| Universitas Psychologica | Colombia | V. 16 | No. 5 | 2017 | ISSN 1657-9267 |

a  Correspondance autor. E-mail:jbennet4@conncoll.edu

How to cite: Bennett, J. N. (2017). “I became more Maya”: international kaqchikel maya migration in Central America. Universitas Psychologica, 16(5), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.upsy16-5.bmmi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.upsy16-5.bmmi

“I became more Maya”: InternationalKaqchikel Maya Migration in Central

America*“Me convertí en maya”: la migración internacional Maya Kaqchikel

en Centroamérica

Received: May 23, 2017 | Accepted: August 28, 2017

Joyce N. BennettConneticut College, Estados Unidos

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1500-8446

a

ABSTRACTPrevious scholarship highlights migration from the Global South to theGlobal North. This paper focuses on South-South migration using a casestudy of a Kaqchikel Maya woman, Brenda, migrating from Guatemalato El Salvador. Her life history and participant-observation data weregathered over the course of 18 months between 2010 and 2015. In hercase, migration within Central America encouraged ethnic revitalization,particularly through her investment in Kaqchikel language and clothing.Such revitalization might be a common occurrence among indigenouswomen and is a significant consequence for indigenous women becauseof the reinforcement of gendered ethnic work as women are responsiblefor reproducing indigenous language and the use of ethnically markedclothing.Keywordsmigration; maya; woman; participant-observation.

RESUMENLa literatura se enfoca en la migración desde el sur global hasta el norteglobal. El presente artículo se enfoca en la migración sur-sur, a partir delcaso de una mujer Kaqchikel Maya de Guatemala, Brenda, que migraa El Salvador. Tanto su historia de vida como los datos de observante-participante se recolectaron durante 18 meses entre 2010 y 2015. Ensu caso, la migración dentro de Centroamérica se convirtió en estímulopara la revitalización étnica, lo cual podría ser un hecho normal entre lasmujeres indígenas por su rol como portadoras de cultura. En el caso objetode este artículo, la migración se traduce en el refuerzo del trabajo étnicode género en el cual las mujeres son responsables de la reproducción de lalengua indígena y el uso de vestuario étnico.Palabras clavemigración; maya; mujer; observación-participante.

Rïn yib’e El Salvador. Cada semana yib’e, yik’oje jub’a ke la. K’ari yipe pa jay. “I go to El Salvador. Every week, I go and I staythere a bit. Then I come back home.” - Brenda

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Brenda is currently a 25-year-old woman fromSanta Catarina Palopó, a small town in ruralGuatemala. She is ethnically Kaqchikel Maya,and Kaqchikel is her first language. A fewyears ago, she began migrating from Guatemalato El Salvador for work. In the early 21st

century, many indigenous Guatemalan womenhave begun migrating for work due to increasedeconomic pressures under neoliberal economicand political regimes (Del Cid, 1992; Jonas,2013; Jonas & Rodríguez, 2014; Monzón, 2006).With increased migration has also come a risein social remittances, or “the ideas, behaviors,identities, and social capital that migrants exportto their home communities” (Levitt & Nyberg-Sorensen, 2004, p. 8), which may “be transmittedby migrants themselves on their return” (Barrett,Gibbons, & Peláez Ponce, 2014, p. 1). Brenda’sexperience serves as a case study to understandindigenous women’s migration from Guatemalato other Central American countries and theresultant social remittances.

The majority of international migrationscholarship focuses on movement from theGlobal South to the Global North, oftenignoring international migrations from onedeveloping country to another (Burns, 1993;Cohen & Sirkeci, 2011; Fink, 2003; Foxen,2007; Holmes, 2013; Jonas & Rodríguez,2014; Loucky & Moors, 2000; Massey et al.,1998). Despite the lack of scholarly attentionto Guatemalan migration to other CentralAmerican countries, Central American mediasources have highlighted the growing trendof migration from the Northern Triangle ofGuatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras tosouthern Central America (“Crece la migracióna Costa Rica”, 2015). This article addresses thegap in scholarship by examining migration fromone country in the Global South to another, inthis case from Guatemala to El Salvador.

