El café, motivo de la transformación territorial y arquitectónica alemana de la Alta Verapaz q’eqchi’

Abstract

This article explores the impact of the coffee industry, developed mainly by Germans, on the territory of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, and the indigenous Maya-Q'eqchi communities. Alta Verapaz received hundreds of Germans between 1865 and 1941. The integration of the coffee industry and German society and culture resulted in the acquisition and transformation of a large amount of Alta Verapaz as coffee plantations, the reconfiguration of the territory, the construction of new means of transportation, and the integration of new architectural typologies, public spaces, objects, and customs. This article explains the sequence of architectural and spatial consequences that the arrival of coffee had on the local Q'eqchi' habitat, their territory, architecture, and way of life.