Pinula case study is similar, these research findings also show that traditional social structures

predict return migrants' ability for economic success: specifically, there is more social mobility

for Ladinos than for the Maya. Low-income Ladinos who come from similar economic situations

as the Maya are able, at minimum, to establish small, generally successful businesses upon their

return. Maya migrants are able to buy land and build homes, but, despite efforts to the contrary,

their funds soon dry up-thus pushing them back into the migrant stream.

 Transnational migration to the United States affects Ladino-Maya relations in two distinct

ways: first, it maintains traditional Ladino status through patron-client relationships; and second,

it becomes a catalyst for inter-ethnic friendships and formal relations between the two groups.

By asking for Ladino sponsorship to the United States, Maya migrants enter the migration stream

using customary paternalistic relations with their Ladino patrons. This relationship continues, as

Ladino are now the main money lenders for Maya migrants. Once in the United States, the power

dynamic between the two ethnic groups shifts, since the United States' racial order does not

recognize Guatemalan ethnic differences, instead identifying both Maya and Ladino as Latino or

Hispanic, which de-emphasizes the Ladino's dominant social location.

 Maya migrants benefit from the migration experience by being considered equal to

Ladinos in the eyes of the U.S. racial order and also by meeting other Maya from different

regions of Guatemala in the United States. In the United States, some Maya learn for the first

time about identity, having never really thought about such a concept before. As Moran-Taylor

(2003) and Stoll (1999) found in their work, most rural people are too concerned with their own

survival to think about issues such as identity, despite the existence of identity-centered

organizing, such as the Pan-Mayan movement. Once in the United States, with more free time

and access to information, Maya begin to learn about issues surrounding identity, indigenous