be the start of changes in the rural communities as well as in the town of Pinula. As one Ladina

women explained:

 A bueno en el sentido de la libertad, nosotros aqui las mujeres en Guatemala somos muy
 obedientes porque es asi, verdad? Entonces queremos conservar nuestro matrimonio
 porque nos tienen formadas asi de que la mujer tiene que hacerle caso al hombre en
 ciertas cosas, tal vez no en todas. Pero el hombre guatemalteco es muy machista, entonces
 es muy delicado, a raiz de que ellos se sienten que porque el es el machista, a la mujer a
 veces la tienen un poco sumergida. Pero viene tambikn que es unafalta de civilizaci6n,
 entonces por eso se necesita que a losj6venes, a todos los que vienen ahorita darles classes
 para que ellos cambien esa idea que ellos tienen que la mujer debe ser una esclavapara
 ellos, no? Pero ya ahorita ya hay libertad much para la mujer, lo unico que si es que
 debe estar unpoco sumergida, pero en mi forma de entender es porque hay poca
 comunicaci6n entire la pareja, la pareja tiene que comunicarse much didlogo para llegar.

 Well, when it comes to the subject of women's liberation, the women here in Guatemala
 are very obedient, yes? Therefore, we want to conserve our marriages because they are
 formed this way so that the woman has to obey her husband in certain cases, but not in all.
 But the Guatemalan man is very macho and therefore very delicate, to the point that they
 feel since they are macho that they have to have the woman a bit submissive. But this is
 also because they are not civilized and therefore we need to teach the children and give
 them classes so that they change this thinking that the woman should be a slave, no? But
 there is now too much freedom for the woman; the only thing is that she should stay a little
 bit submissive, but as I understand it, it is because there is little communication between
 the couple and the couple needs to communicate more to get anywhere.

Women's Return Migration

 In San Pedro Pinula, while ethnicity is important to defining identity and status, it does not

indicate much about the different ways in which non-migrating Guatemalan women are affected

by transnational migration. In part because of its short history of international migration, Maya

communities show far lower rates of female emigration as compared to Ladino communities. As

illustrated by Hondagneu-Sotelo's work on women's migration networks in Mexico (1992),

women's migration is controlled by men, and women are only able to migrate to the United

States by using their own separate networks. The following quote from a young Maya migrant in

Boston supports this assertion:

 Well, first it's (lower migration rates among Maya women) because I don't think all
 women have the same opportunity. I mean, not all women have someone, family, to help