Everyday Futures: Language as Survival for Indigenous Youth in Diaspora

Despite increasing attention on unaccompanied Central American youth migration to the United States, little empirical research has examined the crucial role of language in the incorporation process, particularly for Indigenous youth. Drawing on the perspectives of Maya (primarily K’iche’)-speaking Guatemalan youth, Everyday Futures explores their experiences of language socialization in the broader Los Angeles immigrant community. Stephanie L. Canizales and Brendan H. O’Connor trace the factors that were most important to their quest for well-being and belonging across Guatemalan and American societies. Coming from contexts where Maya languages were stigmatized, these youth’s migration journeys and early years after arrival were characterized by what they called ＂preparation＂ and ＂adaptation,＂ processes through which they actively sought the linguistic and social expertise needed to promote their long-term survival in the US. While many faced struggles, some were able to achieve social and economic mobility, which instilled in them a sensibility of survival that enabled them to advocate for more recently arrived Maya youth and the maintenance of Maya language and culture. This book sheds important light on the dynamic process of ＂future-making＂ for Indigenous youth and yields rich insights into the role of language in creating hope in the diaspora.

Stephanie L. Canizales is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and Faculty Director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative. She is author of Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States (2024). Brendan H. O’Connor is Associate Professor in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. He is the author of Multilingual Baseball: Language Learning, Identity, and Intercultural Communication in the Transnational Game (2023).