When Mothers and Fathers Migrate North: Caretakers, Children, and Child Rearing in

Guatemala
Author(s): Michelle J. Moran-Taylor
Source: Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 35, No. 4, Youth and Cultural Politics in Latin America
(Jul., 2008), pp. 79-95
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27648110
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 When Mothers and Fathers Migrate North

Caretakers, Children, and Child Rearing inGuatemala

by
Michelle J?Moran-Taylor

A substantial portion ofGuatemala s population?about 10-15 percent of a popula

tion of 12 million?emigrates to theUnited States. Although thisnorthwardmovement
has produced significant social change,few studies have examined itfrom theperspective
of the increasing involvement of household structures in transnational migration
processes. Ethnographic researchfocused on transnationalfamilies reveals thesocial rela
tionships that develop between caregivers and children and between parents and care
givers because of thenecessityfor transnationalmigration and identifiesthe emotional
costs these arrangements.
of

Keywords: Transnationalfamilies, Social relations,Caretakers, Child rearing,Guatemalan

migration

"I raised a
granddaughter and a niece/' said Do?a Sonia,1 a stout, jovial
mother of 6 and grandmother of 20, when I asked her about the
middle-aged
children she had cared for in previous years:

The little girl,my niece, they [the parents] lefther with me when she was only a
me. And from
baby. But then,when she turned 14,my sister took her away from
that I gained weight. I used to be really skinny. But when Fm nervous, I can't
or distressed, that's how I get. The little
sleep and I get hungry. When Fm sad
a over there [in theUnited States].
girl is suffering great deal with her parents
She cries and cries. One niece even wanted to leave; she was
day my planning
on The one she loves ... is me. Iwas the one who raised her.
running away.

Do?a emotional stress is not uncommon

Sonia's among family members and
friends who assume responsibility for children when parents migrate to the
United States. Although in past years the overwhelming majority ofmigrants
were males, leaving their wives and children behind, increasingly females in
Guatemala's Oriente (eastern region) make the journey north in search of
better economic opportunities. Given that 10-15 percent of Guatemala's pop
ulation of 12 million emigrates, this northward movement has led to signifi
cant social change.

Michelle J.Moran-Taylor is an anthropologist in the Geography Department at the

teaching
University of Denver. This study has been
generously supported by fellowships from
the
Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program, theWenner-Gren Foundation
Fulbright-Hays
for Anthropological Research, the American Association of University Women, and the Center
for Latin American Studies, Anthropology Department, and Association of Graduate Students
at Arizona State University. The author thanks the members of Gual?n who participated in this
and up their hearts to her throughout the course of her field research.
study opened
LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 161, Vol. 35 No. 4, July2008 79-95
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X08318980
? 2008 Latin American Perspectives

79

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80 LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Few studies have examined this northward movement from the perspective
of its effects on household structure. In general, the literature on migration
focuses on those who leave and on their places of arrival. Migrants' home coun
tries become central when scholars examine the visible and conse
tangible
quences of migration,particularly monetary remittances. The is to
goal here
focus on those who stay and capture the dynamics of the impact of transnational
on families. This article addresses the
migration divergent child-rearing practices
that emerge to accommodate the separation of parents and children inmigrant
households in a sending community in the Oriente. Specifically, it asks what
kinds of social relationships develop between caregivers and children and
between parents and caregivers because of transnational migration. I first intro
duce my methods and research site and then briefly review the literature guid
ing my study. Key to the subsequent analysis are gender and family relations
among parents, caretakers, and children?families whose lives straddle two
nation-states and that are affected by the necessity for transnational migration.

METHODS AND RESEARCH SITE

The ethnographic data presented here derive from fieldwork in the commu
nity of Gual?n.2 This material includes participant observation, fieldnotes, per
sonal journal, multiple informal interviews, and in-depth, semistructured
tape-recorded interviews lasting two to three hours each. The sample (based on
snowball sampling) consisted of 35 Gualantecos aged 18 to 67.1 interviewed 20
females and 15 males (migrants and nonmigrants) from diverse socioeconomic
Of these 25 were married or in consensual
backgrounds. study participants
unions, 5 single, 2 separated, 2 divorced, and 1widowed, and most had children.
While employing snowball sampling does not yield generalizable outcomes, by
selecting individuals from distinct neighborhoods it ensures that different sectors
of the municipio (township) are represented. One of the aims ofmy research was
to explore transnational processes, particularly return migration and remit
tances, and their effects on gender, class, and ethnicity in the migrants' home
land. During the course of my fieldwork Gualantecos repeatedly touched
on

family relations, especially relationships among parents, caretakers, and young

core question here emerges from the concerns of the
people. Thus the population
studied.
Gual?n is a vibrant and bustling town in the department of Zacapa, 165
kilometers northeast of Guatemala City The region inwhich it is located, the
Oriente, is for the most part Ladino-dominated.3 It is hot and dry and has a
distinctive place in Guatemala's history and geography because of its cattle
ranches, large estates, poor-quality land, and lack of irrigation and itsmachista
values. This eastern region is often contrasted with the Occidente (the western
a because of the two
highlands), predominantly Maya indigenous region,
regions' distinctive ethnicities, environments, tenure regimes, production
objectives, property relations, and political interests. Researchers seldom com
pare the two regions or focus on the Oriente, however, because the latter lacks
the exoticism that the western highlands offer.

