Guatemalan Americans

Lynn Horton

More than 535,000 people of Guatemalan origin now call the United States home. In adapting to a new life in the United States, they have faced unique obstacles—lingering impacts of intense political repression and poverty, obstacles to obtaining political asylum; and continued gender, racial, and ethnic discrimination even within Latino communities. To overcome these challenges, Guatemalans have formed transnational kinship and social networks enabling them to advance economically in the United States and provide support for family members and communities in Guatemala. This entry discusses their immigration and current situation. Guatemalans have migrated to the United States through being “pushed” by a combination of negative economic and political conditions in their country of origin and being “pulled” by economic opportunities in the United States. Through the early 1970s, a small number of largely middle-class professional Guatemalans migrated to the United States seeking to improve their economic status. The influx of ...

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