Carlos Barrera presents a piece of photo-reportage on El Faro English highlighting challenges of emigrating to the US from Quetzaltenango (Xela) and subsequent deportation and re-integrating back into Guatemala, sometimes after many years of being away. The piece highlights the work of the Garibaldi Association of Migrants and Deportees (Asociación de Migrantes y Deportados Garibaldi – AMIDEGA).

When Vicente Sacor was deported from Los Angeles, California, in 2008, he faced a reality he wasn’t prepared for.

The thirteen years he had lived in the United States had changed his outlook on life. With a decent salary earned through long hours working at a construction company, he had lived comfortably and supported his wife and three children.

The years spent apart from his family and his country took their toll: his children were now adults, and in Quetzaltenango no one would hire him because of the stigma that being deported is equivalent to being a criminal.

The lack of employment —the very reason he had migrated in the first place— became even more acute upon his return.

While he was still in the United States, his wife, Maribel Hernández, took care of the children. At one point, Maribel considered making the journey as an undocumented migrant, tempted by the dozens of neighbors who were migrating and at her husband’s request.

But she was deterred by accounts of dozens of people who had disappeared, been captured by U.S. immigration authorities, returned deported after years away, ended up in debt, or had their families torn apart.

In 2012, four years after Vicente’s deportation, faced with the lack of government assistance, he and Maribel decided to organize in their neighborhood to support the deported, returnees, and their families, as well as to prevent young people from deciding to migrate.

This is how the Garibaldi Association of Migrants and Deportees (AMIDEGA) came into being. Garibaldi is a neighborhood in Quetzaltenango where, alongside small houses, larger, more expensive homes are also being built — what many refer to as “remittance architecture.”

You can read the full piece, with photos and a link to the Spanish version, here, In Guatemala’s Western Highlands, There’s Life After Deportation.

Categories: Accompaniment, Criminalisation, Criminalization, Gender, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Justice, Migration, Poverty, Report, Solidarity in Action, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala

Tags: Carlos Barrera, Deportations, El Faro, El Faro English, Photo-essay, Photo-reportage