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 Moran-Taylor/GUATEMALA: MIGRATION AND CHILD REARING 81

MIGRATORY FLOWS

As have many other Guatemalan villages and towns, Gual?n has experienced
strong migration north. Some residents say that almost a third of the township's
30,000 inhabitants have migrated to the United States. People began to look north
in the 1960s, and as political upheavals intensified and economic prospects
declined many individuals migrated during the 1970s and 1980s. Since the 1990s
U.S.-bound migration from Guatemala has increased exponentially. Migrants
fromGual?n go mainly to Los Angeles and Chicago, but Las Vegas and Phoenix
are to attract Gualantecos as well. In
beginning spite of the spatial and temporal
distances that separate Gualanteco migrants from loved ones at home, enduring
social networks connect their places of origin and arrival. Migration affects those
who remain behind, and few inGuatemala remain untouched.
The broad structural dimensions that contribute to the increase inmigra
tion include the political ramifications of the government's scorched-earth

campaign, the country's continued economic crisis, lack of adequate develop

ment strategies, high unemployment rates, high inflation, devaluation of the
national currency, and the "dollarized" economy (with the sole exception of
on the local level also
theminimum wage). Several determinants help set the
stage forGuatemalan parents' leaving their children behind. Migrants include
women violent marriages or marginalization in their communities
escaping
and men and women fleeing the law.When males migrate to theUnited States
and then form another family abroad, abandoned spouses leftwith the sole
for the children may consider migration an
responsibility option. Although
the initial years itwas males who headed north, now equal
during primarily
numbers of men and women leave the Oriente for the United States.4
Little is known about the outcomes of this northward movement on
Guatemalan soil. Most of thework on U.S.-bound Guatemalan migration focuses
on the ways in which individuals build new lives in the United States and
Canada (e.g., Burns, 1993; Hagan, 1994; Loucky and Moors, 2000; Hamilton and
Chinchilla, 2001; Fink, 2003; Nolin, 2004). Other studies explore, for example, the
traumas (Vlach, 1992), the meaning of place and journey
socio-psychological
(Moran-Taylor and Richardson, 1993), labor (Repak, 1995), religion (Wellmeier,
1998), nostalgia (Moran-Taylor, 2001), and women's networks (Menjivar, 2002a).
Increasingly, scholarship
on Guatemalan migration focuses on various aspects of
transnational migration processes (e.g., Kohpahl, 1998; Burns, 1999; Popkin,
1999; Hamilton and Chinchilla, 1999; Loucky and Moors, 2000; Menjivar, 2002b;
Moran-Taylor, 2004; Moran-Taylor and Menjivar, 2005; Taylor, Moran-Taylor, and
Rodman Ruiz, 2006). Explorations of transnational households and, in particular,
caretakers and children as foci of specific roles in the family, as social agents in
migration, and in the context of the sending community continue to be few.

TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES

A large body of current work adopts a transnational perspective on the study

of international migration (e.g., Glick Schiller, Basch, and Szanton, 1992; Basch,

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82 LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Glick Schiller, and Szanton, 1994; Levitt, 2001). Relatively littlework, however,
explores the underpinnings of how families work and the gendered implications
for families of transnational processes (but see Soto, 1987; Sutton and Makiesky
Barrow, 1987; Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila, 1997; Glick Schiller and Fouron,
2001; Thome et al, 2001; and Pribilsky 2004). Increasingly migration scholarship
focuses on women as inmigration processes and shows how
equal participants
gender shapes and is in turn affected by migration (e.g., Georges, 1990; Donato,
1992; Hagan, 1994; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994; Hirsch, 1999; 2003). Past work also
pays attention to "stay-at-homes," "women who stay behind," and "white wid
ows" (Dinerman, 1982; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1992; Reed, 2003), but the role of care
takers remains understudied. Caretakers typically stay inmigrants' communities
of origin and raise the children leftbehind when parents migrate north. The few
contributions that explore transnational fatherhood, motherhood, and childhood
only indirectly discuss the critical role of caretakers in fostering and nurturing
family connections (e.g., Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila, 1997). Equally significant,
the experiences of children as social actors in global and transnational processes
rarely receive adequate recognition. Stephens (1995) calls for a better under
standing of children's experiences in different world regions, national frame
works, and social contexts.
Migration studies, for example, give little attention to the way migration
affects children and youth. Additionally, where and how dependent transna
tional family members grow up receive scant consideration. A recent corrective
includes the contributions of Faulstich et al. (2001) and Thorne et al. (2001). While
thiswork nicely demonstrates the impact of transnational practices on theway
children grow up, its focus is on youngsters in the United States. Further, when
studies children, the emphasis
consider is on the way they become integrated
into U.S. communities. Most of this research privileges second-generation
children, language acquisition, segmented assimilation, identity, health, and
school performance (e.g., Ogbu, 1989; Fern?ndez-Kelly and Schauffler, 1996;
Portes and Rumbaut, 2001; Gibson, 1997; Zhou, 1997; Rumbaut and Portes, 2001;
Smith et al, 2003). By paying attention to caretakers and children, I provide a
more nuanced view of the that shape transnational families. The fol
dynamics
lowing sections, then, lay out in greater detail the centrality of child rearing in
migration processes, family dynamics, and the kinds of social relations that
unfold between caregivers, children, and parents.

