Getting to Know Your Guatemalan Neighbors

On a rainy Saturday in June, more than 25 UIDN volunteers gathered at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston to see a presentation developed by Daniel Woodham, UIDN’s case manager; Nery Pop, a trilingual member of the Kekchi community in Kingston; and Susanne Callahan, vice president for Planning & Community Engagement at the Institute for Family Health.

The morning session was a test run for Getting to Know the Guatemalan Immigrant Community in Ulster County, a program for staff members at agencies providing direct services to the Kekchi, indigenous Mayans who make up one of the largest immigrant groups in our area.

Since that day, the program has been presented to members of UIDN’s health care committee and to staff at Sun River’s Health clinic at the Hudson Valley Mall. Requests are also coming in and over the next several months, Daniel, Susanne, and Nery hope to present at clinics and hospitals, schools, courts, the Dept. of Motor Vehicles and more. “If you know the people you’re helping,” they reason, “you’re bound to be more engaged and effective.”

Cram Course

Participants learned a bit about geography, religion, politics, food, education, language, health care, and other aspects of Guatemalan life. Among the facts of note: Guatemala’s last democratic government was overthrown with the help of the U.S. in 1954; there is no free public education after grade six and many Guatemalans have two first names and two last names – the latter often being names of animals.

Nery shared his personal experience crossing the border and some even scarier circumstances faced by others. Among the reasons rural Guatemalans are immigrating to the U.S. in rising numbers, the audience learned, are poverty, violence, and climate change that makes farming increasingly untenable.