Survivor leaves mixed feelings among locals
Old Mayan city Guatemala locale Many neighbours paid for labour
LA MÁQUINA, GUATEMALA—
There goes the neighbourhood. A Mayan city three millenia ago and now a governmenttouted tourist destination, Guatemala’s Yaxhá- Nakúm- Naranjo National Park is the host of Survivor: Guatemala, The Maya Empire, premiering tonight at 8 on Global and CBS. With howler monkeys roaring like lions from tree perches above centuries- old Mayan ruins, Yaxhá is just one natural wonder the government’s tourism board hopes to promote via the show, having lobbied to bring the production to Guatemala. But the arrival of the massive American TV production caught many locals unaware.
Closure of the park before filming in June surprised residents in nearby villages like La Máquina, according to Luis Armando Rosales, president of the local tourist association. There were unfounded rumours of looting among the ruins, and some residents worried the spirits of the Mayans buried in the park would be upset by all the commotion.
“ Yaxhá is a sacred place that must be respected,” neighbour Joel Martinez said.
“ Something terrible is going to happen, but the Americans will leave and we will pay the price.”
Others were happy for the visit, like La Máquina resident Gladis Salinas, whose husband worked as an unskilled labourer for the show.
“ I wish they’d stay longer so Emilio could keep his ($ 8 U. S. per day) job,” she said. The minimum wage for unskilled labour in Guatemala is about $ 4.50 per day. Some 50 people from La Máquina worked for Survivor as cooks, cleaners, camera haulers and groundskeepers, and they built and dismantled games and sets. The hamlet consists of about 130 households.
Gloria Diaz Grajeda, who runs a diner, prepared up to 150 meals a day for local staff with the help of half a dozen other women. Vans showed up regularly to pick up the meals and take them to the park. An hour away in Flores, Petén’s capital, Mayor Emilio Táger agrees that temporary work was beneficial, but says Survivor’s premise is a joke when compared to daily life here.
“ Putting on this huge show requires a huge investment, including the $ 1 million prize, ( to attract) people from rich countries who want to try something new — people who are bored with golf and other sports and are looking for other adventures.
“ Yes, here people are getting some work, but afterwards they’ll just be the same,” he says. Promos for Survivor: Guatemala give the impression that the show takes place deep in the jungle. In fact, the entrance to Yaxhá is at the turn- off from La Máquina on the main highway. Still, Yaxhá is a spectacular site that includes not only ruins, but also a beautiful lagoon.
Carlos Pérez, a labourer who worked on the sets, says scavenging for food wasn’t difficult for Survivor contestants: “We prepare the area where they would be (filming), including placing fruit from trees where they would find it.”
According to the Ministry of Culture, part of the agreement between Survivor and the Guatemalan government was no hunting or cutting of vegetation in the park. Instead, private farms near Yaxhá were also used for filming. There, picking fruit, cutting trees and use of open fires could take place.
Other sites outside Yaxhá, such as a private park that offers rides on cables through the jungle canopy, were also used to film. Filming also took place in Petén’s best-known site, Tikal, which boasts the tallest pre- Colombian ruins in the Americas.
Pérez gives us some minor spoilers, noting that some of the games that the Yaxhá and Nakúm teams ( into which participants are divided) include breaking ceramic targets with slingshots, crossing rope bridges, and a downhill race with some kind of sled. He says the games were given a trial run by teams of crewmembers called “imitators” before the actual filming took place. As a casual employee, Pérez was able to talk about his work. Unlike employees on contract, he didn’t have to sign a confidentiality agreement. However, he never got close enough to get wind of which participants had been eliminated, and who continued to advance. He did say that he’d noticed one contestant, “a fat young man,” lost about 40 kilograms. Celeste Mackenzie is an Ottawa freelance journalist who is producing a documentary film about La Máquina during the Survivor production period.