CHILD-REARING PRACTICES

are
The children of migrants usually taken care of by family members, com

padres (fictive kin), and/or friends. Among Caribbean women Soto, 1987)
(e.g.,
and African-American women (e.g., Stack, 1974; White, 1985; Stack and Burton,
1994), for instance, there is a well-established tradition of shared mothering and
of leaving children behind while women migrate to other
places in search of
better economic prospects and brighter futures. The contrast between Guatemala
and the Caribbean case is particularly
striking. Given that Caribbean (especially
West Indian) child-leaving among parents who migrate has a longer history and
different gender relations from what I found in the Guatemalan example, it is
instructive to examine some of the responses that develop with thatmigratory

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 Moran-Taylor/GUATEMALA: MIGRATION AND CHILD REARING 83

flow. Soto (1987), for instance, shows that child fostering signifies a commitment
on the part of the children to care for the caretakers in their old age. She observes
that engaging in such arrangements is a way forwomen to gain independence.
a
More recently, in study that examines Dominican transnational migration,
Levitt (2001) shows that sharing child-rearing responsibilities is becoming com
children in the care of their and/or other close
monplace. Leaving grandparents
kin is a long-standing tradition among Guatemalan women who
migrate from
rural areas to Guatemala City in search of wage work (see McCreery, 1994).5
Many women find jobs in the capital as domestic workers and, more and more,
in foreign-run maquilas (factories). What is novel about current migration trends is
the journey north. In these cases, as Levitt (2001) observes, sharing child-rearing
a transnational endeavor.
responsibilities becomes
In Guatemala caretakers usually say mis hijos (my children), los ni?os que
cuido (the children I care for), or hijos de crianza (children by rearing) when
care. For the most part, in Gual?n mater
referring to the children under their
nal grandmothers and aunts are entrusted with children left behind.6 Only
when parents have no one else to turn to do they leave children with close
friends hired to help. Many migrant and returnee parents expressed concerns
about having their children well fed, well cared for, and out of mischief dur
ing their absence. Generally, caretakers are known as encargados (guardians).
Public and private institutions often acknowledge the term encargado as a
valid entry on official forms, and the school principals and teachers I spoke to
about caretaker roles reported that about one-third of the students live under
such arrangements. In contrast to theCaribbean case, inwhich women gain social
power and prestige by becoming caretakers (see Soto, 1987), in Guatemala
do not seem to acquire improved social status, possibly because of
encargados
themachismo that shapes caretaking roles.
While both men and women may assume the responsibility of care providers,
it is typically women who do so. Even when women are
expressly left in charge,
however, male figures in the family may dominate in any decision making that

pertains to parental control. Again, this is probably because of the prevailing

gender ideology. A striking example is that ofMariana, who is separated from
her husband and raising three youngsters with no financial support. When
Mariana went to Los Angeles, her children stayed with her mother, but her
brother had the final say in all social and financial matters concerning them.

DYNAMICS OF FAMILY MIGRATION

together to maximize their household eco

Increasingly, couples migrate
nomic resources. As Hirsch (1999) observes among Mexican migrants, it is not
a
simply their negotiating power that migration changes but their goals as
couple. To survive, prosper, and improve their children's life chances are the
chief reasons Guatemalans migrate and leave their children behind despite
the enormous emotional suffering it involves. When parents migrate legally
(because they have the economic means and skills to process the paper work
for a visa), they usually take their children with them with the idea of settling
in the United States. When mothers and /or fathers make the journey north

illegally, the children usually remain behind. Including children in parents'

