The Emergence of Pan-Mayan Ethnicity in the Guatemalan Transnational Community Linking Santa Eulalia and Los Angeles

Abstract

This article explores how the migratory process shapes ethnicity in transnational communities through an examination of the Guatemalan Mayan (Kanjobal) migrant circuit that links Santa Eulalia and Los Angeles. Relying on extensive qualitative fieldwork in both locales and a household census carried out in Santa Eulalia, this study concludes that transnational migration exacerbates class and social stratification in the sending community as immigrants in the host society confront adverse conditions that include racial/ethnic discrimination, restrictive US immigration policies, and an increasingly competitive secondary sector labor market. These conditions generate new forms of resistance reflected in the emergence of Pan-Mayan community organizations at both ends of the migrant circuit. The case study demonstrates how ethnicity becomes the cohesive force that empowers dislocated indigenous workers on both sides of the US-Mexican border, enabling them to feel a sense of common purpose in the face of challenging economic and social conditions.