Cayo District Politics and History
San Ignacio Town is an administrative center for the Cayo District whose economy depends on the tourism industry, cattle ranching and small businesses. San Ignacio is often called Cayo. San Ignacio at one time was squeezed between the Mopan and Macal rivers with no roads leading to it and appeared to be an island, hence the town¹s first name El Cayo, the Spanish word for island.

Because the Cayo District is the westernmost district of Belize, it has the official border crossing into Guatemala through Santa Elena. For the past century, the border between Guatemala and Belize has been in hot dispute.

In Belize there are six administrative districts: Belize, Cayo, Corozal, Orange Walk, Stann Creek and Toledo. Within each district, towns elect seven members to a local town board. The 2000 (check) elections in San Ignacio put a People's United Party board in place with PUP mayor Orlando Landy Habet, who won with 2209 votes. The mayoral candidate for the UDP lost by a mere 13 votes after receiving 2196 votes.

The PUP, which was formed in 1950, has a history of 80 percent winning rates and is responsible for launching the Belizean revolution that resulted in the name "Belize," its independence in 1981, and the country flag, anthem and prayer.

Local Government in the villages is administered with the assistance of village councils who presently do not have a legal standing.

Arts, Crafts and Music
Although Belize is rich in culture, the government gives low priority to the arts, which has lead to an inactive national arts scene. However, there are many talented Belizean artists and enough supporters of the arts that some people have begun talking about a cultural revival in Belize. The government-run Arts Council is becoming more prominent in its support of the arts.(1)

In the Cayo District there are many well-known artists including Carolyn Carr, Octavio Sixto, the Garcia sisters, Lesley Glaspie and the Magna family. Mennonite furniture is also popular in the area.

Carolyn Carr is known for her haunting images of local Belizean life creates miniature replicas of Belizean shacks and landmark buildings.

The Garcia sisters are the most well known for their slate carvings. The five sisters took their Mayan heritage and began re-creating slate carvings that are thought to be similar to the ones their ancestors used to make. They own the Tanah Mayan Art Museum in San Antonio. The museum is a combination crafts shop, herbal medicine pharmacy and Mayan shrine.(2)

Once a year the artists collect slate stones from specific locations among the creeks and riverbeds. This is a sacred time for the artists. The act of walking through creek beds, getting soaked, putting hands on the earth and feeling the smoothness or roughness of new stones revitalizes both the body and the spirit. The stones are then closed in sheds or underground until the time comes for carving. The artists seek out their elders so that the images they create will be true to their cultural history.(3)

The three most popular forms of music in the area are Punta Rock, Salsa and Reggae.

The People of San Ignacio
The country of Belize is a patchwork of ethnic groups and the town of San Ignacio is no exception. Mayans, Mestizos, Mennonites and Creoles along with smaller minority groups make up the 8,336 inhabitants who live in San Ignacio and its sister town, Santa Elena. Other groups include Garifunas, East Indians, whites, Chinese, Syrian and Lebanese. Overall, the Cayo District has 52,564 people. The district is one of the most Hispanic parts of Belize with its Spanish-speaking Mestizos and Maya farmers. (4)

The Mayas arrived in the Cayo District in 1886 after fleeing from forced labor and taxation in Guatemala.4 Many do not identify themselves as Mopan but as Indian or Maya instead.(5)

In 1999, the Spanish-speaking Mestizos, who are a mix of Spanish and Amerindian origin, accounted for 44 percent of the country's population. They are now the largest cultural group in Belize.(6)

The Mennonites, who speak guttural German, moved to Belize because of persecution from the Netherlands. There are two Mennonite groups in Belize - the modernists and the traditionalists. The modernists believe that the church should participate in the world, while the traditionalists believe that contact with the modern world tends to contaminate their pure faith.(7) Traditional Mennonites do not like to have their photograph taken because they believe that no memory should carry on after the death of a person.(8)

Another dominant language and culture in Belize is Creole, which evolved from the interaction of the European settlers and African slaves. In 1999, Creoles accounted for 30 percent of the population.

Agriculture, Industry and Tourism
San Ignacio is built on top of seven hills in the Cayo District and sits on the left bank of the Macal River. Historically, the city relied on the export of mahogany and chicle for survival. Today, it is an administrative center for the Cayo District and relies on cattle ranching, tourism and small businesses.

Because of deforestation, the Cayo District and its once vibrant mahogany industry has given way to cornfields and livestock pastures. The Mennonite community, which came from Mexico in 1958, largely runs the farms in San Ignacio. Before their arrival, most foods were imported to Belize. The Mennonites brought cooperative agriculture to the country by raising cattle, growing corn, producing milk and cheese, and selling chicken, eggs, and honey.

Milk is mainly produced in the Cayo and Corozal districts, which together supply nearly 99 percent of the country's output.(9)

Poultry, pig and corn production also is localized in the Cayo District and Mennonite farmers again dominate the industries. Fruit juice is a major export in this district.

