remaining inside the homes of their in-laws, causing them to avoid visiting even their own

parents for fear of reprisal.

In-laws' Control Over Remittances and Communication Between Young Couples

 The stories of Virginia and Maria-two rural Maya women-exemplify how

transnational communication is limited by the interference of in-laws and by the constraints of

the comunitario.

 Virginia's in-laws not only control her remittances, they also interfere with her ability to

communicate with her husband. Virginia is from one of the small aldeas surrounding San Pedro

Pinula, about a half hour's walk up the mountain. Like many women in her community, Virginia

has never learned to read or write. In the six years of her husband's absence, she has never

known his phone number, never been able to read his letters (they have all been read to her),

never received one of his phone calls in private. She even has to dictate her personal letters to her

father-in-law so he can write them for her.

 When electricity came to the village in 1999, Virginia's in-laws determined that the one

hundred dollar cost for installation was too expensive, so Virginia had to find a way to get in

touch with her husband and convince him that installing electricity was a good idea-all without

offending her in-laws. With the cooperation of her eight-year-old son, who was just learning to

write, Virginia composed a letter to her husband explaining the situation. After waiting a month

for a response, she took matters into her own hands and borrowed money in order to start selling

tacos to schoolchildren during their lunch hour. This shocked not only her in-laws but also the

community at large, whose members wondered why a woman with a husband in the United

States would need to sell tacos. These same people began to assert that Virginia did not need the

money, but was just looking for something to do outside of the house so she could look for a new