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

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.