sides of the border, I attended video screenings and experienced the excitement of seeing loved

ones on screen. I was present as migrants watched videos and relived joyous occasions such as

the local rodeo and fiestas, where they would pick out familiar faces in the crowd, retell old

stories, and share local lore. When with non-migrant families, people would watch videos that

showed the city landscape, busy highways, migrant salutations, and exteriors and interiors of

their workplaces and homes. For migrants, videos contribute to the recreation of the imagination

of their home communities; for non-migrants, they help to form a picture of the unfamiliar places

that constitute their loved ones' new homes.

 Digital photography was mostly used to document the culture, clothing, and traditions of

the community. I also took photographs of families who would have never otherwise owned a

picture of themselves and gave them away as gifts. I did not give photographs away to relatives

or friends in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft-since photographs are believed to be used

for these purposes. Requests for photographs of daughters and son-in-laws were not unusual,

especially when they involved inter-ethnic relationships and marriages.

 Research Team

 While I conducted most of my research alone, I also worked in cooperation with a

university and a non-governmental organization. During the summer of 1999, I worked for the

Universidad del Valle in Guatemala City as a lecturer and field instructor, conducting a course in

anthropological research methods. With the help of del Valle students, I did preliminary field

research in San Pedro Pinula. One former student, Tatiana Paz Lemus, assisted me in my

research in 2001-2002. She returned for a period of two months and also executed her own

original research on adolescents' view on migration. My work, as well as her research,

contributed to her senior thesis for the Universidad del Valle.