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 84 LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

migration agendas is generally viewed as a hindrance to their financial goals

of earning, saving, and bringing money home. Because many Guatemalans
migrate to the United States mostly for economic reasons, taking children
along makes it difficult for both parents to become part of the labor force.
When or individual parents migrate, the family members remaining
couples
at home are sent for to join those abroad. The high fees charged formaking the
clandestine undocumented, a coyote, prevent many
journey guided by
parents from taking their children along.7 Few children migrate illegally
because of the hazards of the trip and the uncertainty about finding employ
ment. Finally, mothers and fathers who prefer leaving their children behind
may consider the environment in the United States unsafe for raising a child.
are
These key points significant in parents' decision making.
An example that highlights some of the dilemmas of taking children along
is that of Pedro, a 10-year-old boy who, with his sister, Maribel, a
along
vibrant 13-year-old, had been left in the care of their paternal grandmother
seven years ago. Every Christmas Maribel and Pedro received a suitcase laden
with toys, clothes, and other gifts. Maribel explained that her mother never
returned home because of the lack of legal documents in the United States but
to on to
was processing the legal paperwork for her join her there. She went
say that her mother had no intention of petitioning for Pedro, who was con
sidered a difficult child. Pedro had dropped out of fifthgrade, joined a gang,
and become involved in petty theft.8He had bounced from caretaker to care
taker within his extended family (grandparents, aunts, and uncles), and no
one had been able to come to grips with his deviant behavior. His mother felt
that if Pedro migrated to the United States he would be lost. Pedro's case
shows how migrants may view cultural milieus different from their own.
Because some parents perceive the United States as a less healthy place and a
more involved inmajor mischief,
place where youngsters may become they
to leave their children with caretakers at home. In contrast to Pedro,
prefer
a more
who has gone astray, his sister Maribel enjoys positive standing in the
Her good looks, nice clothes (many ofwhich her
family and in the community.
mother has sent from the United States), and self-assurance and maturity

recently earned her the title of queen of the annual patron saint's feria. During
one ofmy recent visits to Gual?n, her grandmother proudly related this news
and showed me a portrait of Maribel in queen's regalia.
16-by-20-inch
Meanwhile, as Maribel's mother prolongs her stay abroad, she continues to
miss out on the everyday and extraordinary moments in her daughter's life?
a must pay when migrating north.
price many migrant parents
The "temporary" arrangements made for leaving children behind generally
have no well-defined time limit. Ifmigrants aim not to return home but to set
once
tle, they send for their children?often they have established legal status
in the United States. In such cases children usually remain at home without

maintaining physical ties with

their parents. Recently, because of strict U.S.

immigration laws on
family reunification and to legalize illegal statuses, many
more parents are sending for their children, occasionally accompanied by
close kin, through illegal means a in situations
(employing coyote). Generally,
where children are left behind for brief periods, estrangements last two to
three years. Alternatively, parents may consider it less expensive to have their
children live with them in the United States than to send U.S. dollars for their

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 Moran-Taylor/GUATEMALA: MIGRATION AND CHILD REARING 85

maintenance in Guatemala. While parents may not stay connected with their
children physically, they maintain strong emotional ties through such sophis
ticated means of communication as cellular facsimile,
telephones, telephones,
home videos, and e-mail.9

Under certain circumstances, the constraints and hardships migrants face in

their places of employment may encourage them to send their children home.
This trend is particularly common among single migrant mothers. Marcia, a
woman in her late thirties, had worked as a domestic worker in Los Angeles for
a year. Prior to her migration, she had done administrative work at a pri
nearly
vate school in the capital. The following telling vignette reveals the conditions
that drove Marcia to send her son back home and ultimately to return herself:

Iworked fromMonday through Saturday. I felt that the Jewish lady Iworked for
was too ... I did and care for the children!
exploitive. everything?clean, cook,
If Iwas bathing her four-year-old daughter, then I also had to take the baby in
her car seat and put her next tome . . .and the lady did nothing. When I cleaned
the house, Iwould do my best?that's how Iwas taught. But my employer, using
a white she would her all the corners . . . even
glove, pass fingers through pic
ture frames. If she found the slightest bit of dust, she would yell atme. Then, one
me of breaking it and
day the washing machine broke down. She accused
me for a brand new one. After working there for a fewmonths, I sent
charged
for my son in Guatemala. In Los he lived with some rela
10-year-old Angeles,
tives, and I would pay them $100 a month for his room and board. Only on
a chance to see my
Saturday evenings and Sundays [during the day] did I get
son. After a couple ofmonths I decided to send him back toGuatemala because
itwas too difficult forme to keep up with all my debts. The day my son left it
was a Friday?I couldn't get him on a Saturday flight.Well, the lady Iworked
fordidn't even give me permission to go and staywith him on his very last night
or to come me. .. . on
stay with
for him and Then, another occasion, [her
they
a me a
employer and family] went to Florida for three-week holiday and left
long list?as if Iwere Cinderella with all the things I had to do. But the last straw
was when she [her employer] tried to hit me! That was it!Then, I told her, "No,
Fm leaving, Fm going to see how I can come up with my plane ticket and then
go/7 I couldn't stand being there any longer.