Because of neighboring Maya ruins and its placement on the beautiful Macal River, San Ignacio is fast becoming a tourist hot spot. In close proximity to San Ignacio are the major Mayan centers of Cahal Pech, Xunantunich and El Pilar.

The city of San Ignacio sits on the site of an ancient Mayan town called Cahal Pech. The center of Xunantunich, meaning "stone woman" in Mayan, is situated on a hill overlooking the Mopan River and is home to a large pyramid, El Castillo.

Cayo District Geography and Climate
The Cayo District is the largest of Belize's six districts with an area of more than 2,000 square miles and a terrain that includes river valleys, jungle hillsides, savanna and mountain ridges.

The climate of the Cayo District is subtropical with little variation. Throughout the year, temperatures seldom drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit or exceed 95 degrees.

Annually, the Cayo District receives 60 inches of rain. Thunderstorms last for a short duration and the skies are rarely overcast for long periods of time. Because Belize is located close to the equator, there are 12 hours of daylight, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and all of Belize is on Central Standard Time.

The population of the Cayo District is 40,000 people, 12,000 of those concentrated in San Ignacio and Santa Elena, Belize's second largest urban area.(10)

Nestled in a valley between two rivers, San Ignacio and Santa Elena are separated by the Macal River and connected by Belize's only suspension bridge, the one-lane Hawksworth Bridge. Sixty percent of the Cayo District is set aside as wildlife sanctuary, national park or forest reserve.

Ecology, Wildlife, Ecotourism and Environmentalism
The lush environment and abundance of wildlife in the Cayo District draws tourists who want to experience the pristine forests and rivers, as well as Mayan archeological sites, but their presence fuels growing industry that could ultimately threaten the integrity of the ecosystems they come to experience.

There are several distinct forest types in the Cayo District, including pine-oak, mixed broadleaf jungle, cohune palm forests and riverine forests The pine-oak forests are found in sandy, dry soils and exist in some lowland areas, but mostly in the foothills of the Maya Mountains where the water is more efficiently drained. The flora is made up of palmetto palms, scrub oak, various grasses and pine.

Mixed broadleaf jungle is the transition zone between sandy soil and clay soils. Huge trees like the Mahogany, Ceiba and Guanacaste flourish in these areas as well as an array of animals and other plants. (11)

Cohune palm forests thrive in moist clay soils.(12) Riverine forests are found along the banks of rivers, such as the Macal and Mopan. They receive more water from excessive rain and flooding than the other forests.

These different forests serve as habitat for an impressive diversity of life, including large populations of animals threatened elsewhere such as the Jabiru Stork, the largest flying bird in all the Americas.

The jaguar is the largest cat in Central America. The largest animal on the forest floor is the Tapir, Belize's national animal. It is also known as the "mountain cow" because it is the largest terrestrial mammal in Central America and can weigh up to 600 pounds.

The Cayo forests are also home to many reptiles, such as the iguana, Boa constrictor, coral snake and the poisonous snake Fer-de-Lance

Blue Hole National Park, 575 acres, is located 12 miles southeast of Belmopan along the Hummingbird Highway in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. Blue Hole is a karst sinkhole 100 feet deep and 300 feet in diameter. The pool itself is 25 feet deep.

Approximately 45 percent of the land in Belize is protected by law, but about 15 percent is actually managed.

Status of Healthcare and the Educational System
Belize's health care and secondary education are often inaccessible and inadequate. While mobile clinics are ill-equipped to provide complete medical treatment for small villages, secondary schools are not available for the poor. Rural vs. urban, public institutions vs. private, and educated people vs. the uneducated dictate the educational and healthcare systems.

The educational system in Belize is a "complex institutional system " in which children are taught not only skills but also, how to distinguish themselves hierarchically from each other.(13) Primary education is free and compulsory. It consists of two years of "infant" or preschool level teaching, and six years of standard teaching, the U.S. equivalent to elementary and middle school.

The majority of rural children enrolled in primary schools do not receive secondary education, which is not free and is run by the government and private institutions.

Though USAID and the Belize Ministry of Education share similar aims, their relationship is stressed by tension because the two have different interests and priorities. The United States is focused on short-term projects in areas of technical and managerial training, basically vocational skills. The ministry would like to educate people to be both scholars and skilled workers.(14)

Belize has no formal government sponsored health system for the working class and is the only country in Central America that has zero percent access to Social Security. The majority of the population receives health care through the Ministry of Health and private insurance plans exist through non-government agencies. (15)

Rural Health Nurses (RHN) work in mobile health clinics providing the majority of health care to rural areas with the help of traditional healers such as birth attendants, bush doctors, granny healers, spiritual healers, and snake doctors.

Between 1996-97, 62 HIV cases were reported in the Cayo District out of 582 total in Belize, 21 cases of AIDS were found in the Cayo District out of the 226 total cases reported.(16)