- Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum (born in Chimel, Quiché department, January 9, 1959) is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the Quiché-Maya ethnic group. She was the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize and Prince of Asturias Award in 1998. Menchú is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. She is the subject of the testimonial biography "I, Rigoberta Menchú" (1983) and the author of the autobiographical work, "Crossing Borders".
- Efraín Ríos Montt
José Efraín Ríos Montt is a former "de facto" President of Guatemala, army general, and former president of Congress. In the 2003 presidential elections, he unsuccessfully ran as the candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG). Huehuetenango-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most controversial figures 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.
- 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.
- Álvaro Colom
Álvaro Colom Caballeros is a Guatemalan politician, member of the centre left National Union of Hope (UNE). Colom is the son of Antonio Colom Argueta and Yolanda Caballeros Ferraté, the first being the older brother of Manuel Colom Argueta, a former mayor of Guatemala City. He is the fourth of five brothers. He is also the father of Antonio Colom Szarata, the bass player of Guatemalan rock band "Viento en Contra".
- Eduardo Stein
Dr. Eduardo Stein Barillas is a Guatemalan politician. He is the current Vice President of Guatemala, serving a concurrent four-year mandate with that of President Óscar Berger, who took office on 14 January 2004. Prior to his election, he had held a number of positions with the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Organization of American States.
- Francisco Goldman
Francisco Goldman (born 1954) is an American novelist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Guatemalan mother and Jewish-American father. His first novel, "The Long Night of White Chickens" (1992), won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and his second, "The Ordinary Seaman" (1997), was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and The "Los Angeles Times" Book Prize, …
- Jorge Ubico
Jorge Ubico y Castañeda was President of Guatemala from 14 February, 1931 to 4 July, 1944. Ubico is widely considered the last of the Liberal authoritarian rulers in Latin America. Born to Arturo Ubico Urruela, a lawyer and politician of the Guatemalan liberal party, Jorge Ubico was sheltered for most of his childhood.
- 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.
- Rafael Espada
Dr. Rafael Espada is a Cardiothoracic Surgeon from Guatemala. He is well-known in the field of cardiothoracic surgery and is considered by some to be among the top surgeons of the world. He grew up in Guatemala. From an early age he wanted to grow up to be a doctor.
- 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.
- Hector Gramajo
Hector Alejandro Gramajo Morales (? - 2004) was a former Defense Minister of Guatemala. He was studying at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government where he obtained a degree in public administration when he was found guilty to charges of human-rights violations (under the Torture Victim Protection Act and Alien Tort Claims Act), and in 1995 was subsequently barred from re-entering the United States.
- Tecún Umán
Tecún Umán was the last ruler of the Quiché people, in the highlands of what is now Guatemala. According to the Kaqchikel annals, he was slain by Spanish Conquistador Don Pedro de Alvarado while waging battle against the Spaniards in the grasslands of El Pinar (Valley of Olintepeque) on February 20 1524.
- Augusto Monterroso
Augusto Monterroso (December 21, 1921 - February 7, 2003) was a Guatemalan writer.
- 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, …
- Edmond Mulet
Edmond Mulet is a Guatemalan diplomat. He is currently United Nations Special Representative in Haiti and Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Mulet succeeded Juan Gabriel Valdés of Chile. Mulet had previously served as Guatemala's ambassador to the European Union, the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, since 1 June 2000.
- Luis González Palma
Luis González Palma is a modernist Latin American photographer. Born in 1957 the artist grew up in Guatemala where he later continued to live and opened up a portrait studio. He studied architecture and cinematography at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and then turned to photography. He has presented his work since 1989-present in more than 58 expositions in America and Europe.
- Gustavo Cabrera
Gustavo Adolfo Cabrera Marroquín is a Guatemalan soccer defender who currently plays for Comunicaciones of the Guatemalan National League, coming via Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer. Prior to joining Salt Lake midway through the 2005 season, Cabrera spent ten seasons with Comunicaciones in his native Guatemala and again in 2006. He has also been a vital part of the Guatemalan national team since 2000, making his debut against Belize and collecting over 50 caps.
