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Guatemalan Americans

According to 2010 U.S. Census data, the Guatemalan population in America is 1,044,209, making it the second-largest group of Central Americans and the fifth-largest of Hispanic origin overall in the United States. The Guatemalan population increased almost threefold from 2000 to 2010, according to census data. Today Guatemalan Americans are one of the most diverse and fastest-growing groups among the Hispanic population, despite facing discrimination in the United States and poverty and violence in their country of origin.

Ethnicity and Language

Guatemala, located south of Mexico and north of El Salvador and Honduras, holds the largest population of the isthmus: 14,713,763 (2011 Guatemalan census). Its population is multiethnic and multilingual, with the most numerous indigenous population of Central America. The majority of Guatemalans share the Ladino (Mestizo) ethnicity, closely followed by indigenous Mayan, Xinca, Garifuna, and a minority of white ethnicities. There are a growing number of minorities in Guatemala of Asian, Arab, Jewish, and other ancestry.

It is important to bear in mind that rather than a purely racial classification, the term indigenous is based on group culture and language. Most Guatemalans speak Spanish, the official language of the country. However, Guatemala officially recognizes 21 Mayan indigenous as well as two non-Mayan languages; the former are spoken mostly in the rural areas, while Xinca is mostly spoken in eastern Guatemala, and Garifuna, an Afro-diasporic language, is spoken in the Atlantic coastline region of Guatemala.

Demographics

The ethnic composition of Guatemalans in their country of origin is largely reflected in the communities they have formed in the United States, as they tend to cluster according to ethnicity; Kanjobal Mayans from the region of Huehuetenango, for example, congregate mainly in specific regions of central Florida and North Carolina. According to the 2010 census, the largest populations of Guatemalans in the United States are located in the following states: California, Florida, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts. There are also growing Guatemalan populations in Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Virginia.

In the United States, as has been the case with many Latin Americans, Guatemalan Americans have endured discrimination based on their lack of English fluency as well as on their phenotype. Most of the current discrimination stems from Nativist attitudes among segments of the American population, which are exploited by some politicians. In general, Guatemalans have been willing to take on employment at below-minimum wages in the United States, which has contributed to their economic marginalization. Nevertheless, Guatemalan Americans have become an important source of economic development for Guatemala, via the remittances sent back by immigrants, as well as an engine of production for many regions in the United States.

History and Culture

Though there has always been some Guatemalan immigration to the United States, the numbers increased greatly in the 1970s and 1980s because of the exacerbation of violence against the indigenous peasant population by United States-backed military dictatorships. In the 1980s, in retaliation for popular uprisings and guerrilla activity, the military harassed rural communities to the point of genocide. Other Guatemalans, such as students, intellectuals, and union leaders, were also targeted and many immigrated to the United States. After the Peace Accords of 1996, Guatemalans have continued to migrate to the United States impelled by widespread poverty.

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