Social remittances have likewise beenespecially highlighted in Guatemala-USliterature (Jonas & Rodríguez, 2014; Landry,2011; Palma, 2010). However, social remittancessent or brought home by migrants like Brenda,who migrate within the Global South, arearguably more influential than remittances from

the Global North because migrants to otherCentral American countries have the ability toreturn home more frequently than do many oftheir undocumented, US-bound counterparts.This is true for Brenda, who has remainedintimately connected to her home communitythrough weekly migrations home.

The objectives of this paper are fourfold.First, I aim to characterize indigenousGuatemalan women’s international CentralAmerican migration. In doing so, I relocateindigenous women’s experiences to the centerof migration and social remittance discussions.Second, I aim to understand the connectionsbetween nationally-bound and internationalmigration in the context of South-Southmigration. Third, I seek to characterize theexperience and consequences of repeated short-term migration. My fourth goal is to discernindigenous women’s social remittances and theirimpact on the home community.

International Migration, IndigenousWomen, and Guatemala

Guatemala is a rich place to study internationalmigration and social remittances because ofits history of international migration, a resultof state and structural violence, particularlyagainst its indigenous population (Elías, 2016).That violence escalated to extreme heightsduring the genocidal civil war (1960-1996)and again during the post-peace neoliberalpolitical-economic system that now governsthe country, which has led to high ratesof indigenous migration (Jonas & Rodríguez,2014). Indigenous international Guatemalanmigrants are culturally and linguistically distinctfrom their non-indigenous, Ladino counterparts.When migrating to other Central Americancountries, indigenous Guatemalan migrantsarrive in nations with much lower percentages ofindigenous peoples (Elías, 2016).

While indigenous migration from Guatemalahas received international scholarly attention,much of it focuses on communities in westernGuatemala, including the K’iche, Mam, and

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Q’eqchi’. Kaqchikel-speaking migrants fromcentral regions of the highlands have receivedlittle scholarly attention (Farley Webb, 2015).Kaqchikel is one of the “big four” languages,meaning that it is one of the four indigenouslanguages in Guatemala with the most speakers.Therefore, Kaqchikel experiences are significantin analyzing Guatemalan migration. Moreover,given the uniqueness of their history andposition in the nation-state as leaders in ethnicrevitalization (Warren, 1998), it is crucial toinclude Kaqchikel experiences in migrationliterature.

Indigenous women migrants from Guatemalaare a pivotal population among whom to studymigration and social remittances because ofindigenous women’s designated role as culturebearers, those responsible for the reproductionof ethnic identity (Farber, 1978; Hendrickson,1995; Romero, 2015; Smith, 1996; Warren,1998). Women are more likely to pass onindigenous languages to children than men(Garzón, Brown, Richards, & Ajpub’, 1998;Maddox, 2010; Romero, 2015), and womenmore often wear traje, indigenous clothing(Hendrickson, 1995; Otzoy, 1996). Traje isvisually distinctive from Western clothing and istown-specific (Hendrickson, 1995). An examplefrom Santa Catarina, Brenda’s hometown, isshown in Figure 1.

Figure 1Women’s Traje

Source: own work.

National discourses in Guatemala have longtreated indigenous language and culture asunwanted, devalued, and something to eradicate.

Social remittances from migrants in the GlobalNorth have generally reified the negativediscourses about indigeneity by framing progressand economic advancement as exclusive fromand in opposition to indigenous languageand culture (Cojti Cuxil, 1991; Fernández-Guzmán & Shiomara del Carpio-Ovando, 2013;Lyman, Cen Montuy, & Tejeda Sandoval,2007; Stephen, 2007). Examples include thenotion that speaking an indigenous languageholds back the intellectual development of anindividual or that eating tortillas instead ofmeat limits an individual’s productivity. Theliterature reifies such discussions by framing theWesternization of indigenous communities asprogress on developmental scales, highlightingincreasing education, wealth, and other markersof Western success (Barrett et al., 2014).While advances in “developmental” realmsoften means better quality of life for homecommunities through things like running water,higher levels of education, etc., such discussionsalso inadvertently highlight a shift away fromindigenous cultural practices as a direct resultof migration. For example, increased access toeducation via social and financial remittancesis highlighted as progress for developingcommunities because of the student’s increasedability to navigate the Western world. Thecontinued passing down of indigenous knowledgeis typically given little consideration. Investingmore in Western education and less in traditionalindigenous education as a result of socialremittances is framed as progress and reifiesnational anti-indigenous discourses.