- Juan Carlos Plata
Juan Carlos Plata (born January 1, 1971) is a Guatemalan football striker, the highest goalscorer in the history of the Guatemala national team. He has played all of his professional club career for CSD Municipal and is also the all-time top goalscorer for that club, and has broken virtually every scoring record associated with professional football in Guatemala.
- 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.
- Rodolfo Quezada Toruño
Rodolfo Cardinal Quezada Toruño is the current archbishop of Guatemala City and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.
- 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.
- 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, …
- Clyde Snow
Clyde Snow (b. January 7, 1928 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a well known U.S. forensic anthropologist. Some of his skeletal confirmations include John F. Kennedy, victims of John Wayne Gacy, King Tutankhamun, victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, and Dr. Josef Mengele. Snow started his higher education at the New Mexico Military Institute were he earned an Associated Degree. He then flunked out of Southern Methodist University.
- Ángel Aníbal Guevara
General Ángel Aníbal Guevara Rodríguez is a Guatemalan soldier and politician. Having served as defence minister in the previous administration, he was victorious in the 7 March 1982 presidential election to succeed outgoing President Romeo Lucas García, who had hand-picked him as his successor. The election was, however, widely denounced as fraudulent by both left-wing and right-wing groups.
- Otto René Castillo
Otto René Castillo was a Guatemalan poet and revolutionary.
- Carlos Figueroa
Carlos Figueroa (born 19 April 1980) is a Guatemalan football midfielder who plays for local club CSD Municipal in the Guatemala's top division. He is also a member of the Guatemalan national team. He represented Guatemalan national team in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
- 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.
- Luis Argueta
Luis Argueta (born November 7, 1946) is a critically acclaimed Guatemalan film director and producer. His film, "El Silencio de Neto" ("The Silence of Neto") was among the best foreign films nominated in the 67th Academy Awards. Argueta studied at the University of Michigan. His movies tend to depict Latin American culture and the struggle for peace.
- José Rubén Zamora
José Rubén Zamora Marroquín is the founder of three of Guatemala's most important newspapers, "Siglo Veintiuno" ("21st Century") in 1990; "El Periódico" ("The Newspaper") in 1996 and "Nuestro Diario" in 1998. Although he has generated great controversy in his role as editor-in-chief of the newspapers, he continues to edit the latter today.
- 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".
- 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.
- Humberto Ak'Abal
Humberto Ak'abal is a Maya-Quiché poet from Guatemala. His family is from Momostenango. He is considered one of the most important living Guatemalan poets. He writes in Quiché, his native language, as well as in Spanish. His first book of poetry was El animalero (1990). In 2003, Humberto Ak'abal was awarded the Guatemala National Prize in Literature for his body of work but declined to accept because of the past treatment of the Guatemalan indigenous peoples.
- 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.
- Gonzalo Romero
Gonzalo "Chalo" Romero (born 25 March 1975) is a Guatemalan football Midfielder who plays for local club CSD Municipal in the Guatemala's top division. He is also a member of the Guatemalan national team, which he represented during the 2006 World Cup qualification campaign.
- 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, …
- Jorge Briz Abularach
Jorge Briz Abularach was the foreign minister of Guatemala from January 2004, when the government of Óscar Berger took office, until his resignation in August 2006.
- Leonel Noriega
Leonel Noriega (born May 10, 1975) is a Guatemalan football Midfielder who currently plays for Deportivo Marquense of the Guatemala's top division.
- Rolando Morán
Comandante Rolando Morán is the "nom de guerre" of Ricardo Arnoldo Ramírez de León, a former leader of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), an armed Guatemalan resistance organization. At the time of his death he held the post of Secretary General of the URNG. Ramírez studied law at National University of San Carlos. At the end of the 1940s he became active as a counselor in the road construction trade union.