Included among the images that Rigoberta Menchú uses in order to subtly convey her people's ethnicity is an image of Guatemala as the "land of the quetzal."

A strikingly beautiful bird, the quetzal is the national emblem of Guatemala, appearing on its currency and postage. The quetzal ranges from southern Mexico to Costa Rica.

This particular wild avocado species had beautiful small black fruits set in a red cap that made it easy for the quetzals to find them.

In 2002 Guatemala officially declared the U.S. dollar as legal tender to circulate in parallel to the national currency, the quetzal. This is not likely to last for long as the quetzal is not widely accepted and is considered a weak store of value.

In this situation, they chose a policy mix of moderate monetary tightening, tight fiscal policy, and central bank intervention in the foreign exchange market to prevent excessive appreciation of the quetzal, without pursuing an exchange rate target[…].

To cope with the subsequent mounting pressures on the domestic currency, the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat) started to intervene in the foreign exchange market to moderate the quetzal depreciation and tightened monetary policy.

Quetzal

Meaning

Noun

Origin

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