Contrary to these themes of Westernizationas progress, some scholarship has reportedindigenous migrants gaining confidence in theirethnic identity via migration (Barrett et. al,2014; Moran-Taylor, 2008; Taylor, Moran-Taylor,& Ruiz, 2006). While such scholarship includeswomen in the analysis, the focus has not beenon gendered displays of ethnicity. However,indigenous women’s experiences are imperativeto foreground because women invest theirfinancial and social remittances based ontheir social role as culture bearers (Fischer

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& Hendrickson, 2002; Hendrickson, 1995;Romero, 2015).

Understanding migration’s impact onindigenous identity is important given theincreasing language and culture loss inGuatemala. Many scholars have noted theincreased pace of language loss and shift awayfrom traje in the late 20th and early 21st

century as neoliberalism has forced indigenouscommunities to increasingly engage in the globalmarket (England, 2003; Velásquez Nimatuj,2008). While Maya activists work to protect andrevitalize language and culture through nationalpolicies and education reform, such efforts aredifficult to implement, not implemented atall, or unintentionally continue to undermineindigenous language and culture (Cojti Cuxil,1991; Congreso de la Republica, 2003; Domingo,2007). Maxwell (2009) points out that eventhough Kaqchikel is now taught in manyschools, including in Santa Catarina whereBrenda is from, much of the curriculum remainsWestern-centric, assumes a non-indigenousworldview, and is often taught by non-native,non-indigenous teachers. Instead of locatingrevitalization efforts in structural interventionssuch as these, this work investigates indigenouswomen’s daily actions that influence Kaqchikeland traje.

Method

Drawing on anthropological methods, I identifiedBrenda by conducting a snowball sample surveyamong both men and women in Santa CatarinaPalopó (n = 43). From the survey, I identifiedindigenous women migrants. Brenda was onesuch migrant, and I use her as a case studybecause of her frequent migrations to anotherCentral American country (Creswell, 1998).

Brenda was 18 years old when we met in2010 and had spent the first ten years of herlife in Santa Catarina. She then began migratingfor work after being removed from school. Shehas been migrating, first within Guatemala andnow to El Salvador, ever since. At the writingof this article in 2017, she spends three days per

week in El Salvador with the other four days inGuatemala. Given her frequent migrations andstrong ties to her home community, she was theideal participant for this study.

This case study utilizes Brenda’s life historyand 18 months of participant-observationfieldwork gathered between 2010 and 2015 inBrenda’s home community. I collected her lifehistory over the course of two days in 2013. Ialso conducted other shorter interviews with herintermittently during my fieldwork. As I speakKaqchikel Maya fluently, I conducted all researchwith Brenda in this language because it is herfirst and preferred language. Upon completionof fieldwork, I transcribed the life history andinterviews. I later translated into English allmaterials I draw on here; all translations aremine.

The use of life history is crucial to understandthe context in which international migrationtakes place and its impacts on migrantsthemselves (Bernard, 2011; Thomson, 2007).Furthermore, the use of life history is a means ofvalorizing and legitimizing the tradition of oralhistories often used in Maya communities (Carey,2001). Using Brenda’s life history providesa means of understanding those traditionallymarginalized in academic literature (Geiger,1990; Thomson, 2007). I also draw on myfield notes from participant-observation workto contextualize Brenda’s experience withincommunity norms and the experiences ofindigenous women.

