Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Family Life
Despite modernizing influences - education, cable TV, contact with foreign travelers, inter-
national popular music, time spent as migrant workers in the USA - traditional family ties
remain strong at all levels of society. Large extended-family groups gather for weekend
meals and holidays. Old-fashioned gender roles are strong too: many women have jobs to
increase the family income but relatively few have positions of much responsibility.
Cynics say that much of this closeness has more to do with economics than sentiment -
that it's hard to be distant when there are three generations living under the same roof. But
this doesn't really play out. You see the strong bonds of family amongst middle- and upper-
class Guatemalans, and one of the questions you're bound to get asked at least once (and
possibly many more times) while on your travels here is if you miss your mother.
Despite this closeness, it's rare to meet a family who doesn't have at least one member
who has emigrated to the United States to work - the couple of hundred dollars that these
emigrants send back per month are some families sole income, and, when totalled, equal
around 40% of what Guatemala earns from exports.
