Coyotes, Nortenos Transeuntes and Viudas Blancas: Transmigration and Gender in Rural Areas of Guatemala

Since pacification & formal democratization in Central America during the mid-1990s, the accelerated & asymmetrical integration of the region into the global economy has led to various widespread social consequences, among them the increased migration of, mainly, impoverished peasants, artisans & traders to the United States. As a result, the formation of a new border regime in southern Mexico can be observed. In this essay, I take a micro-sociological perspective of these transformation processes in the Central American region & examine gender relations in the context of transnational migration. Using data from fieldwork in 2006, ethnographic methods & concepts such as transmigration & social remittances, I analyze the social & cultural changes in a rural & indigenous Guatemalan town (municipio) located in the Guatemalan-Mexican border region. Here, like in many other towns of the region, male (trans)migration to the USA has become a social & biographical norm. I stress (transborder) interactions & the relationships of migrants & residents of the municipio, new forms of social & political participation, as well as the emergence of new engendered & transcultural subjects like the "coyote," the "norteno transeunte" ("passer-by") & the "viuda blanca" ("white widow"). I argue that these subjects & various their forms of participation have developed & are performed at the margins of the institutions of the nation-state & are, likewise, beyond identification with the nation-state. Existing instead in communal spaces & transnational social fields, transcultural subjects are redefining local power relations along the lines of gender & ethnicity. Adapted from the source document.