Both culturally and intellectually, the 17th century was an extremely active period in the capital city of the Captaincy General of Guatemala. It was then that the first royal print arrived in Santiago de los Caballeros along with the first printer. José de Pineda Ibarra stationed it at the Council's entrance hall, facing the Main Square -where the Museum of Antique Books now stands. The acquisition and transportation of the press were overseen by Fray Payo Enríquez, who run the initiative in hopes of publishing his own work.

Historical data show that within two centuries (1663–1863), 354 works of religious, educational and historical nature were published (Fryer 1996: 613), as well as lexicons, indigenous grammars and poetry -whether in the form of books, booklets, leaflets, or loose sheets. The first published volume was Explicatio apologetica (1663), by Enríquez de Ribera, and four years later came Fray Diego Sáenz de Orecurí's Thomasiada al sol de la Iglesia y su Doctor Santo Tomás de Aquino (Thomasiada in the Sun of the Church and its Doctor Thomas Aquinas, 1667), the first collection of poems printed in Guatemala. José de Pineda Ibarra and his son Antonio were the only printers in the Kingdom of Guatemala until 1715. Yet from that point onwards, over ten printing houses were established in Santiago de los Caballeros. Noteworthy among them is Juana Martínez Batres’s one (c. 1730-c. 1800), inherited from her husband Sebastián de Arévalo, as it evinces female participation in the printing history of Guatemala between 1755 and 1800. Other significant houses include the print of Saint Francis Convent and the various printing works owned by Antonio Velasco, Sebastián de Arévalo, Manuel José de Quirós, Joaquín de Arévalo, Antonio Sánchez Cubillas, Inocente de la Vega, Cristóbal de Hincapié Meléndez and Ignacio Jacobo de Beteta. For all its lapses and inconclusive areas, the information and materials on the publishing history of this early stage is relatively rich -unlike later periods, where data grow scarcer as contemporary times draw closer.

Some of the referred printers remained active in the early 19th century. Such is the case of Sebastián de Arévalo's and Juana Martínez Batres's son, Manuel José Arévalo, who edited the Relación de las fiestas y actos literarios con que los estudiantes de la Real y Pontificia Universidad de Guatemala han celebrado la proclamación del Señor Don Fernando VII, la feliz instalación de la Junta Central y los sucesos gloriosos de las armas Españolas en la actual guerra contra Napoleón I (Account of the Festivities and Literary Events Held by the Students of the Royal and Pontificial University of Guatemala to Celebrate the Coronation of His Majesty Ferdinand VII, the Joyous Establishment of the Central Council, and the Heroic Deeds of the Spanish Army in the Current War Against Napoleon I, 1809). As for Ignacio Beteta, not only did he publish the Gazeta de Guatemala from 1797 to 1816, but he rebaptized his workshop Imprenta de la Libertad (Liberty Print) upon independence. His press would issue canon José María Castilla's sermon Al heroico pueblo de Guatemala (To the Heroic People of Guatemala, 1821), seemingly heralding the political role that the people would play in their government.

Following Guatemala's Independence (1821), a variety of printing houses were gradually founded both in the capital and in the inland regions. Among the most renowned ones were Tipografía La Unión, where Ramón Uriarte edited Galería poética centroamericana. Colección de poesías de los mejores poetas de la América del Centro: precedidas de los ligeros apuntes biográficos y breves juicios críticos sobre cada uno de los autores que la forman (Central American Poetic Showcase. Anthology of Poems by the Best Central American Poets: Preceded by Brief Biographical Notes and Critical Opinions on Each of the Authors it Features, 1888); as well as Imprenta de la Paz, Imprenta Nueva de Luna, Imprenta El Progreso and Imprenta Royal. The history of these printing houses remains unwritten, yet some significant publications attest to their role in the bibliographical development of Guatemala and Central America.

In the late 19th century, President José María Reyna Barrios (1892-1898) acquired Imprenta Modelo and turned it into Imprenta Nacional (National Press), which was renamed in 1894 as Tipografía Nacional (National Printing Works). Through its long-standing trajectory, the institution has stood out for editing a range of national authors -including Clemente Marroquín Rojas, Miguel Ángel Asturias or Enrique Gómez Carrillo. It currently sustains three collections: Colección Documentos, Colección Literatura and Colección Crónica. Tipografía Sánchez & De Guise, one of the first private typographies to make use of the linotype typesetting system, was founded in the early decades of 20th century. It was there where Rafael Arévalo Martínez published such works as La Oficina de Paz de Orolandia (Goldenland’s Office of Peace, 1925) or Las noches en el Palacio de la Nunciatura (Nights at the Palace of the Nunciature, 1927).

A succession of dictatorial regimens in the first half of 20th century (Manuel Estrada Cabrera, 1898-1920 and Jorge Ubico, 1933-1944) complicated the publishing activities of Guatemala. This circumstances inhibited ideological debate and the dissemination of works of literature and other disciplines. During the Revolución (1944–1954), Centro Editorial played a significant role with its collection 20 de Octubre, which published national and foreign authors at truly affordable prices as part of the revolutionary program for cultural development. The collection Clásicos del Istmo was also published in this period. It was back upon then that Editorial Piedra Santa (1947) was founded, and has thus far undergone several phases. While focusing mainly on textbooks, it has developed a line of literary works in a variety of collections, some of wich are extremely young: Colección Miguel Ángel Asturias, Colección Ancestral, Clásicos Universales, Clásicos Americanos, Colección Mario Monteforte Toledo or Colección Mar de Tinta, specialised in contemporary Central American authors.

