La Migración Humaniza: Experiences of Enacting Migrant Care in Guatemala

Abstract

From Arizona’s borderlands to Guatemala’s highlands, spaces that offer hospitality to migrants play a crucial role in the journey of the growing number of people whose lives are in transit. This research follows the experiences inside Casa Myrna Mack during its first months of operation, highlighting the overall work of la Red Jesuita con Migrantes Guatemala from the perspective of staff and volunteers to understand the work, impact, and embodied experience of offering hospitality to migrants in Guatemala. This research contributes to bodies of knowledge surrounding the migrant experience, specifically emphasizing spaces of care, and provides a nuanced and ethnographic perspective of humanitarian action beyond macropolitical and institutional approaches common to existing discourse. Key themes explored in this project include the motivations driving humanitarian actors, the emotional and physical impact of enacting migrant aid on staff and volunteers, and the potential for this work to have politicizing effects as collaborators navigate the complexities of providing care within an uncaring political context, a question with resonance well beyond Guatemala.