Kyle deBeausset

An old friend from Guatemala sent me this link to the story of Kyle deBeausset, an alumni of the American school I attended in Guatemala until I was around 11 years old. My old friend also went to this school and ended up transferring to the school I ended up transferring to. His is a very interesting story and I hope to do a piece on him at a later date.

Anyway, the link doesn't say much about the story in English, only providing scans to the Spanish newspaper stories. The gist is that this American-looking guy, Kyle, made the trip that so many migrants make in trying to get to the States. He did it even though he looks completely American (his Taiwanese heritage may have helped him blend in a little bit).

Check out his blog, it's pretty interesting and deals with all kids of immigration-related material.

As I went through all of it and thought more about his story, I started to feel incredible guilty. I had the same experiences as he did growing up, but what am I doing about it? He's made it his whole cause in life to attain equal rights and a better life for Guatemalan people. I write stories and talk about movies and books.

The fundamental difference between Kyle and me is that he is the type of person that thinks of smuggling himself up north into the US (he has a US passport by the way) and I'm the type of person that thinks about it and ends up writing a fictional story about it.

Anyway, I hope to get in touch with him at some point and get to know him a little better and maybe interview him for the blog.

Deported gang members in Guatemala

This article (in Spanish) tells of a community in Guatemala where gangsters that have been sent back to Guatemala from the US for illegally crossing or trying to cross the border.

Problem is they have taken over the community and are charging a tax per house for "not killing any members of the family" that live inside each house. Two-story houses pay slightly more than single-story ones.

The clincher is the quote at the end by a cop, who is like "citizens need to denounce these criminals or else they too are criminals."

Real nice, you don't have to live in a place where gangsters demand a tax to let you live. Real nice.

By the way, take a look at the comments section, I'll have a post on this later because it's very entertaining and very revealing about guatemalan culture and the mentality that exists there.