as a disciplinary measure is a norm reported

Sending migrant children home
in several studies (e.g., Guarnizo, 1997; Loucky and Moors, 2000; Levitt, 2001).
Migrants from the Caribbean to theUnited States frequently send their children
a
home because they consider it better place to raise children (e.g., less drug
related violence, crime, overcrowding, and discrimination) or because theywant
them to acquire a cultural identity similar to their own (Soto, 1987; Georges, 1990;
Guarnizo, 1997; Levitt, 2001). In the Guatemalan case, once children are residing
in theUnited States with both parents they are rarely sent home, even if they are
considered to have gone astray. The difference between the two cases may be a
matter of history: Dominican migration, for example, is more mature than
Guatemalan Further, as Thorne et al. (2001) note, parents may
migration.
threaten to send children home as a disciplinary measure without acting upon it.
Parents told me that they preferred to keep their children with them and that the
benefits of learning English potentially outweighed the negative aspects of life in
theUnited States.
Loucky (2000) observes that Q'anjob'al Maya migrants to Los Angeles send
children home as a disciplinary measure. Hagan (1994) reports that K'iche'

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 86 LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Maya migrants toHouston send their U.S.-born children home to expose them
toMaya culture, but I did not observe this among the K'iche' Maya that I stud
ied in the western One reason for this outcome may be
highlands. divergent
differences in research approach. Hagan dealt primarily with the receiving
end and the interplay of national immigration policy reform and migrant set
tlement, while my work focused on migration impacts in the communities of
These contrasting reports may also reflect differences between what
origin.
people say they do and what they actually do.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS

Some parents migrate for a significant period, while others have no inten
tion of returning home and some simply abandon their children. Many
families who go to the United States for an extended period sustain close rela
tionships
across national borders while others are raising their children.
these individuals remit on average US$200-300 each month. Others,
Typically,
however, sever ties and fail to comply with their financial obligations. Miriam,
for instance, migrated to Los Angeles and lefther two youngsters behind. The
children were placed in separate households, and she never sent any money
to the caretakers, visited, telephoned, or stayed in touch with the children in
any other way. One of the caretakers told me the following story:

The mother didn't cultivate anything; there's no fruit,and then the love is lost.
Because the mother never to share, and socialize with her
sought support,
children, the one who raises a child is more his parent than the one who bore
him. Miriam's oldest child, Zoila, never to see her mother, and one New
got
Year's Eve, when she was
nearly
15 years old, she was killed in a car accident.
All Zoila ever wanted was to meet her mother.

Many Gualantecos had similar accounts of parent-child separations.

That parents do not return home in several years may not be viewed in
terms of abandonment. Rather, caretakers seem to realize that they may be
unable to return. Because of the scarcity of employment opportunities in
Guatemala, relatives understand the economic benefits of remaining abroad.
a little bit longer than initially expected and remitting U.S. dollars
Staying
allows migrant parents to provide better financial resources for their offspring.
A case in point is that of Do?a Katia's daughter. Do?a Katia, a soft-spoken
woman in her early sixties, resides in Gual?n's most marginalized area, a
stone's throw from the rapid, murky waters of the Motagua River. Her
Luz had migrated to Los Angeles and left her five children, includ
daughter
ing three-year-old twins, with Do?a Katia. At the time, Luz had been sepa
rated from her husband and desperate to find a way of providing for her
children. Now itwas nearly a year later, and Do?a Katia reported:

. . she has been with the idea of back to visit... to see how
Well,. coming things
are going here, but also with the idea of then returning back to Los Angeles
because here she can't do anything. Life is hard here, especially forher, since she
has such a great responsibility inmaintaining those children. She has to do
because the father died last year in a car accident?an
everything eighteen
wheeler killed him along the highway.

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 Moran-Taylor/GUATEMALA: MIGRATION AND CHILD REARING 87

Do?a Katia understood her daughter's long absence and often insisted that
she not return yet, recognizing the hardships she would endure raising five
children in Guatemala. Luz continued to be strongly connected with her fam
a cellular
ily and had recently sent extra money
to purchase telephone to ease
communication with them.10 Thus extended physical absences of migrant
parents do notalways unfold negatively, particularly from the caretaker's
In this case Do?a Katia has the love and even some of the
viewpoint. provided
financial backing needed to raise her five grandchildren. The foregoing exam
assume the tasks of social reproduction while
ples capture the way caretakers
mothers and fathers migrate north.
Gualantecos report that because caretakers assume such a fundamental

responsibility for raising the children that parents leave in their care, social
relations between caretakers and migrant parents improve. Once parents
decide tomigrate and leave their children behind, sending U.S. dollars to care
takers becomes one of their foremost familial obligations. Tensions arise, how
so. As parents stay abroad
ever, when they fail to do longer, the remittances
tend to dwindle. Under these circumstances the social relations between care
takers and parents alter and families fragment. When monetary issues come
into play, family relationships may change significantly.
For example, Do?a Sonia has raised a granddaughter and a niece. She lives
in one of Gual?n's neighboring villages but commutes into town nearly every
a as a
day towork at pharmacy. She also works midwife and is respected in
her community. While her granddaughter (whom she had cared since she was
four months old) joined her parents at the age of 8 by making the trip north
her niece remained with her until she was 15. When her parents sent
legally,
for the child, relations between them and Do?a Sonia abruptly changed:

