Guatemalan Mayan migration to Los Angeles: constructing transnational linkages in the context of the settlement process

Abstract

It is argued that the limits to migrant physical mobility due to restrictive US immigration policy do not necessarily impede the establishment of transnational linkages sustained by Guatemalan Mayan (Kanjobal) migrants in Los Angeles. As Kanjobal migrants confront higher levels of discrimination in Los Angeles, their cultural and religious organizations are increasingly influenced by the growing Pan-Mayan movement in Guatemala. This outcome leads actors affiliated with the Guatemalan church and state to forge relationships with these migrant organizations. By reintegrating into the social life of their home country, Kanjobal migrants express a transnational identity that revives and strengthens old forms of ethnicity and reflects the process of reactive formation. This finding implies that the conception of reactive ethnicity needs to be expanded to account for the influence of transnational relations sustained by migrants.