By Father Jim Hazelton

I wish to introduce you to Pedro Ecoquij Tziquin, my musician-composer, translator-catechist and friend for many years in Guatemala’s Santo Tomas la Union Parish. But first, I would like to share some of my accomplishments in relation to music during my 47 years in Guatemala. I can’t sing a note, or play an instrument.

When I arrived in Santa Maria, my first assignment in Guatemala, Pascual Chavajay assisted me as a paid catechist and musician. He could play one instrument, a portable organ. As far as I know, the organ was the only instrument in the parish and it was used not only at home but also was carried to the villages, for Mass. Music was only in Spanish, a language that 90 percent of the people neither spoke nor understood.

Eventually, I sent Pascual to learn to play the guitar, which solved the problem of carrying the portable organ. Much later we changed to an accordion, and that became the instrument of choice during all my years there.

Later, Pascual translated a couple of Spanish hymns into Quiche, his native language. Later still, he found he could compose music in that language. One of his first compositions was a Christmas carol, which remains one of his best works.

I still recall the joy evident among people able to sing a hymn in their own language, and the joy that Pascual’s daughter felt in singing herself hoarse as she taught people to sing in their language. Soon, Pascual had enough songs for a small hymn book, which I arranged to have published. It was the first of its kind in the area of Guatemala where priests from Spokane, Wash., and Helena were working. The year 1998 brought publication of a very fine hymnal of 188 songs—the work of Pascual, Pedro and others—and was praised warmly by Bishop Pablo Vizcaino, of the Diocese of Suchitepequez-Retalhuleu.

Now Pedro, who succeeded Pascual when he retired, has completed a new hymnal. Pedro has just a sixth-grade education— and it is inferior, as education in Guatemala goes—but he uses a computer effectively. He not only did the typing for the hymnal, but saw it through to a finished product, without help from a professional printer.

The hymnal reflects the creativity of native composers and includes Quiche versions of some of the more popular hymns translated from Spanish.

Pedro also produced a companion volume with translations, again from Spanish to Quiche, of popular Charismatic Renewal hymns. He told me he can produce the finished product for less than $4. For some of the people in Guatemala, that price puts a personal copy of the book within reach.


Father Jim Hazelton was a diocesan missionary in Guatemala from 1964-2011. He lives in Helena.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 27, No. 10, October 21, 2011.