While gathering participant-observation data,I engaged in Brenda’s daily activities with her,running errands, going to church, cooking andcleaning at home, and other mundane tasks.My own identity as a woman in my 20s aidedmy integration into Brenda’s life, although beinga white American was challenging at first.However, speaking Kaqchikel and partaking inother gendered ethnic activities, such as makingtortillas, aided my integration. My field notesfrom participant-observation with Brenda focuson her actions specifically with regard to ideas,notions, and other remittances she broughthome.

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Findings and Discussion

The Migration Path: Motivation, Connections,and Social Remittances

Leaving home. When I asked Brenda aboutthe beginning of her migration journey, sheresponded:

First, I went to school. My dad did not have alot money, so I only went to school for two years.And then I saw that I couldn’t go anymore; mydad had a lot of bills in front of him. I saw thatI couldn’t keep studying. Then a woman cameto me. “Come with me.” I went with her when Iwas still small. I was ten years old. I was ten yearsold, and I left [my house]. (June 23, 2012)

Elementary school in Guatemala is public,but the cost of school supplies often pricepoor families out of receiving education. Girls’education is often sacrificed with the hope thatparents will be able to send their sons to schoolwith the savings (Hallman, Peracca, Catino, &Ruiz, 2006). Men’s education is seen as morevaluable because their earning potential is higherthan women’s and because men are expected tosupport their parents while women are expectedto marry and support their in-laws. Brenda’sparents could no longer afford to send herto school because they could not afford theschool supplies, and she had several male siblingscoming up after her.

Paying for Brenda’s daily consumption needssuch as food and clothing was also becomingincreasingly difficult for her family, a situationthat led her to leave her natal household andbecome a child laborer. When Anna, a wealthierindigenous woman from town, came to ask ifBrenda would work for her, Brenda’s familyagreed.

Then a woman came. “Do you want to go withme? Take care of my kids,” she said to me. I wentwith her when I was young. Her son was one yearold when I went with her; I took care of him. Itook care of him; I gave him his bottle; I gavehim his coffee. I took care of him. I took care ofhim. He grew up, and I washed him; I washedhis clothes. He grew. (June 23, 2012)

Child labor in Guatemala is common, with21% of children between ages 7 and 14 engagedin wage labor outside the home (Dammert,2010).

Despite the frequency with which girls workoutside of the home, there are concerns overthe kinds of values young women learn whileaway from their parents, particularly as itrelates to ethnic identity (A. Cuma, personalcommunication, April 7, 2017). When Brendawent to work for Anna, Brenda was allowed towear her traje and speak Kaqchikel at work, butAnna and her family were not nearly as pro-indigenous as Brenda’s family was. “They wantedme to speak Spanish, but I could not,” Brendarecounted. While Anna tolerated Brenda’s use ofKaqchikel, Anna insisted on speaking to Brendain Spanish, revealing her opinion that Spanishwas better than Kaqchikel. At the time, Brendasaid, “my work in Anna’s house did not changemy view of my language.” (April 7, 2017)

Brenda’s early integration into the labor forceplaced her in a difficult position. She was ableto cover her daily living expenses, but herlimited education and young age restricted heremployment opportunities and increased herreliance on Anna’s family to continue employingher. Her status as a child also meant that herwages went directly to her father for the family’sexpenditures. While working in Santa Catarinawith Anna’s family, Brenda earned her room andboard and 10 quetzales per day, or US $1.25.

Local migration: experiencing symbolic violence.After two years, Anna took Brenda toPanajachel, a town five kilometers away. Brenda’sparents gave consent, and although Brenda didagree to go, her consent was not the decidingfactor in her move to Panajachel. As Brenda toldit,

“[The boy] grew; he turned six years old. Theytook me to Panajachel. They took me with theirdaughter. ‘Now you will work here with mydaughter. You will be here.’ Okay, I said. There, Ilearned a lot of different things.” (April 7, 2017)

Anna’s family “took” her, reflecting Brenda’sposition as a child laborer. Brenda worked six daysa week with Anna’s family and went home to

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Santa Catarina for one day per week. Her wagesremained the same.

