THE GREAT GUATEMALAN MIGRATION INDUSTRY
Despite the threats of a wall and harsh immigration policies during the Trump administration, in 2018 a record number of Guatemalan families headed to the United States to turn themselves in to the Border Patrol with the hopes of starting a new life. A journey in search of the origin of Guatemalan migration examines the underlying causes in Central America.
Role: producer, videographer and photographer
"Everything you buy is expensive, what you sell is cheap. That's the situation," explains Juan, a 69-year-old farmer who has spent his entire life working in coffee. In addition to the low price of coffee, the Chiquimula region has also been hit by drought, leaving families without their subsistence crops of corn and beans.
Most of Juan's 14 children have left to seek work in other areas of Guatemala, so he hired day laborers to help him harvest his coffee. One of his daughters and a grandson also migrated to the United States this year. "It is an effort, a sacrifice that the family makes to be able to help us," he says.
A girl plays in her school in Cajolá, a small town in Guatemala with high rates of migration. The school teaches Mam, a Mayan language, before Spanish.