{"id":493808,"date":"2025-12-07T12:09:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T16:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/the-burning-of-the-devil-in-guatemala-culture-satire-and-environmental-awareness\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T12:09:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T16:09:32","slug":"the-burning-of-the-devil-in-guatemala-culture-satire-and-environmental-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/the-burning-of-the-devil-in-guatemala-culture-satire-and-environmental-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"The burning of the devil in Guatemala: culture, satire, and environmental awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Guatemala City.- <\/strong>Hundreds of Guatemalan artisan families depend on the production of pi\u00f1atas<\/strong> allegorical to the devil that, every December 7, are consumed by fire in a centennial tradition<\/strong>, which has also been transformed into an expression of social criticism.<\/p>\n\n\nMarco Antonio Gonz\u00e1lez, with more than 35 years at the head of the Pi\u00f1atas Tom & Jerry workshops, has been preparing since April to make devils up to 3.5 meters, which require four days of work.\n\n“It’s a normal, literal pi\u00f1ata, but yes, with a design and a finish of little details that experience has led us to make,” Gonz\u00e1lez told EFE, who offers designs ranging from 20 to 3,000 quetzals (between 2.61 and 392.10 dollars).\n\nThe “burning of the devil”<\/strong>, celebrated at 6:00 PM, commemorates in the Catholic religion the triumph of the Virgin of Conception over Satan. Historically, the ritual had roots in colonial luminaries with dry branches.\n\nThe particular tradition unites families in popular neighborhoods and colonies of Guatemala City, where the burning of pi\u00f1atas is accompanied by pyrotechnics.\n\n\n

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The burning of devil pi\u00f1atas evolved over decades into the mass burning of garbage, tires, and plastic waste with the idea of purifying homes. This practice generated severe environmental pollution and fire hazards in recent decades.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nIt was the need to mitigate the damage that drove the rise of the paper pi\u00f1ata in the 1990s as a cleaner alternative. The artisan Gonz\u00e1lez validates this by indicating that paper is “much more volatile” and has fewer “toxic elements” than burned waste.\n\n\n

You may be interested in: <\/strong>Thousands of Muslims continue with the ritual of ‘stoning the devil’ in Mecca without incident<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n“It has been a little less harmful for the environment,” he affirmed, when recommending the pi\u00f1ata as a responsible option.\n\nBeyond the environmental aspect, in recent years the festivity has taken on a strong political character. Gonz\u00e1lez has created “humor” and “satire” designs that replicate figures singled out for corruption, such as the Attorney General of the Public Ministry, Consuelo Porras (sanctioned by the United States and the European Union), or some former presidents of the country.\n\nThe pi\u00f1ata thus becomes a burning critique of “the nefarious ways of what they do in their politics,” sentenced the artisan.\n\nEven Gonz\u00e1lez has made this year pi\u00f1atas of US President Donald Trump dressed in the uniform of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), adding an international touch to his satire on that country’s immigration policy.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guatemala City.- Hundreds of Guatemalan artisan families depend on the production of pi\u00f1atas allegorical to the devil that, every December 7, are consumed by fire in a centennial tradition, which has also been transformed into an expression of social criticism. Marco Antonio Gonz\u00e1lez, with more than 35 years at the head of the Pi\u00f1atas Tom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[40576,42842,15100,42843],"class_list":["post-493808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international","tag-culture","tag-devil","tag-guatemala","tag-tradition"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-24sE","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/Copia-de-Post-de-Instagram-Feliz-Cumpleanos-Sencillo-Minimalista-Azul-1000-x-500-px-46.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/Copia-de-Post-de-Instagram-Feliz-Cumpleanos-Sencillo-Minimalista-Azul-1000-x-500-px-46.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}