children. He began this work in 1992, when the war had ended and the United Nations' Truth Commission opened investigations into widespread human rights abuses during the war. In the Chalatenango region, a handful of rural peasants came forward with testimony about how their children had been kidnapped from them by government troops. That led him to begin his search.
- Jorge Mario García Laguardia
Dr. Jorge Mario García Laguardia is a Guatemalan jurist. He has been a tenured lecturer at several Guatemalan and foreign universities, including the Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala City and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and he has served the Guatemalan state in several juridical capacities. García Laguardia's academic work has focussed on three main areas: the history of public law, Latin American integration (particularly that of Central America), …
- Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn Named One of Worldâs Top Young Innovators: Technology Review Magazine To Honor Carnegie Mellon Computer Scientist
- Oliverio Castañeda
Oliverio Castañeda de León was a Guatemalan left-wing oriented student leader, who fought for civil rights and was assassinated at the age of 23 in Guatemala City during the regime of General Romeo Lucas García.
- Antonio José de Irisarri
Antonio José de Irisarri Alonso, was a Guatemalan statesman, journalist and Interim Supreme Director of Chile (1814). He is considered one of the fathers of Chilean journalism together with Fr. Camilo Henríquez. Irisarri was born in Guatemala City, the son of Juan Bautista de Irisarri and of María de la Paz Alonso. He studied in his native city and in Europe, from whence he was recalled back to his home after the death of his father in 1805.
- Jorge de Leon
Jorge de Leon is a Guatemalan performance artist who specializes in body art. He was born in Guatemala City, and forms part of the generation of artists that includes Regina José Galindo.
- Emilio Arenales Catalán
Emilio Arenales Catalán was the foreign minister of Guatemala from 1966 to 1969 and the president of the United Nations Twenty-Third General Assembly from 1968 to 1969. He was born and died in Guatemala City. Mr. Arenales was born in Guatemala City on May 10th, 1922. He held the degrees of Bachelor of Sciences and Letters from the "Instituto Modelo" in Guatemala City (1932-1949), …
- Héctor Fernando Ramírez
Héctor Fernando Ramírez, better known as Reportero X died on July 24 2003 of a heart attack in Guatemala City while being chased by a mob in what is referred to as "jueves negro" (Black Thursday). He was 61 years old. He had started his career as a radio news reporter. When he died he was a reporter for the TV channel Noti-7, though he was also working for Radio Sonora.
- Martín de Mayorga
Martín de Mayorga Ferrer was a Spanish military officer, governor of Guatemala (from June 1773 to 1779), and interim viceroy of New Spain (from August 23, 1779 to April 28, 1783). Martín de Mayorga Ferrer was a field marshal in the royal army of Spain, and a knight of the military Order of Alcántara. He was governor, president of the Audiencia and captain general of Guatemala at the time of the devastating earthquake that destroyed Guatemala City (July 23, 1773).
- Mayra Conde
Mayra Conde (born January 28, 1969 in Guatemala City, Guatemala) is a professional Personal Trainer and mixed martial artist, who has also competed in bodybuilding, kickboxing and brazilian jiu-jitsu.
- Peter Of Saint Joseph Betancur
Brother Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur, called Hermano Pedro de San José Betancurt or more simply Hermano Pedro, Santo Hermano Pedro, or San Pedro de Vilaflor, was a Spanish saint and missionary. He is known as the "St. Francis of the Americas." Born in Vilaflor, on the island of Tenerife, …
- Bernardo Alvarado Monzón
Bernardo Alvarado Monzón was a Guatemalan communist leader. He led the clandestine Guatemalan Party of Labour (PGT), and became its general secretary. Under Alvarado's leadership the party adopted the line of 'Popular Revolutionary War'. Bernardo Alvarado Monzón was captured by state forces on September 26, 1972 in Guatemala City. He was killed soon thereafter.
- Mario Rafael Rodríguez
Mario Rafael Rodríguez Rodríguez is a Guatemalan football (soccer) midfielder, who currently plays for local club CSD Municipal, and has also played locally for CSD Comunicaciones and in the U.S. Major League Soccer for Columbus Crew. He is also a member of the Guatemala national team.
- Roberto Arzú
Roberto Arzú Garcia-Granados is the son of former Guatemalan president and current mayor of Guatemala City Álvaro Arzú. He is mostly known for managing the Guatemalan football club Comunicaciones, which is owned by the Garcia-Granados family.