Brenda recounted that in Panajachel, she wasexposed to more Ladino, or non-indigenous,culture and negative views of her language.Although Anna and her family were indigenous,they consistently pushed Brenda to speakSpanish. Brenda recounted,

“I learned to speak Spanish when I went to workin Panajachel. Because I was still young when Ilearned to speak Spanish and talk to her child.I didn’t know much Spanish then. But she did.‘This is how you talk to my child,’ she would say.So I learned some. That’s how it was. I learnedlittle by little.” (June 23, 2012)

While she was not openly punished forspeaking Kaqchikel at work, Anna’s familypreferred that Brenda speak Spanish, especiallyin front of or with the children. Brenda’semployer told her that she did not want thechildren to suffer in school, that she wantedthem to succeed and do well, and eventually beemployed.

The clear connection of Spanish to education,employment, and success placed more value onSpanish than it did on Kaqchikel. The message ofSpanish’s superiority was reinforced in Panajachelin general, as it is a deeply engrained componentof national culture (Garzón, 1998). Brenda’s viewof her own language as lesser than Spanish isa kind of symbolic violence produced throughstructural forces that devalue some languagesand privilege others (Bourdieu, 2000; Crystal,2000; Holmes, 2013).

At this point, Brenda brought negative ideasabout Kaqchikel home to Santa Catarina associal remittances. The overtly negative views ofKaqchikel she found in Panajachel were distinctfrom Santa Catarina where Kaqchikel was thelingua franca. Although national discoursesabout the superiority of Spanish existed inSanta Catarina, their presence was more limited.Brenda’s weekly trips home allowed her totransport such views. “I spoke more Spanish atchurch and with my friends than I did before,”she recalled.

Nationally-bound migration: engrainingsymbolic violence. After working a few yearsin Panajachel, Brenda began migrating toGuatemala City. Brenda recounted, “Anna’ssisters-in-law took me to sell in GuatemalaCity.” While migration to Guatemala City isthe most common migration destination withinGuatemala, it was a significant for Brenda interms of experiencing a different way of living andreinforcing negative ideas about her languageand clothing (Caballeros, 2013; Martínez López& Díaz Aldana, 2007).

The first time Brenda went to GuatemalaCity, the experience was overwhelming. Brendarecalled the smells of exhaust, street vendorfood, and the mix of refreshing cilantro cuttingthrough the stench of trash left to rot in thestreet; those odors filled her lungs, making itdifficult to breathe. “It did not smell like thesmoke from the cooking fire at home,” (April7, 2017) she recounted. The massive numbersof cars struggled and fought to get throughclogged streets, multiple lanes, and confusingtraffic patterns. She felt awe looking at theenormous buildings towering over her, the kindshe had only ever seen in movies projected onthe cantina walls on Saturday afternoons. “Theymust have a lot of Ladinos in them,” she recalledthinking. Brenda saw people in Western clothing:women in skirts, men in cloth pants or jeans.She remembered the noise, from car horns, busengines, screeching brakes, to bits and pieces oflanguage. “It was all Spanish,” (April 7, 2017)Brenda said.

Brenda sold indigenous handicrafts, purchasedby Anna’s family in Santa Catarina, to tourists.She sold primarily to domestic tourists, with theoccasional foreign tourist. She found it difficultto transition from working in domestic labor inPanajachel to selling directly to individuals onthe street in Guatemala City. “It was just selling.Three bracelets, two chalinas, just a little bit Idid. Maybe I was lucky, I would sell everythingthey gave me. I would sell it all. And slowly, thebusiness grew. It grew.” (June 23, 2012)

Much as Brenda received negative messagesabout her language when she migrated toPanajachel, she also received negative messages

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about her clothing while in Guatemala City.Brenda heard or was the target of racist epithets.She recalled approaching a group of youngLadino men to sell some of her handicrafts.At her approach, they told her “Go away youstupid indio.” Indio is a racial slur brought on byBrenda’s use of traje, which physically markedher as indigenous. Brenda felt trapped whensuch events occurred. Her employer, Anna andher sister, wanted Brenda to actively approachpeople to try and increase sales. Because theywere always with her, Brenda felt watched, likeshe had to approach people, even if she didnot want to. However, approaching individualscould result in instances like the above, inwhich potential clients became verbally abusive,centering their attacks on issues of ethnicidentity. Over time, Brenda internalized thosemessages about indigenous clothing, anotherkind of symbolic violence.

