When I lived in Rio Blanco, the Maya weren’t the only people of another culture I met. While the country itself was a British colony, the entire educational system was run by American Jesuits from the Missouri Province in St. Louis. Father John Paul Cull, the priest in Toledo District, was American—tall, lean, given to abrupt speech and movements, a man who seldom smiled. He was also the only Roman Catholic priest I’ve ever made friends with.

The interior of the Catholic Church in San Antonio, Toledo District. A church in St. Louis donated the stained glass. (Photo by Joan Fry)