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Special education in Guatemala started in the 1940s with the establishment of schools for the blind. While there is a relatively large population of persons with disabilities, the country has an insufficient number of educational and rehabilitation programs because the country is very impoverished. Guatemala has enacted a number of disability laws in the 1990s and early 2000s that enable persons with disabilities to participate in educational services to develop their capabilities and to deter discrimination. The government has three categories of disability, namely, physical, sensory, and intellectual. Most of the special education schools and rehabilitation workshops are in the capital city with few programs in rural areas. Many children with special education needs do not attend school. The government offers public service to families of children with disabilities. In the 1980s, the government formed partnerships with United States universities to help develop service plans for students with disabilities as well as train school personnel in effective instructional methods due to a shortage of licensed teachers. While special education is improving it has a long way to go.

This study researched how corruption affects the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI). With the help of a qualitative methodology, the results of the analysis show that firms headquartered in countries where corruption is high have an advantage when operating in a foreign country with a similar institutional environment. The reason for this advantage is that such firms may possess knowledge of how to cope with the arbitrary and pervasive dimensions of corruption at home. On the other hand, firms from countries with lower corruption levels than the host country are more affected by corruption in a highly corrupt host country. Finally, even though this study found evidence that all firms operating in a highly corrupt country might participate in corrupt deals, those headquartered in highly corrupt countries are more willing to do so. This claim is based on the fact that firms from less corrupt countries might face stronger pressures from their headquarters to not engage in corrupt deals, whereas firms from more corrupt countries might not encounter such pressures.

Through a retrospective, reflective, descriptive methodology, three researchers explore their experiences as teacher educators. Interactions with a variety of educational stakeholders in Guatemala resulted in new perspectives about culture, language, instruction, literacy materials, and access. Even though each researcher had a distinct background, global experience, and teaching expertise, they collaborated for data analysis and describe how their new international perspectives renews teaching and subsequently invigorates the learning of students back in the institutions of higher learning in the United States. All three brought their new learning into their higher education venues back in the United States to better prepare literacy educators for today’s global world.

This study examines employment dynamics of youth in the central highlands of Guatemala. It is during late adolescence and early young adulthood that rural youth explore and settle into occupational structures that often define their economic lives and the region’s economic outlook. However, the occupational orientations of this group are poorly documented.

The study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. A three wave longitudinal design with six-month intervals was implemented. Households were identified using random sampling based on household maps. Two individuals per household were interviewed, a female adult and a younger woman/man between 15 and 25 years old in 451 households. In-depth interviews also were conducted with 25 individuals.

Youth occupational choices were associated not only with their health, income, and standing in their household, but also their self-image, sense of independence, and control. Nonfarm jobs were found to be most attractive to youth, who identify them as more “modern” and urban jobs. The study documents shifts from farm to nonfarm jobs, gender dynamics, the impact education has on jobs for youth, and health correlates of employment and unemployment.

Most characterizations of employment patterns in rural areas of Guatemala focus on the “head of household,” while overlooking the diverse job activities of other members of the household. The study not only addresses a population that is often understudied but also provides a longitudinal perspective to understand job switching and youth ideas of a “good” and “better” job.

To assess how an indigenous community in Guatemala, displaced by a mining project, has collaborated with international human rights advocacy organizations to address chronic insecurity and vulnerability resulting from the violence of their displacement.

The research for this case study was gathered using unstructured interviews with Lote Ocho community members and human rights advocates as well as textual analysis of social media documents, press releases, and reports. Participant observation was conducted during a community forum. Human rights theory, post-conflict theory, disaster theory, and narrative economy frameworks informed the research.

As international human rights organizations collaborate with Lote Ocho to address the community’s displacement, intensive focus on a lawsuit between the community and a Canadian mining corporation HudBay Minerals, Inc., contributes to homogenization of the community, reinforcement of destructive power relationships, and lack of focus on long-term security.

Analysis of the potential harms of singular focus on legal action in the examined collaborations identifies areas for improvement for future collaborations in both Lote Ocho and other displaced communities.

