Keeping Guatemalan immigrants at home

[bibiche]

A nice video about efforts to rebuild a community in Guatemala damaged by emigration.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/keeping-guatemalan-immigrants-at-home/?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&moduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-5&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=1

 

And a link to their retail site, which has lovely handmade, reasonably priced items the proceeds of which benefit their community: https://mayamamweavers.com/

Edited November 29, 2016 by bibiche

[Amira]

Thank you. I loved this video, especially where they talked about preserving Mam.

[MSNative]

I couldn't read the blog. I'm over my NYT free articles limit this month. I will read it/watch the video Thursday. Not trying to blow off what it said.

 

Thank you for the link. I love their mission. This year we are only buying gifts from "do gooder" places at my DH now short hands it so this is perfect. I found some great items for gifts and got some kitchen towels for me. (Um, how cute is the bistro apron?! I don't even wear aprons but I want one. Lol.).

Edited November 29, 2016 by MSNative

[Serenade]

Thank you for posting this and linking the store.

[momacacia]

Very pretty stuff. Thanks for posting it!

[bibiche]

Store link thanks to Amira, who provided it to me. :)

[Laurie4b]

That is really a beautiful video. .

 

 

[bibiche]

I think it is interesting (and important) to see things from the perspective of the immigrants as well. To all of the Guatemalans I know, family is extremely important. They don't want to leave their families, their babies! But they really feel that they need to go to the US to make money in order to provide their children with a better life. You have to be pretty desperate to leave everything behind and risk death (yes!) to try to make it to the US where you risk certainly to be taken advantage of by Americans looking for cheap labor for jobs that no one else wants to do. I think people don't think about the complexities of the immigration issues, they see "rapists," "drug-dealers," "criminals," not hardworking family men who would really prefer to stay in their culture in their own country.

 

I mean, put yourself in their shoes. Would you not do anything to feed your family, to raise them out of desperate poverty and provide them with the means to receive an education and a better life? I think most all of us would. I wish people could look at it from that perspective, to see these people as fellow human beings. Because really, none of is is any better, it is just that some of us won in the birth lottery.

Edited November 30, 2016 by bibiche

[Amira]

I think this is really important. In both Mexico and Kyrgyzstan we visited towns and villages where most of the men had left for other countries to work and the impact on everyone was huge. Here in Saudi, I'm constantly meeting people, especially from the Philippines and India, who have lived far from their families for years and it is so hard. There's always more to the story.

 

And the cultural impact is so terrible too. Yes, a lot of immigrants from the same town in Mexico or Guatemala will often live in the same city in the US and the women are still at home with their families, but that's not the same at all. Maintaining a language and cultural traditions is difficult without being very dedicated to it.

[Guest]

Because really, none of is is any better, it is just that some of us won in the birth lottery.

The recent immigrants I know dont view it as the birth lottery, but as the raw end of the stick their neighbors wield. They are restricted legally and culturally from improving their lot in their home country....resources needed cant be obtained, infrastructure to do business is nonexistant or crushed by the dominant politics, etc etc. They cant get up enough political capital to get in the game. Most interesting was a real estate agent I met about ten years ago - she had first emigrated to Britain, was restricted from working, and came to the US where she could work. My Mexican neighbors do construction...no issue with culture, like my Asian neighbors, the kids are flown back every summer.