advantage in Ladino-Maya business exchanges and cattle ranching. Many Ladinos fear the

Indian ex-soldiers, as they view the combination of knowledge of weaponry and an Indian's

"savagery" as a dangerous combination. Even so, some local Ladinos are able to use these ex-

soldiers to their advantage, sometimes contracting them as hired guns. On several occasions,

Ladinos employed ex-soldiers to settle local Ladino family feuds. As one Ladino aptly put it,

"Your life is worth the price of a bullet and the couple of quetzals it takes to pay a Indian to do

it" (Su vida vale el precio del balazo y los centavos para el indio).

The beginnings of migration to the United States

 While early Ladino migration formed the basis for the current migrant circuits to the

United States, the first wave of Maya migration began in the past decade. While many Maya

groups from the Western Highlands fled to the United States during the height of the civil war in

the 1980s and 1990s, the Pokomam Maya in this study did not migrate because they became

members of the Guatemalan army, whether they elected to join the military or were conscripted

by force. After serving their time in the military, these Maya ex-soldiers anticipated work as

congressional bodyguards in Guatemala City, but were frustrated to find this an impossibility

after the signing of the Peace Accords. The lack of post-war opportunities, either with the

military or as civilians, along with the temptation of an increasingly porous U.S. border,

prompted a marked increase in Maya migration in the 1990s.