Indigenous culture

When visiting Guatemala, you'll see that the country's culture is heavily influenced by the Mayans and the Spanish, and it continues to be defined by the contrast between the rural highlands' impoverished Mayan villagers and the urbanized, affluent mestizo population—known as ladinos in Guatemala—who live in the cities and surrounding agricultural plains. The power was handed to the foreigners with the entrance of the Spanish conquistadors, and their mixed-race offspring, the ladino, became the new influential family in Guatemala. Contrary to the majority of the rest of the New World, the Europeans did not entirely subjugate or marginalize the native population instead they formed an uneasy partnership.

There are many different musical genres and expressions in Guatemala. The Maya practiced music very hard. Beginning in 1524, Guatemala was one of the first places in the New World to receive European music. Numerous exceptionally talented composers from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern music periods have created works in all musical genres. Guatemala's national instrument is the marimba. The marimba is made of keys or bars that, when tapped with mallets, emit musical tones (they are often made of wood). To help the performer visually and physically, the keys are set up like those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and covering the natural keys.