While Brenda worked three-day weekends inGuatemala City, she migrated home to SantaCatarina weekly. At home, she commuted toPanajachel to do domestic work for Anna threeof her four days in the area. Her frequentreturns meant that Brenda maintained herregular communications and connections inSanta Catarina. She went to church once a week,caught up with her sisters, and engaged in the lifeof the town. Brenda remembered, “While I wasgoing back and forth to Guatemala City, I spokemore and more Spanish when I was at home.I thought I was smart for using more Spanishwords”. (June 23, 2012) Such actions revealedher increasingly negative view of Kaqchikel.

International migration: refuting symbolicviolence. After working for five years inGuatemala City, Anna’s family decided to sellhandicrafts in El Salvador. Brenda recounted,

“They learned (of a new opportunity), so theywent to El Salvador. And since I was still young,they got me permission so I could go. They calledmy mom and my dad. My parents signed so thatI could cross the border.” (June 23, 2012)

To Brenda, the locale where she and Anna’sfamily sold handicrafts outside El Salvador’scapital city looked strikingly similar to Guatemala

City. “There are a lot of Ladinos there. They buyour handicrafts. We sell stuff,” (June 23, 2012)she said. Brenda had to speak Spanish with all ofher customers, just as she did in Guatemala City.Sometimes customers would ask if she spoke anindigenous language and would ask to hear a fewwords. Brenda also noted that El Salvador hadfar fewer indigenous people than Guatemala, soshe and Anna’s family were frequently the onlypeople in traje anywhere they went.

Brenda recalled how her traje use in ElSalvador increased sales and, in turn, hersupport of traje. She said “People wouldsee our traje, and they would like it. Theywould tell me how beautiful it is. They seeyou, and they come over. They take yourphoto.” (June 23, 2012) Encounters with tourists,as described by Brenda, serve as clear momentsof commodification of indigenous clothing andarguably work towards “Othering” indigeneity.However, Little, a leading scholar in tourismstudies among Kaqchikel vendors, argues thatthe investment in indigenous culture is moreimportant and significant than the act ofOthering (Little, 2004). This was true for Brenda;such interactions were significant because theychanged the narrative that she heard: instead ofbeing demeaning, such interactions increased hersales, adding economic value, and by extension,cultural capital to indigenous culture.

Brenda also recounted significant experienceswith the Kaqchikel language. She said

“They like it when we speak in Kaqchikel. Manypeople there say they want to learn Kaqchikel.There are some that we teach a few words to.Some people are good at it, and other people arenot. That is what they say. They really like tohear us speak Kaqchikel.”(June 23, 2012)

She was initially surprised when people tookinterest in her language because she hadinternalized the idea that Kaqchikel was a lesserlanguage, not complex, and unworthy of theglobal arena. However, working in El Salvador,a place with very different ethnic relationsthan Guatemala, she found people valuedher language. This spurred her own thinkingand consideration of language ideologies, and

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it encouraged her to use more Kaqchikel,particularly at home.

Once Brenda began migrating weekly to ElSalvador, she returned home to her familyin Santa Catarina for four days each week.Her pay increased so that she was earning35 quetzales, or US $4.60, per day, but herroom and board were no longer covered. Theminimum daily wage is 87 quetzales accordingto Guatemalan law, but women commonly earnless than men (Gobierno de Guatemala, 2016;Instituto Nacional de Estadística Guatemala[INE], 2015). Brenda’s regular return home, andher increased socio-economic status, meant thatBrenda remained well-connected and that hersupport of Kaqchikel and traje was influential.

