Abstract

MORAN-TAYLOR, Michelle J.. Crafting connections: maya linkages between Guatemala's Altiplano and El Norte. Estud. front [online]. 2004, vol.5, n.10, pp.91-115. ISSN 2395-9134.

International migration constitutes one of the most significant phenomena impacting Guatemala today. About a million and a half Guatemalans live and work in rural and urban cities and towns across the United States and Canada. Like many other migrant groups, most Guatemalans sustain strong transnational linkages between their homeland and el norte (the United States). In the Guatemalan example highlighted in this article, such bonds owe much to the long-standing Guatemalan-U.S. historical connections, to the country's geographic priximity to the United States. Drawing on ethnographic material, this article examines the divergent kinds of transnational connections that Maya indigenous (K'iche') migrants craft and keep alive between their home community and their two primary destination localities in the United States-Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California. The article shows the different means of communication and technology, as well as the varying types of transnational organizing - particularly grass-roots efforts- that help shape current linkages between those who go and those who stay.

Keywords : Transnational migration; social ties; Guatemalan Maya migration; communications; grassroots organizing.