Understanding the Diversity Of Atlanta's Latino Population: Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Class

The authors investigate how race is socially constructed among Latino immigrants. Drawing upon Omi and Winant's theory of "racialization," they call for a highly contextualized analysis that takes into account specific Latino groups and geographic locations. They develop their argument by investigating how Guatemalan and Dominican immigrants in Atlanta must negotiate their unique understandings of race with forces of racial homogenization that erase distinctions and characterize "all" Latinos as undocumented Mexican laborers. The authors explain how Guatemalans and Dominicans rely on different resources to challenge this racial construction and assert a distinct racial and ethnic identity.Las autoras investigan cómo el concepto de raza es construido socialmente entre los inmigrantes latinos. A partir de la teoría de la "racialización" de Omi y Winant, ellas señalan la necesidad de emprender un análisis contextualizado que tome en cuenta a grupos específicos de latinos, así como diferentes regiones geográficas. Desarrollan su argumento al investigar cómo los inmigrantes guatemaltecos y dominicanos en Atlanta tienen que negociar su particular entendimiento de raza con fuerzas de homogeneización racial que borran cualquier distinción y caracterizan a todos los latinos como si fueran trabajadores mexicanos indocumentados. Las autoras explican cómo los guatemaltecos y los dominicanos manejan recursos diversos para desafiar esta construcción racial y afirmar sus identidades raciales y étnicas particulares

Living Across Borders: Guatemala Maya Immigrants in the US South

William Brown and Mary Odem, Children dancing at the Santa Eulalia feast day celebration, Cherokee County, Georgia, 2003. This multi-media essay explores Maya migration to the US South through the journeys of two families from Santa Eulalia, Guatemala, who became part of the Maya population of north Georgia. The narratives of Maria and Antonio and Alfredo and Juana reveal conditions that led to the mass migration of the Maya, their struggles to adapt to new locations of life and work, and the effects of their migration on families and communities back home. These migration stories situate the journeys within the political turmoil of late twentieth-century Guatemala and social and economic developments in the US South. As they struggled to provide a better future for themselves and their families, Maya migrants forged transnational social and economic ties that connected indigenous hometowns in Guatemala with their new places of settlement. Text by Mary Odem; video by William Brown and Mary Odem. Ensayo en Españo