While at home, Brenda began recoveringand intentionally using more Kaqchikel andless code mixing with Spanish. As she put it,“Our language is beautiful. That is what I thinknow.” Her daily actions mirrored her intellectualsupport for Kaqchikel. For example, she said, “Iknow Spanish now. I learned it, but when I am inSanta [Catarina], I always speak in Kaqchikel. Itis very important.” (June 23, 2012 ) Indeed, herstatement reflects what I observed over the manyyears I have known Brenda. When she was inSanta Catarina, she never spoke Spanish unlessshe was with a Ladino person. Otherwise, shespoke only Kaqchikel when she went to the mill,the store, to church, or anywhere else in town.

In addition to Brenda’s daily use of Kaqchikel,she also used Kaqchikel at key moments,especially when in front of large groups of peopleat her church, an act that separates her speechfrom that of her peers’. She attended a localEvangelical church with about 350 members.Brenda participated in the youth group, who helda service every Wednesday. During the service,members of the youth group were called uponto assist by leading the opening prayer, readingfrom the Bible, leading the hymns, collecting theoffering, and/or other duties. Brenda frequentlyparticipated in such activities. When she wascalled upon to lead some aspect of the service, sheonly spoke in Kaqchikel, and she used few wordsfrom Spanish. I wrote down her opening dialogueone evening before she led the hymn:

Good evening everyone. Thanks be to God thatwe are reunited here. Hello to our pastor, helloto members of the church directorate, hello tomembers of youth group, hello to everyone whohas come together this evening. I am very happyto have the privilege of being up here. Now, wewill sing to praise God. (J. Bennett, field notes,April 18, 2012)

The italicized words were said in Spanish, inan otherwise Kaqchikel sentence. Compare thisto many of Brenda’s colleagues, who when theydo their opening greeting, say something like this(from an opening speech a week later):

Good evening everyone. Thanks be to God thatwe are reunited here. Hello to our pastor, helloto members of the church directorate, hello tomembers of youth group, hello to everyone whohas come together this evening. I am very happyto have the privilege of being up here. Now, wewill sing to praise God. (J. Bennett, field notes,April 25, 2012)

When Brenda stood in front of thecongregation, she consciously chose to use moreKaqchikel words than Spanish words. When Iasked her about this trend, she told me “it is sopeople know I have not forgotten.” Implicatedhere is that she has not forgotten despite herregular migration out of the country.

Brenda also actively supported the continueduse of traje because of her experiences inmigration to El Salvador. She told me, “thisis our way of being, so we should dress thisway.” Brenda’s support of traje came in multipleforms while she was at home, but the mostvisible form was through her use of wages topurchase more traje to wear herself. Although shehad been using some of her wages to purchasenew pieces of traje while working in GuatemalaCity, such purchases were few and far between.When Brenda began migrating to El Salvador,she increased her investments in traje as her payincreased and as she began to change her opinionof traje and support its use. She quickly begancommissioning more pieces of traje, sometimes asmany as one new outfit every three months. Thisis much more frequent than other women, whotypically acquire a new outfit once every year.

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Additionally, Brenda began requesting fancier,more elaborate designs. In part, these requestswere “because the people in El Salvador liketo see it,” but commissioning expensive pieceswas also a statement about Brenda’s increasedearning capacity because of her selling activitiesin El Salvador.

Brenda invested her financial remittancesin clothing, not housing, not education, notany of the other numerous ways scholarshave documented that migrants invest theirhard-earned money. This investment is adirect investment in ethnic identity. Brenda’scommissioning of traje also provided wagesfor indigenous women who depended on thatwork. But more importantly, this investment inethnicity is gendered. Were Brenda a man, itwould be highly unlikely that she would evenwear traje, much less invest money in it, giventhat most men do not wear traje in Santa Catarinatoday. As an indigenous woman migrant, then,Brenda’s spending habits and use of remittancemoney were gendered.

Brenda’s support of traje and investment inKaqchikel Maya identity is also creating moreclass distinction. As Brenda and other migrantwomen use their wages to invest in traje, womenwithout such financial resources are quicklypriced out of the market. This is not to saythat non-migrant women do not wear traje;on the contrary, many non-migrant women do.However, migrant women are able to accesshigher-priced pieces, which are clearly and easilydistinguishable to the average person in theregion. As such, Brenda and those like herphysically mark themselves with their financialsuccess by wearing it on their bodies.

