The Association Q’anjobal Ewulense was established in the City of Los Angeles in 1991 by a group of Maya-Q’anjobals who reside in Los Angeles. Q’anjobal is the language spoken by one of the 23 existing ethnic groups in Guatemala. The members of this association are from Santa Eulalia. Santa Eulalia is a small town in Huehuetenango (in the northwestern part of Guatemala.) Most of its inhabitants and those of neighboring towns are Maya-Q’anjobales.

The Association Q’anjobal Ewulense was created in response to the need for rebuilding the Roman Catholic Church of Santa Eulalia, which for unknown reasons suffered a devastating fire in the early 1990’s.

In an effort to rebuild the church building, a group of conscientious people from Santa Eulalia, who reside in Los Angeles, got together and started collecting donations from among the Q’anjobales who wanted to be part of this effort. At that time, Reverend David Lopez was the pastor of the parish of Santa Eulalia, and the Association Q’anjobal Ewulense functioned under his guidance.

Once the church was rebuilt, another project was started. This time it was Rev. Lopez’s idea to build a hospital. Santa Eulalia did not have a single hospital or a single medical doctor. Many people died because of the lack of medicine or medical treatment, especially children and the elderly. So Rev. Lopez contacted the Association Q’anjobal Ewulense for this new project. Considering that the amount of money we could raise was not going to be enough to build a hospital, to equip it once it was done, to buy medicine, or to staff it, Rev. Lopez had to travel to different states in the U.S. and to other countries in Europe to raise money.

After a few years, the hospital was built and it was named “Jose David Lopez Community Hospital of the North.” Thanks go to the efforts of Rev. Lopez, to all the Q’anjobales in the U.S., to the people of Santa Eulalia who not only contributed money but also labor, and to all of those individuals from different parts of the world who donated large amounts of money. The hospital is now staffed with a full-time medical doctor. Also, it acquired an ambulance. The hospital does not receive any government funding, but is run solely by small donations and other humanitarian help.

Currently, The Association Q’anjobal Ewulense is a non-profit organization. Thanks to Dr. Fernando Penalosa, Retired Professor of Anthropology at the University of Southern California (USC,) who helped and guided us to become a non-profit organization in the City of Los Angeles in 1998.