A Q&A with Nacho Letona: One Year as Director of the Visitor Program

Written by Elizabeth Leighton

Nacho Letona started his role as Director of the Visitor Program for the San Lucas Mission about one year ago. In this position, Nacho leads a team to welcome roughly 900 visitors to Guatemala each year. Today, we sat down with Nacho to reflect on his first year leading the Visitor Program.

Question 1: Why do you encourage people to visit San Lucas?

I encourage everyone to get to know San Lucas because it’s a town that has a lot to offer culturally. Around Lake Atitlán there are many tourist towns, but San Lucas — even though it doesn’t have something “touristic” to visit — has a lot of culture. Once you approach the people, you find the true meaning of being Guatemalan, the meaning of being from San Lucas.

So I think it’s a very “touristic” place for those interested in history, for those who want to find answers to many questions we all have. I think San Lucas is a beautiful town to enjoy all this ancestral knowledge, all these cultural exchanges and movements — and not only for foreign tourists, but also for Guatemalan visitors. It’s an opportunity to see that San Lucas has many beautiful traditions, and it’s not trying to pretend that these are our traditions or our culture — we truly are who we are.

Question 2: How has your perspective changed from working with visitors and volunteers who come from the States?

Well, I’ve always been around people who aren’t from here, but the biggest impact came when I started working in the Visitor Program. It’s very interesting to see that we can come from different countries, yet we seek something similar.

When I met the volunteers — Eisa, Kadence, Sophie, all of them — I saw love in their eyes toward strangers. That’s what struck me: I saw reflected [in them] that it doesn’t matter where you’re from — what matters is the action you want to carry out for others.

When it comes to joining forces, it’s simply about having the will to help, and walking together toward a better future for everyone.

Question 3: You are currently learning English, what has that experience been like for you?

I think that in my experience learning English, what has impacted me the most is the volunteers and the coordinators — the way they transmit an idea. When they tell me, “I translate,” or “I am the interpreter,” for me it is such an important job, because you are not just giving the message; you are trying to transmit the emotions. And when it is not your language, or not your first language, it is very difficult to find the correct word at the correct moment.

I think learning English gave me the sense of valuing the people who do the work of being our voice. I think that is what English taught me — that being the channel and transmitting the message is something beautiful.

One other thing English has taught me is that I have the opportunity to help others by learning a language. I think that is something very important to me, and every day I try — truly, every day I try — to learn the language, to see how I can express myself.

Question 4: What are some of your main objectives for the upcoming year?

I think that one of the biggest goals that we currently have is to stabilize the flow of visitors in San Lucas. And also one of our most important purposes is that these visitors help the local economy with local tourism, that they get to know the town, that they know where they can shop and be more like locals.

Because many of the foreigners who visit us today are already locals; in the end it’s like, “There goes Katy, there goes Jereme.” So they’re no longer foreigners, they’re part of the town. So that is what we want to achieve — that when you come, you stop being a visitor.

I want each visitor to have something to revisit and have something that gives them a reason to return.

Question 5: What is your favorite part about your job?

My favorite part is making new friends with the Long-Term Volunteers who come. I feel that they have a lot of energy, they have a lot to share, and when I see that they discover things they are good at and didn’t know they were good at—it makes me feel so happy for them. Because I say that in the end we are a little family, it’s like your younger sibling knowing what to do without your help.

I think that when it stops being a job and it creates family, it creates friendship, that is my favorite part.

Question 6: You seem very detail-oriented. Why are details so important to you?

Every day I visualize: if I were a visitor, what would I like to see?

So I say, if I were an older person, I would like to find a chair where I could sit comfortably. And if I were a young guy with my friends, I would like to have an area where I could be talking about my experiences. And if I were someone who is very stressed, I would like to have coffee ready so I could say “Okay, now I can be calmer.”

When you arrive at a home—for example, here in San Lucas—and mom welcomes you with a cup of coffee, it is a sign of love. When the Visitor Program welcomes you with a clean space, it is a sign of love. It is a sign that we want you to be here and we want you to feel comfortable.

So I feel that in the small details is the love we have for the visitors. It’s the love we have for the people who visit us. We would like to give them more, but we also have limitations. But in love we have no limitations. And that is what we put into every detail—love for those who visit us.

 

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