Brenda’s case also highlights the connectionbetween nationally-bound and internationalmigration. Scholars have framed migration as aunidirectional process that involves moving frompoint A to point B. This dynamic does not reflectthe complex networks of mobility that mostGuatemalan migrants experience today (Cohen& Sirkeci, 2011). Instead, many migrants,including Brenda, begin their migration journeyswith internal movements at young ages that leadto making connections, which eventually lead to

the opportunities and networks individuals needin order to travel internationally. Internationalmigration from Guatemala to other CentralAmerican countries is inextricably linked tonationally-bound, internal migration.

General Discussion and Conclusions

Brenda’s life history highlights several importantfacts about international migration in CentralAmerica. International migration is oftenconnected to and preceded by nationally-bound migration. International migration canbe frequent. Migrants can and do remainpart of home town culture because of theirfrequent trips home. Finally, social remittancesfrom international migration can support andreinvigorate indigenous language and clothingamong women.

The idea that migration can create socialremittances to support indigenous language andculture is a finding whose implications merit deepdiscussion. For many academics and activists,the idea that a by-product of neoliberalism, inthis case international migration as a meansof mediating increasing poverty in rural areas,is indeed exciting. However, for Brenda andother women like her, their decisions to supportindigenous dress and language have very realimplications for their lives and futures. WhenBrenda decided to use her earnings to purchasemore traje, she kept money from other areasof her life. Within her community, manyelders were proud that she invested financiallyin markers of indigenous identity. Her peersenvied her beautiful pieces of traje. However,some community members saw her choicesas a negation of her responsibilities to carefor others through providing food, housing,education, and other necessities. This is acritique of women migrants documented inother remittance literature (Curran & Saguy,2001). Migration allowed Brenda to support andinvest in her ethnic identity, a gendered rolein Kaqchikel communities, but that investmentpitted her against other gendered expectations ofher as a family supporter.

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In addition to the financial commitment ittakes to invest in more traje, such decisionsalso put Brenda and women like her at riskfor continued discrimination. Discriminationagainst women for using traje is well-documentedin Guatemala (Barrios, 2014; Nimatuj & Alicia,2004). Even though Brenda uses traje in SantaCatarina where its use is normalized or intourist contexts where traje earns her moremoney, her constant use of it could impact herlife in Guatemala, such as local employmentopportunities, her ability to engage successfullywith financial institutions, or the price shepays for consumer goods sold in predominantlyLadino stores (Fischer & Hendrickson, 2002).Brenda’s continued use of traje not only putsher at continued risk for discrimination in herhome country, but it also costs her time andenergy because of the ways in which thatdaily discrimination impacts life. Her support ofindigenous clothing thus becomes extra workthat only women are doing.

The same can be said of Brenda’s supportof Kaqchikel. While speaking Kaqchikel earnedher money when she engaged with touristsin El Salvador, publicly supporting Kaqchikeland using it in Guatemala left her open tocontinued discrimination from Ladinos, nationalinstitutions, and society at large. In the same waysthat using traje becomes time and labor intensive,so too does the use of Kaqchikel. Combining bothher use of traje as a visual marker of indigeneityand her use of Kaqchikel as an audible marker,she becomes doubly-exposed to discriminationand its effects.

Supporting and revitalizing indigenouslanguage and culture as a result of migrationmeans more work and reinforcing the genderednature of ethnicity and ethnic production forKaqchikel women. Indigenous women’s role asculture bearers becomes re-entrenched, perhapsto women’s disadvantage. I openly discussed suchconcerns with Brenda, who responded by tellingme “This is our way of being. I like to speaklike this (in Kaqchikel). I like these clothes. Iwill not change them. That is wrong. I learnedthis through migrating. Yes, I became moreMaya.” (June 23, 2012) For Brenda, renewing her

commitment to Kaqchikel Maya language andclothing is an act of strength and resistance.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Tulane Universityand Connecticut College. Thanks to AriellaRotramel, Sara Phillips, and Henryatta Ballah fortheir critiques of early versions of this manuscript.

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Notes

* Research article.