The Journey to America from Guatemala

Contributed by Dan Cabrera
During the early 70’s and 80’s Guatemala was in turmoil. Violence was drastically increasing day by day. Yet, people still managed to prosper and live. They grew and harvested their plants. The children attended school and had dreams of a good future. Some of them saw it in Guatemala. Many others wanted to venture out. They wanted to go to America.

America is a very different place than Guatemala. Depending on where you are, the climate is just one of the many things to get used to. There were the suburbs and towns in contrast to the farm like community people lived in in Guatemala. Even the cities were different. Guatemala City and New York City are extremely contrastable even if they are both classified as cities. Immigrants still grew accustomed though. They became part of those communities while integrating their old ones at the same time.

Interview:

This is a following interview between me and my father, Minor Cabrera. He grew up in Guatemala and at the age of eighteen came to America. This was the year right after he graduated high school. Apart from that, he moved from a farm town to the town of Plainfield, New Jersey.

What kind of environment were you raised in? Town, City etc. What was it like? 

I lived in the countryside. The houses were all the same. There were bananas everywhere, because we all worked on a banana plantation nearby. There were no phones except for this one that was in the local store of the neighborhood. We got around on bike for the most part. My father had one bike and me and my 4 other siblings all shared a bike. We wouldn’t venture outside of the neighborhood. It was a very peaceful area. There wasn’t violence there like in Guatemala City.  As a child I was basically isolated from the rest of the world. My life was in my town.   I was raised in between a town and a city. I spent my time between Guatemala City and Jutiapa. Guatemala City was very chaotic.

What are some memories or anecdotes of your life there that stands out to you?

Me and my three other brothers were sent to clean and maintain the stalks of some of our bean plants, but we brought our fishing rods with us. This consisted of any branch with any string and a hook. So instead of listening to our dad, we decided to go fishing. At the time of lunch, my younger brother was sent by my dad to bring us food. He didn’t find us and went back home with the food. When we arrived home, we found out that we were being looked for because they thought something bad happened to us. When my dad found us and found out that we were just dilly dallying, he whipped all of us with his belt. And then he sent us back and this time we listened.

As you may know Guatemala had its issues with coupes and violence. Did any of the violence affect you? Any family members or the way you lived?

No thankfully, nothing bad really happened. Like I said we were very secure in out little neighborhood. There weren’t any gangs or violence around. The worst was your average fight that would happen between two people. It’s a lot worse now. There’s more drug wars and violent shoot outs. There aren’t too many safe havens like my old neighborhood in Guatemala anymore. You have to be more careful because no one is safe.
 

What’s one of your favorite celebrations in Guatemala?

My favorite celebration had to be Christmas. We would shoot fireworks. For our Christmas tree we would chop down a, basically it was a stump with a leaves. We’d decorate the tree with lights like we do here. Some years we would make fake snow with chopped bars of soap. We would add water and batter it. We let it dry for a day and then we would cover the tree with it.

What does Guatemala have that America doesn’t?

More guns and drugs I think. Really though I think it had a more united sense of family and community. My brothers and I whether we liked it or not were forced to live together and go through the same burdens. This made us close. It’s not like you and your sister sometimes. We wouldn’t go out with friends a lot because we had each other.

Why did you want to come to America?

The main reason I wanted to come to America was for work. In Guatemala the best job opportunity I had was being a teacher and over there teachers aren’t paid well at all. So when the moment was right, at the age of 18, I came to America.

Where did you live in America?

The first town I lived in here was Plainfield. There were more concrete streets and cars and phones. Everyone was also a lot more clustered together. It’s just like any town but it was still different for me. I had to learn routes, stores, and even the language. It was like if I took you with all your knowledge that you have, even the trivial knowledge like the history of where you lived, and got rid of most of it. It was a little difficult starting from scratch. I learned how to act basically. The way you act can get you far here.

What was the hardest thing to adjust to when you first arrived?

The hardest thing to adjust to was the language and the boundary that it created. I mean this was sometimes because I came to a place where there were many Hispanics just like me. Still there are more now than there were back then. Anyway the language boundary denied me of jobs that was the main reason for my coming here. It’s a land of opportunity as they say, but you have to be in a good position first. So for the beginning of my time here I worked in a factory packing pampers, working in a cafeteria serving food, a busboy, and cooked at a restaurant before I started the job I have been doing ever since (HVCAC technician).

What does America have that Guatemala doesn’t?

America really has more opportunity and diversity. This can come in the form of jobs and the type of people you meet. If it wasn’t for America I wouldn’t have the life I live right now. I wouldn’t be able to afford this type of house, be able to send you and your two sisters to private school, and maybe even afford taking care of all of you. When I was your age I was already 6 years in working. I didn’t have a car or laptop or even air conditioning. Compared to Guatemala, America is more advanced and has more prosperity.

Conclusion:

So from one bike, a stick and string for a fishing rod, and one phone shared by the whole town, my dad has changed his life drastically. He is able to afford to pay for four cars, and a nice house in New Jersey. America has changed his life and even mine. Try imagining living without you phone, laptop, T.V., or air-conditioning and heating. 

For more information on Guatemala and immigration, see:
 

"Chapter 3: The 1970s." Chapter 3: The 1970s. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ciidh/qr/english/chap3.html.
 

"Guatemala 1962 to 1980s." Guatemala 1962-1980s. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Guatemala2_KH.html.
 

"Countries and Their Cultures." Guatemalan Americans. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Du-Ha/Guatemalan-Americans.html.
 

"Migration Information Source - Guatemala: Economic Migrants Replace Political Refugees."The Migration Information Source. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=392.
 

"Guatemala History." History of Guatemala. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/guatemala/history.