This is part of Reason’s 2025 summer travel issue. Click here to read the rest of the issue.
Everyone knows about the McDonald’s Happy Meal—a global icon, with its bright box, its golden arches, and a toy that keeps kids entertained long after the fries are gone. What most don’t know is this worldwide sensation was born in Guatemala, a small Central American country more often associated with coffee, bananas, and (unfortunately) crime.
In the mid-1970s, Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño, who founded the first McDonald’s in Guatemala, noticed that kids struggled to finish their meals. She created “Ronald’s Menu,” a kid-friendly meal that included a smaller hamburger, a little batch of fries, a drink, a sundae, and a toy she picked up from local markets. Her idea caught the attention of McDonald’s corporate offices, and by 1979 it had evolved into the Happy Meal we know…