They wanted me to send her [the niece] illegally. But I didn't want to because I
knew themishaps she could potentially endure along theway, because you hear
of so many despicable things that happen, right?When we spoke on the tele
even insultme. He would say that I didn't want
phone my brother-in-law would
to send their child because Iwas taking themoney, theU.S. dollars they sent. But
I never took any of themoney formyself. I did, however, lump it togetherwith
mine to use for the household expenses, but even that wasn't enough. They
would send me $75 each month, and with these funds I placed my niece in a pri
vate school. My youngest son,who just turned 20,was very distressed about this
whole situation. He decided to go there [theUnited States] to accompany my
niece the way and her off at her house in Arizona. So now,
along drop parents'
there she is. Since her arrival over there [Phoenix], my sister and her husband
even write to me?and don't even want to have to do
don't they my niece anything
us. now tells me, "You see . . . since raised
with
My husband you her, they don't
even want anything to do with you now." But my little niece still keeps in
touch?she calls me when [the parents] are not around. Her father,
they though,
us altogether.
always tells her that she needs to forget about

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN

When I asked Gualantecos to discuss some of the social and cultural out
comes of migration for children, especially for those who stayed behind with
caretakers, they pointed out the positive and adverse effects among boys and
girls. Migration negatively affects boys when they become involved in gangs,

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88 LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

juvenile delinquency, drugs, and substance abuse. Poverty and unemploy

ment in Guatemala influence some of these outcomes, but they alone cannot
explain them. The role of U.S.-bound migration becomes central
adequately
too. The effects that locals report are the same ones that parents fear their
children will suffer if raised abroad (see also Thorne et al., 2001).
Girls seem to be affected more than boys. Gualantecos said that because
caretakers cannot maintain a watchful eye and strong parental control, many
female adolescents have become promiscuous, and this has led to an increase
in single motherhood in girls as young as 12 or 13. To many girls, hitching up
with a new return migrant seems to be their ticket out of Gual?n. As Don
Mario, a man in his sixties, put it, "Those who return only come back to cause
havoc." Similarly, Grimes (1998) notes that one of the most negative effects of
out-migration in Putla, a western Oaxacan site inMexico, is the increase in the
number of single mothers. Addressing the consequences of migration among
female students, the principal of Gual?n's public primary school for girls,
. what
.
Do?a Licha, a lively woman in her early sixties, remarked: "Look.
is that young girls who are single mothers migrate, then their
happens
. .Those who have been left in the care of someone else also fall
daughters..
into this same path, and thus what we see here is that the cycle repeats itself."
In addition to an increase in the number of single mothers, another conse
quence of the child-rearing practices that have developed because of transna
tional migration iswhat Gualantecos call "prostitution." What mean
they by
this is not sex work but milling around in the streets after dark with
and without any strict surveillance, a dance without a
boyfriends leaving
chaperone, wearing inappropriate clothing, and displaying promiscuity.
and norms women to the domestic
Prevailing gender ideologies relegating
versus the a role here, and, while much feminist scholar
public sphere play
this binary model, it continues to govern the way many
ship critiques
Gualantecos organize their daily lives.
Most Gualantecos reported academic performance
that children's dramati
the initial of absence. The
cally declines, especially during stages parents'
at one of the schools I for had a
fourth-grade teacher visited, example, 17-year
old student in her class, and Don Carlos, the retired principal of a boy's public
middle school, said,

When there is an immense lack of and caretakers who

parents migrate, authority,
are given the task of disciplining children left behind cannot carry out this
cannot maintain discipline by
responsibility properly and solely. Parents just
remote control. This situation also results in many disciplinary problems in
schools. Many boys and girls no longer desire to study. Plainly, they know that
a to theUnited States.
they can earn better future simply by migrating

Many migration studies reveal similar trends. At the same time, parents'

migration may affect schooling positively. Returnees and migrant parents

who send remittances often send their children to private rather than public
schools. This shift allows migrant families to provide their children a better
education and to display higher social status. Other benefits include the exten
sion of children's education from primary to secondary school and even voca
tional school.

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 Moran-Taylor/GUATEMALA: MIGRATION AND CHILD REARING 89

If children remain apart from their parents for a relatively short period, the

physical distance may be more significant to children than the U.S. dollars
they remit. Sandra, a jovial woman in her mid-thirties, for example, had had

aspirations of remaining in the United States just long enough to save enough
for a house in Gual?n. Instead, she had found herself back home after a year
and no better off.Her husband had abused and abandoned her, and she had
tomake ends meet. She had gone to Los Angeles
juggled several jobs in order
in search of better job prospects and left her 10-year-old son with her mother.

