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“My aspiration is to return to my country because really here in the United States, it’s work all the time, so it’s almost not life.”
Carlos Morales (pseudonym)
Carlos (pseudonym) is a Guatemalan fish cutter. In this excerpt, he discusses the challenges of learning how to cut fish. He explains how his dream was to come to the United States, get a job that would allow him to help his family, and then return to Guatemala, but he has not been able to do that. His aspiration is still to return to his home country because work in the fish house is grueling and inflation is making it challenging for him to live in the United States. He hopes that his children study so they can have a career, instead of just a job.
This interview was originally conducted in Spanish.
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Background Information:
In 1954, the C.I.A. backed a coup that overthrew Guatemala’s democraticallyelected president. This set the stage for the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996) which resulted in the genocide of over 200,000 indigenous people and the destruction of hundreds of Mayan villages. This prompted the first wave of Guatemalan immigration to the United States. In the years that followed, gang violence and poverty drove many to seek safety and economic opportunity in the U.S. Today over 6,000 Guatemalans live and work in New Bedford. Many, like Carlos , work in seafood processing, often hired through temp agencies without benefits or job security.
