A decades-long civil war in Guatemala that peaked in the 1980s resulted in the genocide of over 200,000 indigenous people, the decimation of hundreds of Mayan villages, and prompted the first wave of Guatemalan immigrants to the United States. Although the war ended in the early 1990s, gang violence and poverty have driven many to seek safety and economic opportunity in the United States in recent decades. Today over 6,000 Guatemalans live and work in New Bedford. Many work in seafood processing, in other shoreside businesses, and on fishing boats.