The impact of political instability on the publishing business continued during the second half of 20th century. Certain editorial initiatives did, however, shape the history of the book in Guatemala. For example, Editorial Óscar de León Palacios (1957) has largely focused on textbooks for primary education, especially aimed at public schools and rural areas. In the literary field, the house has published relevant works like the novel Los compañeros (The Comrades, 1976), by Marco Antonio Flores. As noteworthy is Colección Profecías, with twenty two books or plaquettes by Guatemalan poets (including César Brañas, Rafael Arévalo Martínez, Ana María Rodas, Enrique Juárez Toledo, Isabel de los Ángeles Ruano, and others). Popular literature was assumed, for instance, by the Asociación Zacapaneca de Contadores de Cuentos y Anécdotas.

In 1978, a group of university students -mainly from Rafael Landívar University- founded the publishing house RIN-78. While it did not conform an ideological or aesthetic entity, this cooperative of Guatemalan writers was committed to publishing the literary works of its members and other unaffiliated authors. Published writers include Luz Méndez de la Vega, Dante Liano, Ana María Rodas and Franz Galich. The house launched such collections as Colección Literatura, Colección Rescate, Colección Texto and Colección Ensayo. It would later establish Editorial Palo de Hormigo (1990), led by editor and writer Juan Fernando Cifuentes (1936-2006). Besides being a founding member of RIN-78, Cifuentes had also directed Tipografía Nacional in the 1980s and supported the creation of Editorial Cultura, which he led for some years.

Additional projects were developed in the second half of 20th century. It is worth mentioning San Carlos University Press, as it made significant publications like Obra dramática de Manuel Galich (The Collected Plays of Manuel Galich, 1989). The aforementioned Editorial Cultura was founded in 1987 by the General Management of the Arts, a unit of the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Devoted to Guatemalan texts across a variety of genres (poetry, novel, short stories, literary essays), it is currently chaired by the poet Francisco Morales Santos. Around the same time Ana María Cofiño established Ediciones del Pensativo (1998) in the city of Antigua Guatemala. The house publishes texts on Social Sciences, History, Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology and other related matters regarding Guatemala, as well as literature and art books. The editorial policy promotes critical and analytical works about the state of the nation. Among other collections, Zahorines is dedicated to literature and Nuestra Palabra to women-related subjects.

In the 1990s, after the harsh and bloody years of the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), several publishing houses would rise to enliven Guatemala's literary landscape. Amidst them stands Magna Terra, an editorial and lithographic project which has generated a number of literary collections (Los Libros del Aleph, Narrativa, Pregón, Conseja, Saberes, Clásicos Infantiles, Jerigonza and Letras Guatemaltecas) devoted to biography, poetry, novels, short stories, essays and children's literature. Another project, commenced in 1993, is F & G Editores: an independent publisher consecrated to Guatemalan and Central American Literature and Social Sciences, remarkable for works aimed to retrieve historical memory. As a member of the Grupo de Editores Independientes de Centroamérica (GEICA), it has taken part in the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico. GEICA consists on the Central American publishers F & G Editores (Guatemala), Guaymuras (Honduras), Arcoiris (El Salvador), Anamá (Nicaragua) and Uruk (Costa Rica).

The final years of 20th century and the first decades of 21st have witnessed the emergence of various editorial enterprises that speak to the vibrancy of local literature -even though the number of readers is still meagre on account of illiteracy, economic precarity, and the absence of reading habits. A new vast series of initiatives reveal an unprecedented dynamism in the book history of Guatemala. Some projects on Mayan culture stand out among these alternative publishers: Editorial Fundación Cholsamaj (1991) and Editorial Maya' Wuj publish mostly educational materials, such as dictionaries, anthropological and historical studies on Mayan cosmogony and literature in indigenous tongues. For instance, poetry collections by Quichean author Humberto Ak'abal and Rodrigo Rey Rosa's novel El país de Toó (The Country of Toó, 2018). In this line, Letra Negra Editores, -specialized in Central American literature- was founded in 1998.

Other innovative imprints have flourished alongside these ventures. Such is the case of Catafixia, devoted to Guatemalan, Latin American and Spanish poetry, and of La Valiente. The latter encompasses several independent imprints: Equis, Ediciones Bizarras, Amanuense, Chuleta de Cerdos, Alas de Barrilete and Vueltagatos Ediciones, which advocate handcrafted books as works of art.

The biannual International Book Fair of Guatemala, organized in the capital by the trade union Gremial de Editores de Guatemala (Cámara de Industria de Guatemala), has also nurtured the book industry and reading culture of the country. As noted already, however, the high rates of illiteracy, the scarcity of means to acquire books and the widespread lack of reading habits remain the main challenges for Guatemalan publishing.

Bibliography

• CHAPA BEZANILLA, María de los Ángeles (2005). Guía bibliográfica centroamericana del fondo Rafael Heliodoro Valle de la Biblioteca Nacional, 1822-1968. México: UNAM/Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas/Biblioteca Nacional/Hemeroteca Nacional.
• DÍAZ, Víctor Miguel (1930). Historia de la imprenta en Guatemala: desde los tiempos de la Colonia hasta la época actual. Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional.
• FRYER, Celia A. (1996). «Las filigranas italianas en impresos guatemaltecos», Actas de la Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro, pp. 611-624 [6 de enero de 2018].
• MAYEN GARCÍA, Thelma Judith (2014). «Aproximación histórica al Museo de la Tipografía Nacional de Guatemala (2000-2013)». Tesis: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.
• MOLINA JIMÉNEZ, Iván (2002). «La cultura impresa centroamericana en la primera mitad del siglo XIX», Sincronía, Año 7, número 22. [6 de enero de 2018]
• STOLS, Alexandre (1960). La introducción de la imprenta en Guatemala. México: UNAM.
• VELA, David (1960). La imprenta en la Colonia. Guatemala: Editorial José de Pineda Ibarra.