The most beautiful place MAIN CHARACTER

in the world The main character is called Juan, he is seven years old, he is
affectionate, honest, he likes to study a lot, he has no parents,
and he lives with his grandmother.

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

The secondary characters are: Juan's grandmother, Juan's

mother, uncle Miguel, uncle Luis and uncle Rodolfo.

The grandmother lives in a house surrounded by a very

beautiful lot. He makes a living selling rice pudding in the
market.
Juan's mother does not love her son very much, first she
divorces and then remarries another man.

Uncle Miguel paints very beautiful paintings.

Uncle Rodolfo knows how to somersault forward and

backward.

Summary

Juan lives in the mountains of Guatemala, in a town

called San Pablo. San Pablo is on the edge of a large lake and
there are seven other towns on its shores. People go from one
town to another in motor boats or canoes, there is a road but it
is not very good.

Juan was born in a little house behind the big house.

His father was the caretaker of the big house. My father went
out at night with his friends and spent a lot of money, and one
day he left. As my father left, the owner of the big house asked
my mother to leave there. At that time my mother was 17
years old and she didn't have any money and we went to my
grandmother's house and three uncles lived with her who are
single and five married aunts with their children come to stay
some days.
The grandfather died many years ago, and the
grandmother was not poor, she had a solid house with little
doors in the windows, which she closed at night or when it
rained.
The grandmother works in the market selling rice
pudding, it is a very special rice pudding, because it is not
eaten with a spoon, it is drunk from a glass. He has gotten up
every day at 5 in the morning since he was 13 years old to
prepare it.
When they went to live with their grandmother, Juan
shared a bed with his mother. Juan's mother earns a little
money washing people's clothes in the laundry room behind
his grandmother's house. At night Juan and his mother would
go out for a walk, meet their friends, and have a great time.
One day when they were walking a man approached
them, bought Juan a candy and stayed talking to his mother.
Every time they went out they ran into him, so Juan's mother
told her son that she was going to marry that man, and that he
couldn't go live with them.
They went to the grandmother's house and took Juan's
bed, after a while the grandmother returned, and Juan told her
that they had taken his bed, the grandmother got very angry,
and Juan asked her if he could sleep with her. , but her
grandmother told her that she worked a lot and that she needed
to rest well. He started to cry, but grandmother gave him
empty rice bags and a blanket.
She told him to remember that she closes the gate at
eight thirty and that after that time she doesn't let anyone in.
After his mother left, Juan went out at night alone, no one
cared about him. One day the time passed, the grandmother
had already closed the gate a long time ago. Then he went to
his stepfather's house, saw that his mother was alone and
knocked. When she saw him, she told him to come in, Juan
asked him if he could stay the night, he answered yes, but
under the bed so that his stepfather wouldn't see him, his
mother shook the carpet and covered him.
The next morning, his mother woke him up very early
and told him to leave and never come back.
When he returned to his grandmother's house, she
asked him where he had been and what happened, he
answered that he came from his stepfather's house and nothing
happened. In the afternoon the grandmother and Juan went to
their stepfather's house, she told them that they had to get a
bed for him. The following week they took her away. From
that moment on, Juan only saw his mother on the street from
time to time, and he saw that she was pregnant, but his half-
brother was never going to find out about her existence.
The grandmother taught Juan to work with her in the
market, to sell rice pudding.
After a while she bought him a shoe shine kit and Juan
started working as a shoe shiner next to the tourist office.
Little by little he began to earn money, the adult men earned
two dollars a day, and Juan one, so he is very well off, and he
always gave the money to his grandmother and she gave him a
part.
 Juan got a little sad when he saw the children going to Mrs. Irene was surprised every day by Juan's great
school passing by and he wondered why his grandmother intelligence.
hadn't sent him, and he decided to just learn to read.
Juan and the grandmother went for a walk, the
He asked his clients what to put up the signs around grandmother asked Juan what he had under the photo of San
them when he had read them all. A man left him a newspaper Pablo, he told her that it said "The most beautiful place in the
clipping that he always carried with him. In a few days he world." Juan asked her if San Pablo was the most beautiful
already knew how to read, one day Juan decided to ask his place in the world, and she answered that it could be anywhere
grandmother about going to school. And she told him that he where you can hold your head high and feel proud of yourself.
was very small, that he was only 5 years old, but Juan told her Juan was satisfied with the answer.
that he was already 7, the grandmother had gotten confused
where many people lived in her house. The next day the two
went to talk to Mrs. Irene, the teacher. She said that the other
children were studying arithmetic and were beginning to read
a little. The grandmother answered that she knew arithmetic,
and Juan, who knew how to read, took out the sheet of
newspaper and began to read.

The next day Juan's grandmother dressed him in the

cleanest clothes she had and they went to talk to the teacher
Doña Irene. But she told him that he couldn't enter this year,
because he was already behind, because the other children
already knew arithmetic and reading, and the grandmother told
her that Juan already knew arithmetic and Juan said he knew
how to read. Doña Irene said that since that was the case, she
could enter first grade. Juan studied in the morning and in the
afternoon he shined shoes.

After a while the teachers sent a note to his house

saying that he could go to second grade, and that if they
couldn't pay for his studies the teachers would do it. And the
grandmother, instead of congratulating him, hugged him and
cried with happiness.