Caal v. HudBay is the first case of its kind. Thus, the analysis presented here provides critical insight for international and community actors regarding the successes and shortcomings of collaboration in cases of development-forced displacement, identifying areas for improvement for future collaborations with displaced communities.

Mayan towns in the Guatemalan highlands hold periodic markets on specific days of the week. A market is attended by local townspeople, by peasants residing in the town’s hinterland, and by vendors bringing wares from other towns. This study aims to determine the effects of physical, environmental, and cultural differences on the number of vendors that are sent from one Guatemalan town to a periodic market in another.

To understand how these markets are integrated, a gravity model is developed, examining the flow of vendors from 85 towns of residence to 15 market towns. In this model, the flow of vendors from one town to another is a function not only of physical distance, but of ecological complementarities, of linguistic differences, of road access, and of demographic endowments.

Results show that traveling vendors in these periodic markets do indeed integrate Guatemala both ethnically and ecologically, serving as a place in which different ethnic groups meet and bring in products that cannot be produced locally. Results also suggest that participation in markets is part of a diversified set of activities used by rural peasants to support their households.

Purpose: This chapter highlights the experiences of domestic violence survivors and service providers, namely firefighters and police, during the pandemic in Guatemala. It includes an overview of violence types seen and experienced during the pandemic, contributing factors to domestic violence, an overview of why individuals may or may not leave their abusers, and why they may or may not report abuses to the authorities. Policy recommendations for supporting victims in the future are provided.

Methodology/Approach: A field-based approach along with snowball sampling techniques was utilized to contact and interview survivors, police, and firefighters. Using grounded theory, interview responses were then organized by research questions and coded into emergent themes.

Findings: Emotional, psychological, and physical violence were all experienced during the pandemic. While typical, these experiences often started before the pandemic. However, they grew in intensity, as individuals experienced various forms of stress and negative emotions while being locked down in the same household together. Domestic violence was also vicarious, impacting the whole family. Most left their abusers once the lockdown was lifted; however, many stayed due to financial insecurities. Others stayed due to a fear of not being able to see their children anymore. Similar justifications were given for why individuals did not report abuse to the authorities. While a few simply mistrusted the police and believed the law was not on their side, this was not the primary reason for not reporting domestic violence. However, they did believe that current laws and policies needed to provide better services, as the law was thought to support their abuser more than them.

Originality/Value: This study contributes to our knowledge of domestic violence during pandemics by expanding on previous research in Guatemala. It also highlights how various limitations and resources which are not addressed in non-pandemic times may result in exacerbating violence during future pandemics.

In his first two months at the immigration detention facility, euphemistically called a ‘shelter’, Deruba consumed his daily lessons of vocabulary and math. ‘Good morning. My name is Deruba. What is your name?’ he would chant. ‘I am from Guatemala. Where are you from?’ ‘Good afternoon. How are you? I am fine’. He had only attended school for four years in Guatemala before his parents died in a bus accident forcing him to support his younger sister, Isura. ‘It was not a good time. We did not have anybody. No aunts, no uncles to help us. My grandparents died long ago. I don't even remember them. It was just me and my little sister’.⁵ Deruba, 13 years old at the time, and Isura, then 11 years old, lived on the streets of Livingston, Guatemala for over 2 years. He worked as a boat hand on boats [lanchas] transporting tourists to Livingston, painting cars at a small auto body shop and selling marijuana to young German and American tourists coming to soak up Livingston's bohemian environs.⁶

Purpose – Generally speaking this chapter examines if Max Weber's theory of the protestant ethic helps explain socioeconomic progress currently seen in some communities in Latin America where Protestantism has advanced rapidly.

Methodology/approach – This chapter is a case study. It reviews the literature on San Pedro de Almolonga, a small indigenous town in western Guatemala, and presents the results of our ethnographic fieldwork in the town and its surroundings during January 2011.

Findings – Almolonga has become a very prosperous town through the production and commercialization of vegetables. Prosperity has emerged due to the high fertility of the soil, the entrepreneurial skills of its inhabitants, and the high market demand for vegetables. Protestantism has been an almost perfect complement that has made possible the maximization of Almolonga's economic potential.