Every month, with great effort, she had remitted part of her earnings?usually
US$300 per month?for her child and household expenses. Tearfully, her son
had begged her every week to return home: "I don't care whether you build a
house or anything, Mommy, or that you send us money. The only thing I ask
of you is that you please come back home!" Finally, she relented and returned.
When I spoke to Sandra, she expressed no interest inmigrating again to the
United States. Reunited with her son, remarried, and with a 2-year-old
now runs a booming fast-food restaurant in downtown Gual?n.
daughter, she
Sandra and her son experienced a and
Because relatively brief separation
remained closely connected during her stay in the United States, social rela
tions between them did not suffer major repercussions. The longer parents
remain physically separated from their kin, however, the more inclined
children are to cultivate other feelings. Whenever Do?a Katia's five grand
children, for instance, receive money from their mother in Los Angeles, their
most pressing concern is how much. Telephone conversations nearly always
allude to this topic. And if the mother is unable to remit any money one
month, the children are with her. In other words, money is
disappointed
increasingly replacing intimacy for children with migrant parents abroad.
When parents migrate for prolonged stretches of time, the separation has
clear emotional consequences. Social relations between parents and children
are subject to many ups and downs. If children are fairly young when their
mothers and fathers leave, they often do not recognize or acknowledge them
when they meet again. In these situations it is difficult for children to relate
or a as "Mom" or "Dad." This
intimately with parents simply refer to parent
lack of bonding creates much friction between parents and children and gen
erates resentment in the parents. When mothers and fathers are long absent,
children tend to lose respect, trust, and love for them. Parenting from abroad
becomes more challenging as the children become adolescents because many
do not acknowledge their parents' authority. Olivia, a divorced woman in her
late thirties and mother of three, had migrated to the United States during
three distinct periods of her life, and each time she experienced a
lengthy sep
aration from her children. Recounting her experiences, she said,

The children suffer.One goes so that they are well. We think that they are going
to be all right, but in reality we are morally destroying them.When parents
same warmth
migrate and leave their children behind, they do not receive the
that parents provide, even if they are leftwith a grandmother or an aunt. If they
need advice or anything else, they feel deserted.

These remarks echo the sentiments of many others in Gual?n. They speak to
the emotional suffering that many migrant parents feel. At the same time,

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90 LATINAMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

migrants must contend with the liminality of living illegally in the United
States and the discrimination and harsh treatment of their everyday lives?the
"hidden" costs of migration.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CARETAKERS AND CHILDREN

A feature of transnational child-rearing practices

salient is that caretakers,
often lose control over the children
especially female ones, they look after, espe
as reach adolescence. Community members explain that this is
cially they
because caretakers tend to spoil them. This scenario parallels that of most
families (including those in theUnited States with local parents). Its effects, how
ever, are especially acute because of the resentment expressed by the children of
migrants. Locals say that the lackadaisical attitudes that young people develop
lead to conflict as they grow up and that their resentment of their situation makes
them difficult to handle.
Boys in particular may join gangs and spend much of
themoney that parents earn from backbreaking jobs in theUnited States on alco
hol and expensive consumer goods.
Social relations between parents, caretakers, and children may deteriorate
some caretakers
because of the varying disciplinary strategies employed. While
more to more
may discipline rigorously, returnee parents tend be lax (especially
because ofU.S. rhetoric espousing children's rights and the different disciplinary
perspectives embraced in the North). Armando, for example, is a male care
in his forties. with his mother, he was left in of his sister's
provider Along charge
children. When the sister returned
from the United States, tension emerged
between of their divergent parenting styles and practices. She was
them because
less inclined than Armando to reprimand her children for misbehaving.
Returnees' attitudes toward are influenced a greater awareness of
discipline by
child abuse and the power of intervention permitted by U.S. laws. As one female
returnee, in her early thirties and themother of two, explained,

In theUnited States one has to constantly watch one's back and look to the sides
to see ifa neighbor is looking when you reprimand your child because of all the
child abuse laws. But when I'm inGuatemala it's different.Here I can chastise
my child without this worry. I can do it how I please, but of course, always
within reason.

Undoubtedly, formany migrant parents in the United States a central cultural

clash concerns the line between harsh reprimands and child abuse.
one of the most trying situations for transnational households
Perhaps
occurs when migrant parents abruptly send for their children, particularly
a for several years. Anita, an energetic
when they have been with guardian
mother and caretaker, had cared for her nephew since he was a toddler.
Almost in tears, she said,

The mother did not have any need tomigrate, because her husband would send
from the United States ... so she was fine. Once the
money regularly financially
mother left, she would never or write to her son, even for occa
telephone special
sions like his birthday. Then, one day, without any warning, she arrived to fetch
her son. She came, took him, and left.You should have seen how I feltwhen I
had to go to school and pick up his projects he had made forMother's Day.

