Revisiting Economic Assimilation of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Peri ◽  
Zachariah Rutledge

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Lisa Knauer

Last year, my collaborator Adrian Ventura, director of the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores (Workers' Community Center, or CCT), asked me to write a letter to an elected official on the organization's behalf. Adrian is a Maya K'iche', the largest of the 22 Maya ethnicities in Guatemala, and the CCT is an immigrant workers' rights organization in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He wanted to ensure that the letter clearly explained the organization's analysis of why Central American immigrants, and especially the Guatemalan Maya, had come to the United States.1 "We didn't come for the American dream," he reminded me. I asked him what, specifically, he wanted in the letter. "Ah, Lisa," he responded, with a bit of exasperation. "You're the anthropologist. You've been with us so long, you know what to write."



Author(s):  
Michael R. Woods ◽  
Susana V. Rivera-Mills

AbstractThis sociolinguistic study explores linguistic attitudes of Salvadorans and Hondurans living in the United States towards the use of voseo, a distinguishing feature of Central American Spanish. Using sociolinguistic interviews and ethnographic observations, the Central American experience in Oregon and Washington is examined regarding linguistic attitudes toward voseo and tuteo and how these influence Salvadoran and Honduran identity in U.S. communities that are primarily Mexican-American. Initial findings point to participants developing ethnolinguistic masks and an expanded use of tú as a strategic approach to integration into the established Mexican-American community, while at the same time maintaining a sense of Central American identity.



1969 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackson Crowell


1971 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Grieb

The militarycoup d'étatwhich installed General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez as President of El Salvador during December 1931 created a crisis involving the 1923 Washington Treaties. By the terms of these accords, the Central American nadons had pledged to withhold recognition from governments seizing power through force in any of the isthmian republics. Although not a signatory of the treaty, the United States based its recognition policy on this principle. Through this means the State Department had attempted to impose some stability in Central America, by discouraging revolts. With the co-operation of the isthmian governments, United States diplomats endeavored to bring pressure to bear on the leaders of any uprising, to deny them the fruits of their victory, and thus reduce the constant series ofcoupsandcounter-coupsthat normally characterized Central American politics.



2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Kovic

July 2007. Hundreds of Central American migrants were camped along the railway tracks in Arriaga, Chiapas waiting to for the freight train to leave. Some were eating, perhaps their last food for days, others had bottles of water tied across their shoulders, some attempted to rest under the train cars to escape the hot sun. One young man brushed his teeth under the trees, using the water he carried in a recycled coca-cola bottle, to prepare himself for the journey ahead. Arriaga, a town of 25,000 people, is split in half by the train tracks. The town's tiny plaza, with a small playground, fondas (eateries), and a railway museum, sits on one side of the tracks. The town's church and market lie on the other. These Central American migrants in Arriaga, some 150 miles from Mexico's southern border with Guatemala, were eager to jump the freight train to continue their journey north to the United States. The train had not left Arriaga for a full week and many were desperate as they felt trapped. Their preparations underscored the dangers and harshness of the trip. They would have to hold on to the train for hours and days at a time, riding on ladders and the roofs of tank cars. Those who fall asleep and lose their grip risk death or severe injury, such as dismemberment.



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