We’ve mentioned before that there is no shortage of drunks in town and, reflecting on this the other day, Fletch mentioned he thought it would be interesting to do a study on immigration and alcoholism, to see what percentage of the population of alcoholics has immigrated to the states for any period of time, and what their experiences there were, because it seems that so many of them know at least a little bit of English. Having immigrated in reverse (though legally via an airplane vs. illegally on a months long journey that involves walking through a giant desert) I can see that the experience would be nothing short of daunting. And while I

know that I’m here for a short time and will return to the comfort and luxury of the US, they are in the US temporarily and then return here. Honestly, even though I do really love being here and the work we’re doing, I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t remember that I will be going home after all of this is over. That is unspeakably comforting.

The ties between our town (as with much of Guatemala) and the US are strong. So far we’ve met three females, between the age of 11 and 25 who are US citizens visiting their family here, born in Florida, Southern California, and Portland, Oregon. Within our host family one of their sons and two of the sons-in-law areworking at the moment in Viriginia. We have wandered around talking to countless families in the aldea and almost all of them have one or more family members in the US: San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Phoenix, Omaha, South Bend, Indianapolis–just to name a few places.

And now we sing, “It’s a small world after all. It’s a small world after all. It’s a small world after all. It’s a small, small world…”

While the migrant workers have brought billions of dollars into Guatemala, I wouldn’t claim that it’s made a world of difference in people’s quality of living here. It’s definitely got it’s pros and cons. Our main counterpart in town, the President of the Health committee, spent a few years in the states and now feels an urgent need to improve his community in ways he might not if he hadn’t gone to the US.

But while his new found ambition for social progress is great, some imports are annoying and disturbing to Fletch and me. For example, amongst Guatemalans who have been to the US there is this showy competition to see who can build the biggest house. That’s it.

These people work like dogs in the US and they send the money home to build houses 3, 4, and 5 stories high just so everyone knows that they’re making money now. It makes me mad sometimes, and other times it makes me feel sick that this is what they’ve picked up in the US–the inspiration for Guatemalan McMansions. From a preventive health perspective the one thing these houses have going for them is that they don’t have dirt floors. These houses still do not have: running water, toilets/latrines, or inhabitants who know the importance of washing their hands, and brushing their teeth. They still cook on wood burningstoves, except this one usually has a chimney, but they don’t know that if they don’t plant trees to replace the ones they keep chopping down that they’ll be contributing to land slides and all the other numerous disadvantages of deforestation. And the best part? Many of the houses just sit empty after they’re built, for one or more of the following reasons: because it was built for a family that managed to get everyone to the US and hasn’t come back; because it was built for their mother who won’t come to the US because she’s pretty worried she won’t make it across the desert, plus she’s a grandma who’s set in her ways and has no interest in moving to the big, cold, uncomfortable house in a different location; because it was built for the future family of a 3,4,5 year old son whose father is in the US. Many a Peace Corp Volunteer has inhabited just such a house, or just a floor of it, during their service, that way the grandma, or the childs family, or the property caretaker can at least make a bit of extra cash off the empty anomaly. Our family hasn’t begun building any big house, yet, but they do have satellite TV in spite of their dirt floors.

It’s definitely enlightening to see the immigrant experience from this side of the border. Perhaps more than anything, it’s just frustrating. I have already had several requests from people to teach them English, “so we can get better jobs in the

US.” It’s kind of a given amongst the men that they’ll go, or go back, whatever the risks, as soon as it’s convenient. Children come and visit us all the time asking for English lessons, which I’m definitely qualified to give, but I always start off by asking, “Can you tell me which language is most important for you to learn after Q’anjob’al–English or Spanish?” All the kids shout with huge smiles on their faces, “Ingles!” Then I ask them why they think that. They don’t usually have an answer. It kills me. If they drive 3 hours from home, go to the state capital, or if they have to go all the way to Guate city for something, they are incapable of communicating with their fellow Guatemalan citizens. They can’t petition their government for anything because they can’t speak the language of their own government. I have all these kids staring up at me with blank smiles when I ask them why English is more important.

From their equivalent of the city council to the groups of girls outside our door, I have explained so many times that if they would like to learn English I’d like to be supportive of that. I myself love learning languages, including their own at the moment. But I explain that my primary job here is to teach preventive health, and so I will not start English classes until that program is well underway. I explain to them why it is much more important that they learn proper Spanish than English, and tell them for that reason I will not teach formal English classes during school hours–school here is taught half in Q’anjob’al half in Spanish. It just makes me feel sick that these people are so disillusioned by the promise of going to America and making money there that they would rather learn English than Spanish.