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 Moran-Taylor/GUATEMALA: MIGRATION AND CHILD REARING 91

This incident was devastating for Anita. It took her nearly two years to
recover. It also deeply wounded her own young son and the four-year-old

nephew himself, who considered Anita and her husband his true parents.
Since this family rupture Anita has visited her nephew inNew York on a cou

ple of occasions. She is able to travel back and forthwith ease because of her
U.S. For the overwhelming
visa. majority of caregivers in Guatemala, how
ever, this is not the case. Once parents send for their children, anxious and des
often follow even for this decision
perate caretakers them, though many
means making the harrowing journey north illegally. This emotional stress
may strain social relations in transnational families.

CONCLUSION

Caretakers are central to the maintenance of transnational migration. These

unsung heroes and heroines
help migrant parents towork for longer periods in
the United States by caring for their offspring and occasionally even sharing the
financial costs of social reproduction. Ultimately, they help reproduce the fol
ofmigrant workers?a generation that already participates in
lowing generation
a culture of migration. Although examining who finances the reproduction of
people that regularly supply migrant labor to developed nations is significant

(e.g., Griffith, 1985), understanding the emotional side of social reproduction also
merits attention. While some caretakers may feel exploited and resentful, others
grow exceptionally attached to the children in their care and sometimes even
head north to join them.
A broader question has to do with the forces that put pressure on families
to migrate. As Click Schiller, Basch, and Szanton (1992: 5) have observed,
transnational migration is largely a product of the shifting conditions of global
In the past three decades, Guatemala has moved to a remittance
capitalism.
based economy in which humans are the primary export commodity, and
many nations around the world are similar trends. Along with
experiencing
many other countries in Latin America with long histories of authoritarian
an unequal distribution of wealth, land, and income, Guatemala
regimes and
much political unrest in the past century. From the early 1960s to
experienced
the late 1990s, its people endured conflict between guerrillas and the state that
leftmore than 200,000 dead or disappeared and produced deep resentment in
many migrant-sending communities (Jonas, 2000; North and Simmons, 1999).
These chaotic events reinforced and deepened poverty and laid the ground
work for neoliberal policies such as the elimination of credit sources for small
producers, the privatization of former government-run services such as the
mail, electricity, and telephone, and the violent suppression of attempts to cre
ate unions, demands for land reform, and opposition to the Central American
Free Trade Agreement. Allthis has threatened the livelihoods of many
Guatemalans and made an attractive for thousands.
migration option
Although migration helps provide for the survival of those left behind, it
has negative as well as positive outcomes at the local level. While some
are viewed as self-sacrificing, many others are
migrant mothers stigmatized.
In the end, the difference seems to be based on the perception of theirmotives.
of the female migrants viewed in a positive light had experienced
Many

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92 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

domestic violence or abandonment, and migration had allowed them to pro

vide for their children.
While to some extent transnational child-rearing practices help maintain
cultural traditions, they also contribute to important social and cultural

changes. As international migration becomes institutionalized in Guatemala,

transformations are in Guatemalan
migration-related taking place society
Guatemala's past president, Oscar Berger, described itsmigrants as national
heroes because of their tremendous financial impact on the country. Indeed,
the cash remittances that migrants send help sustain Guatemala's economy
and improve livelihoods in the homeland. The relatives of these "heroes" who
care for their children in their absence must, however, be equally acknowl

edged, forwithout them migration would be more difficult.

NOTES

1. To maintain I use instead of actual names.

confidentiality pseudonyms
2. I collected data in the summer of 1999, over the course of a year in 2000
ethnographic
and in short visits between 2003 and 2006.
through 2001,
3. "Ladino" refers to non-indigenous Guatemalans, but it is a loaded term, and many
Guatemalans would not use it to identify themselves.
4. In the western Maya males tend to dominate the northward flow to the United
highlands
States.
5. In the western men and women have also migrated to coastal and
highlands plantations
to southern Mexico in search of wage labor for decades (see Bossen, 1984).
6. By contrast, findings from my study among the Maya K'iche' group in the western high
lands that paternal typically share responsibilities,
suggest grandmothers child-rearing perhaps
because residence there is patrilocal.
7. A is a guide or In Gual?n, the going rate for traveling with a coyote
coyote smuggler.
oscillates around Q35,000 per person (adult or child), close to US$4,500, for a door-to-door jour
ney from Gual?n to a U.S. destination.
8. For Gualantecos to a gang means out with friends, horseplay, writing
belonging hanging
on alcohol
graffiti private and public walls, consuming (usually beer), and smoking marijuana.
In Guatemala as elsewhere in Central America, however, gangs formed in south-central Los
are their presence felt and to high crime rates.
Angeles making contributing
9. With the introduction of much more sophisticated
means of communication, letter writ

ing has nearly vanished (see Moran-Taylor, 2004).

10. In Guatemala it is often necessary towait several years before a land
receiving telephone
line, and therefore people have turned to cellular as a way of keeping in touch.
telephones

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