Senahu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The town of Senahu is the administrative center of the Municipio of Senahu in the Department of Alta Verapaz in Guatemala.

The community was founded by Kekchi Mayan refugees from a series of 19th century conflicts in the Ishi Mountains of Central Guatemala. By the mid 1870s, it had become a center of German settlement in Guatemala and a major source of coffee for the European market. In 2000 the estimated population was 3,000. Senahu is at the center of a region growing fine coffee.

Each year at the end of August a festival of San Antonio de Padua celebrating native peoples is held here. The festivities include a beauty contest for Kekchi Native American women, the winner of which is crowned with the title "Miss Senahuk'". For more information of Beauty Pagents in modern Latin America see Latin American Beauty Pagents.