showing the embassy official documentation, such as land titles, job contracts, and business

documents.

 The less fortunate among the Ladinos had to go through Mexico, though the fee was more

reasonable in years past as crossing through the Tijuana-Southern California border was

relatively easy and less dangerous than it is today. During the first two decades of Ladino

migration from San Pedro Pinula, many migrants traveled to Los Angeles, Boston, and New

York, using their family connections to reach and settle into these receiving communities.

Ladinos Helping Maya: Maya Helping Themselves

 As mentioned previously, the first Maya migrants were a handful of men who used the

patron-client relationship to migrate to Boston. After this initial migration, the Maya in Boston

began to help their relatives from the same villages to migrate. The first Maya to migrate were

from the nearby villages of Aguacate and Pinalito, which are the closet villages to the town of

Pinula; in later years, Maya from the town were able to enter the migrant circuit. Maya migrants

report that during this period they began to save money to bring their relatives to the United

States, but that it was particularly difficult-if not impossible-to pay for the coyote services in

Guatemala and the United States, which created a situation in which prospective Maya migrants

had people to receive them abroad, yet lacked the Quetzales to pay for the first stage of

migration. Accordingly, it became increasingly common for Maya to borrow Quetzales from

someone in Guatemala and borrow dollars from their relatives to receive them in the U.S. Since

the Maya had yet to establish a large group of return migrants in Guatemala with substantial

economic capital, Ladinos became the only option for money-lending for the first leg of the

journey. Ladinos who had historically provided mozos with favors, including money-lending,

were now in a position to charge exceptionally high interest rates, from ten to twenty percent

monthly, on loans ranging in the thousands of dollars.