The Kingdom of Guatemala in the late eighteenth century was a paradox. It was simultaneously rich and poor, according to its colonial administrators, priests, merchants, and ordinary residents. It was a ‘kingdom of vast extension’ that should by all accounts be a wealthy province within the Spanish empire, as puzzled observers noted. As the Spanish administrative region spanning modern-day Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, it had great natural advantages, from being a place where ‘the most exquisite fruits of all climes grow in abundance’ to possessing harbours on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Indeed, it might well be ‘the best of all the King’s possessions’. Yet, as a contributor to Guatemala’s newspaper remarked in 1803, ‘this kingdom, which should be one of the most prosperous, is one of the most miserable ones in America’.