Meaning of leaving guatemala to enter guatepeor (what is it, concept and definition)

What is Exiting Guatemala to enter Guatepeor:

"Leaving Guatemala to enter Guatepeor" is a saying that is formed from a play on words. As such, it expresses the paradoxical situation of someone who, by avoiding a bad situation, ends up getting into a worse one.

In this sense, it is applied to situations in which although we seek to escape from danger, this evasion ends up resulting in another even more compromised situation, that is, we leave a bad situation to enter a lousy situation.

For example, a person in debt who manages to avoid paying his debts to the bank, but ends up falling into the clutches of fierce creditors. Another paradoxical situation would be that of a country threatened with war by its neighbor who, when asking for help from a power, ends up under its power.

In Spanish from Spain, a similar expression would be "leave Malaga to enter Malagón", or "leave Escila and fall in Caribdis".

Other expressions that express the same idea of ​​fleeing from a danger and falling into a worse one would be, for example:

• Like the raccoon, who ran away from the dog in the lasso. Descabizar the bailiff and take refuge in the corregidor. Escape from the puddle to fall into the swamp. Escape from the fire to fall into the coals. Jump from the frying pan to fall into the coals. I fell from the dust into the mud. Fleeing from the bull fell into the stream. Leaving the puddle and falling into the lake. Leaving the mud and falling into the stream.

A curious dimension. Etymologically, the name of Guatemala has nothing to do with this negative connotation, but comes from the Nahuatl word Quauhtlemallan , which means 'place of many trees'.

In English, the expression “leaving Guatemala to fall into Guatepeor” can be translated as “ to jump out of the frying pan into the fire ”, which would be understood as 'jumping from the frying pan into the fire'.