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 This blog is the final element of the semester-long project for SPAN 3390, which focused on the Kiche-speaking Mayan community in West Texas. For my project, I envisioned forms of organizing for better conditions by workers in this community employed at local dairies. The other components can be seen below.

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“For Others to Live as Humans”: Envisioning Mayan Dairy Worker Organizing in West Texas

Many factors in Guatemala’s history and present—such as the civil war and genocide, the “post-conflict” violence, and the economic situation—have contributed to the immigration of Guatemalans to the United States. However, an additional factor may explain the presence of a large number of the country’s Kiche-Speaking Mayans in a cluster of West Texas towns including Hereford, Friona, and Bovina: the usefulness of this supply of exploitable workers for dairy operators in the area. In their study of the meatpacking industry, Champlin and Hake showed how employers have facilitated “an immigration policy that tolerates or even encourages the hiring of low-wage immigrant labor while it demonizes the immigrant.” This ensures a cheap, non-union workforce which is made complacent by its precarious undocumented status. Much of the same can be said for the West Texas dairy industry: Guatemalans in the US are largely undocumented, and in this industry they earn low wages and are not unionized (Ma...
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"Unidos/Seguros - Ich-ket/Muk'a'an"

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The poster below was the Creative Component for this project. The text in Spanish ("Unidos/Seguros") means "United/Safe", while "Ich-ket/Muk'a'an" means "Together/Healthy" in Mopán, a Mayan language spoken in Belize. This translation is taken from the 2011 Mopán Maya-Spanish-English Dictionary by Charles A. Hofling. The poster is meant to convey the importance of collective action for the safety and health of Mayan dairy farm workers. (Click "Read More" to see full image.)  
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Annotated Bibliography

The following sources were used in research for this project, and they may be useful to anyone else who is interested in the topic: Bobo, Kim, and Marien Casillas Pabellon. The Worker Center Handbook. Cornell University Press, 3 Aug. 2016. Worker centers are a common organizing form for immigrants in industries with a weak union presence. This book covers everything from beginning technicalities to long-term strategy when forming a worker center. It includes several highly relevant chapters, such as “Organizing around Health and Safety Issues” and “Working with Faith Communities.” Champlin, Dell, and Eric Hake. “Immigration as Industrial Strategy in American Meatpacking.” Review of Political Economy, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2006, pp. 49–70, https://doi.org/10.1080/09538250500354140. This article uses changes in immigration policy, migration patterns, and the structure of the meatpacking industry to argue that a supply of undocumented immigrants is used by companies to decrease worker barg...
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