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Cultural Challenges |
According to our informal survey taken of students at Balboa High School and James Denman Middle School, Guatemalans in the U.S. face the following cultural challenges:
(a) Compared to the vast number of Mexican Americans, Guatemalans often feel overwhelmed here in the U.S. They are a minority in a minority. Many feel looked down on by Mexicans at large. Some feel that if they have much Indian/Mayan ancestry, they're better off abscuring that fact. Mexicans have a few well known celebrations here in California, but few Americans know anything at all about Guatemala. Although Guatemala is geographically bigger then El Salvador, California has had more Salvadorean immigration. (How many Guatemalan restaurants can you name versus El Salvadorean?)
(b) Because they are small in number, and because many are afraid to attract any attention for fear of the INS, they don't publicly celebrate their heritage. It's very difficult for illegal Guatemalans to get here in the first place; they want to be as inconspicous as possible.
(c) Students are very aware of their socio-economic status, and complain that "everything here is about money." They understand that their parents work in undervalued, low-paying positions.
(d) They feel that their parents don't see how important education is their future success. One of my students (an eleventh grader) is under pressure from her mother to marry (and leave the house). They feel that the Mexican parents don't encourage their children to work as soon as their parents.
(e)They'd be more likely to wear colorful indigenous clothing in Guatemala than here. They try to distance themselves from the Mayans.
(f) They believe their parents came here for legitimate political and economic reasons.
(g) They feel that Mexicans (and Central Americans in general) tend to "treat them like farmers or country boys."
For an interesting perspective on some of the unique challenges faced by
From an Urban Studies Department paper from San Francisco State by Raquel Pinderhughes:
Although all South and Central American immigrants are confronted by cultural differences when they resettle in the United States, Central and South American indigenous people face particular challenges in their adaptation to the United States. Many indigenous people speak neither English or Spanish; many have never lived outside their rural villages; many have lived their whole lives in the cycle of agriculture and the seasons. The situation of Guatemalan Mayan people who have settled in the state of Florida serves as an example. Most Guatemalan Mayan people working in Florida are Kanjobal speaking people who originate from the town of San Miguel Acatlan located in the northern province of Huehuetenango. Their adjustment has been difficult because they are mostly monolingual, speaking only Mayan languages, and holding non-western cultural values. Mayan people in Florida have encountered cultural problems that disrupt their culture and religion and force the discontinuation of their rituals and cultural traditions. The Mayan refugees in Florida work in the citrus fields and are no longer engaged in the cycle of corn agriculture. Although some Guatemalan immigrants are from Guatemala City, which is very urban, they too are confronted by a culture and a way of life which are quite different than their own.