FORWARD

Black Sand Beaches is set on the beaches near El Salvador.

Located in southern-most corner of Guatemala’s Pacific Coast, about 45 kilometers from the border of El Salvador, is a narrow, meandering, two lane road that runs from the Bridge at Iztapa to the large estuary at El Dormido.  

Like the scales of an iguana, the Aldeas line up along the meandering, two-lane road from the Bridage at Iztapa to the large estuary at El Dormido.

If you ever travel along this scenic two-lane byway that is shaded by Mango orchards and coconut groves you will see more than 100 small villages – called Aldeas – that line the road like the scales of an iguana, individually independent and communally interconnected.

The names of these Aldeas are lyrical and mysteriously descriptive like Saints of a church, the players of a soccer team, or the varieties of shells along a beach:  Montericco, La Curbina, El Cebollito, Los Limones, Hawaii, Las Mananitas, El Rosario and El Dormido.


















Living within these towns are people who are as colorful and symbolic as they names of the towns they inhabit. Like Herman the fishermen who rises at the darkest hour of dawn to launch his small fishing boat into the limitless and unpredictable Pacific Ocean; Don Jose the store owner who sells the goods and staples to neighbors; caretakers – called guardians – like Chato who mows lawns, paints walls and fills pools; Felipe the construction laborer who digse holes, mixes cement and constructs walls; Herman the mechanic who fixes tires, repairs brakes, and replaces motor oil; waiters like Fernando and waitresses like Lesle who serve breakfast, clean shrimp, and tend bars for the area; Don Ramiro an entrepreneurs who vends anything from clothes to horses, and resident foreigner – called extranejeros -  like Hank, Chuck and Becky, who have discovered the magic of the area but haven’t the means to live there fulltime.

These Aldeas and these people are intertwined and are blurred together through blood, marriage, religion, or money so that it is never really known which is more important, the Aldea or the person.

“Black Sand Beaches” is a collection of short stories inspired by the colorful and authentic people and Aldeas of the area. The stories describe the themes of family, fear, adventure and survival that are universal to the human condition, while also being infused with the texture and unvarnished primitiveness and devotion to an uncomplicated lifestyle that is wholly unique to these coastal communities of Guatemala. While these stories describe events and situations that may be hard to believe, they are in fact are as real as the waves that crash along Guatemala’s black sand beaches.