and the ostensible "generosity" of one of these "good" patrons ultimately facilitated Maya

entrance in the Guatemala-United States migrant stream.

 One advantage of transnational migration is that it allows people of lower status to gain

economic and social capital through the money and knowledge gained in the United States

(Levitt 2001; Portes 1995). This contrasts with the situation in Guatemala where patron-client

relations have been the traditional means through which the Maya have accessed resources and

social capital. When Ladino patrons helped their workers to migrate, patron-client relationships

became the means for the Maya to become a part of the transnational movement of people,

goods, and ideas. In Rachel Adler's (2002) work on Yucatecan Maya in Dallas, she asserts that

patron-client relations developed as longer term migrants in Dallas gained social capital in the

United States and used this capital to form similar relationships with newer incoming migrants.

As Adler points out, these "noveau riche," who never would have played a patron-like role in

Mexico, were able to rise from their humble backgrounds into prestigious and powerful positions

through "offering goods and services" to other Yucatecos (2002:155). This pattern was

replicated in San Pedro Pinula when local Maya began to ask their Ladino patrons to help them

migrate to Boston. Later, these same Maya adopted a patron-like role when, as established

migrants, they supported other Maya who desired to migrate.

 The first Ladino to help his Maya workers migrate to the United States was a young man

named "Carlos," who had been left to administer the family farm after his father died. Though

Carlos' family owned and administered most of the land in and around the Maya village nearest

to the town of San Pedro Pinula, like many young Ladinos, Carlos was somewhat cash-poor

because his wealth was in fixed capital such as land and cattle and was officially the property of

his mother. His family was one of several large landowners in the area, yet since they were so