The Practice Of Trust, Disclosure, And Collaboration With Guatemalan Refugees

Abstract

My practice of anthropology is guided by the constant development of trust, disclosure, and collaboration. I will discuss how trust was fostered and disclosure deployed in a multi-year collaboration to obtain legalization for indigenous Mayans from Guatemala who for more than thirty years remained stateless in Mexico. I will identify how reduced legal options to regularize status created barriers to political, economic, and cultural incorporation in Mexico and left significant family members—documented and undocumented alike—vulnerable to deportations and family separations. I will also highlight our success to obtain legal status for twenty-six stateless subjects in late 2016. My practice of anthropology has resulted in productive ways of “giving back” to study participants, fostering a type of liberatory praxis that motivates our efforts to assist others who fled military conflict in Guatemala and remain stateless in Mexico.

“It felt like my son had died”: Zero tolerance and the trauma of family separation

“… 4 For a thorough discussion of the Mexican government’s creation of legal obstacles to prevent Guatemalan refugees from obtaining legal status and how the prolonged delay in providing naturalization reinforced poverty creating greater pressure for La Gloria residents to emigrate see Gil-García ( 2018a , 2019 ). …”

Understanding the Mobilities of Indigenous Migrant Youth across the Americas

“…Although Mexico implemented a naturalization program in 1995, the program ended abruptly in 2005 (García 2006). As a result of these developments, as many as 27,000 Guatemalan Maya who fled the Guatemalan Civil War became stateless throughout Mexico or were propelled to migrate to the United States, where they became undocumented (Ruiz Lagier 2015;Gil-García 2018b).…”

Advancing Publicly Engaged Sociology1

“…But ASA affirming the value of such publicly engaged work and of helping participants would support department chairs or deans advocating for candidates doing such work. Oscar Gil wrote one article (2018) about helping 26 Central Americans get asylum in Mexico, after living stateless for two decades (Gil Everaert 2021). His work defending participants' dignity and transforming their lives via asylum should count more than service on a university committee (as it would in ULCA's guidelines) in assessing his career.…”