On my end of it, I keep reading about the failing banks in the states, all due to the mortgage crisis. For over a decade those houses that built the current situation were in large part constructed by immigrant labor, and now those immigrants can’t find work. In one of the July issues of Newsweek, there was a political cartoon. Two Mexicans in sombreros and ponchos standing at the gated border of the US looked on as one said, “I’m not going over there. Their economy stinks.” Meanwhile, in D.C. politicos at the pulpit declared with a sneer, “Our illegal immigration plan is working!” It’s said here that when the US sneezes, Guatemala gets pneumonia. We’ve met 3 men in the last week ( thankfully, NOT intoxicated) recently returned from the US because they weren’t making any money, they were losing money being there after 10 or 15 years of living and working in the states. They didn’t seem bitter, they just seemed resigned, and a bit relieved to be home. I wonder how long the honeymoon of their return will last.

Something interesting to me that most Americans probably do not know is that immigration was not something new when people started going to the states. This is something our host dad, Nas, has talked about, but I’ve also started reading I, Rigoberta Menchu (Menchu is the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and I saw her speak at the University of Barcelona a few weeks after my arrival there. At the time I could just barely understand what she was saying. It’s funny to me now, I never knew then I’d be living in Guatemala). She discusses national migration in detail. Because the rural areas where PC volunteers are stationed never have had industries to support people, indigenous communities from all over the country worked tiny plots of land until it was harvesting season on the coffee, cotton, and cardamom plantations around the cost. At that time everyonewould migrate to the coast for months, until all the picking was done, and then they’d come home with whatever money they had managed to make. These plantations ran like the railroad companies in the US, where the railroad companies provided awful housing and all sorts of overpriced goods at the company store. The plantations had cantinas, too. So lots of time the indigenous people returned home to harvest their plots exhausted and still dirt poor, but migrate was something they’d done for a century or more.

Migration to the states didn’t really start until the early 80’s when the armed conflict began (see the film El Norte, with subtitles for more information). People went there more for refuge, and found out working in the States was astronomically more profitable, and less physically demanding than migrating to the coast. Because education was nearly non-existant in rural areas during the armed conflict, and even today the primary method of education is rote memorization, combined with the fact that these people are really just working to survive, creative problem solving is not something they have a grasp on. They move like their sheep– when they see the ones in front of them benefitting from something, they just do it too. Many have followed the original immigrants to the states, but it seems now that quite a few are coming home. Some by choice and some by force as the US is “cracking down” on illegal immirgrans. It all sounds kind of negative, but maybe the economic situation in the US will, in some small strange twist of fate, be good for Guatemalans. As with our counter-part who is so excited about helping his community progress, perhaps more Guatemalans will come home with a renewed sense of purpose, and fewer will leave. Who knows? In my opinion, it’s worth hoping for. If nothing else, we can at least use the current situation to illustrate to people why it’s a bad idea to learn English before Spanish, and idealize the US as a bottomless pit of wealth and prosperity.

A side note somewhat connected to previous discussion:

I might as well use this post to talk about something else that’s been on my mind, why can’t these people read? This might be a ridiculous question to some of you who haven’t studied Latin American history, but I think it’s pretty valid.

Guatemala has one of the highest illiteracy rates of all Central and South American. Eighty years ago or so they would have been on par with all of their neighbors. But then came a rash of Latin American dictators and revolutionary movements. Now until college, I was pretty certain that any revolutionary movements, after the French and American ones, spelled nothing but trouble. And I was so wrong. The revolutionary movements in Latin America (Cuba counts) had a lot of positive effects on education in this part of the world. People were taught to read so they could take a more comprehensive and active part in the righting of wrongs done to them. Here in Guatemala that never happened. They struggled through an awful civil war, as did many other countries, but while people in places like El Salvador and Nicaragua did benefit in some ways from the conflicts, Guatemala’s poor lost and lost and lost some more. Why?

Reading Menchu’s book it suddenly dawned on me, duh! While she was talking about national migration she told the story of how awful it was when her little brother died of malnutrition while they were on the coast, and while everyone was very sympathetic it was really challenging to figure out what to do because they couldn’t get advice from anyone around them. Being that there are 22 indigenous languages in this country, although there were all these poor indigenous people working together in squalid conditions for a third of the year, they came from all over Guatemala and were nearly incapable of communicating anything amongst themselves. In almost any other country such conditions would breed unionism or revolution, but here no one could speak to each other, much less learn to read together.

I guess it was not all for naught. Since the conflict, Guatemala has poured millions of dollars in to maintaining and promoting indigenous languages, creating Mayan language academies, and training teachers to teach in their local languages. Before the conflict going to school was when the process of castellanizations, or spanishizing, began. They only taught in spanish then, but not anymore. Unfortunately for us, they’ve also started a kind of national myth that those who speak an indigenous language are predisposed to speaking English, because, the myth has been manipulated to the point that people say, “They’re just the same, Q’anjob’al and English. A little different, but much the same.” Perhaps that also contributes to way the kids here seem to think it’s more important to learn English than Spanish. And on a brighter note, illiteracy rates are going down, slowly, but still.