A key development in international migration in recent years has been the increasing feminization of migrant populations. Research attention now focuses not only on the growing number of women on the move but also on their changing gender roles as more female migrants participate as principal wage earners and heads of household rather than as 'dependants'. The tensions between population displacement within and beyond Guatemala and the multiple local, regional and national realities encountered and reconfigured by these refugee and migrants allow a fascinating window onto the connections and ruptures experienced in a 'global/local world'. Transnational Ruptures holds great interest and value for a wide readership, from scholars who are interested in transnational and refugee studies and international migration, to upper level university students in disciplines such as human geography, anthropology, sociology, Latin American Studies, gender studies, political science and international studies.

A key development in international migration in recent years has been the increasing feminization of migrant populations. Research attention now focuses not only on the growing number of women on the move but also on their changing gender roles as more female migrants participate as principal wage earners and heads of household rather than as 'dependants'. The tensions between population displacement within and beyond Guatemala and the multiple local, regional and national realities encountered and reconfigured by these refugee and migrants allow a fascinating window onto the connections and ruptures experienced in a 'global/local world'. Transnational Ruptures holds great interest and value for a wide readership, from scholars who are interested in transnational and refugee studies and international migration, to upper level university students in disciplines such as human geography, anthropology, sociology, Latin American Studies, gender studies, political science and international studies.

What is land? A resource to be exploited? A commodity to be traded? A home to cherish? In Guatemala, a country still reeling from thirty-six years of US-backed state repression and genocides, dominant Canadian mining interests cash in on the transformation of land into property, while those responsible act with near-total impunity. Editors Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell draw on over thirty years of community-based research and direct community support work in Guatemala to expose the ruthless state machinery that benefits the Canadian mining industry--a staggeringly profitable juggernaut of exploitation, sanctioned and supported every step of the way by the Canadian government. This edited collection calls on Canadians to hold our government and companies fully to account for their role in enabling and profiting from violence in Guatemala. The text stands apart in featuring a series of unflinching testimonios (testimonies) authored by Indigenous community leaders in Guatemala, as well as wide-ranging contributions from investigative journalists, scholars, lawyers, activists, and documentarians on the ground. As resources are ripped from the earth and communities and environments ripped apart, the act of standing in solidarity and bearing witness--rather than extracting knowledge--becomes more radical than ever.

Gender is central to the organization and functioning of Guatemalan society. In many Guatemalan communities, men work within the public and political domain while indigenous women's participation in rural highland communities is usually identified in the context of community development. Spanish-language illiteracy, family power relations, and a machismo culture have limited or EXCLUDED the public and political participation of women. At the extreme, Guatemalan women are targeted for murder and mutilation in rural and urban areas -- a phenomenon called femicide/feminicide -- simply for being women 'out of place'. In the mainly rural department of Huehuetenango, something else is going on. The organization Asociacin de Desarrollo Integral de las Mujeres Huehuetecas (ADIMH) is working towards the INCLUSION of women into the public domain for the betterment of their communities through literacy, education, health, and production projects. In this book, we document the struggles and successes of Huehuetenango women, Huehuetecas, as they work towards community rebuilding after the 36-year internal armed conflict. Based upon our observations we agree with the participants that women's empowerment, as a form of community development, is integral for the future of their communities.