“There are a lot of us here,” said Juan Carlos, a 23-year-old Ixil man who lives in East Liberty. Carlos came to Pittsburgh four years ago and works in construction.
Before coming to Pittsburgh, he was living in Centreville, Virginia, one of only two recognized hubs in the United States for Ixil immigrants from Guatemala. The second is in Dover, Ohio, only two hours from Pittsburgh.
Now, Pittsburgh seems on its way to becoming a third Ixil hub.
Ixil immigrants come from the Guatemalan department of El Quiché, in an area known as the Ixil Triangle. In that region, there are three cities: Santa Maria Nebaj, San Juan Cotzal and San Gaspar Chajul.
The Ixil immigrants in Pittsburgh are almost exclusively from Santa Maria Nebaj, often referred to as Nebaj. In 2014, unaccompanied Central American minors had just begun to arrive en masse.
I’ve also come to know a number of other Ixil immigrants in and around various East End neighborhoods: East Liberty, Garfield, Highland Park and Friendship. I’ve met them at a bodega on North Negley Avenue that sells international calling cards and offers services that enable them to send money back home; as employees or sometimes fellow customers at Patron Mexican Grill in East Liberty; and on the sidewalks of Penn Avenue in Garfield.
Despite being in some ‘up-and-coming’ neighborhoods, I’ve seen many of the apartments they’re inhabiting and they are not living in luxury. Some have rodents and mold and other units that are suitable for four people are holding twice that.
It’s hard to say when Pittsburgh started to become a known destination for Guatemalan immigrants.
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https://www.publicsource.org/undocumented-in-pittsburgh-after-fleeing-guatemala-ixil-immigrants-see-the-city-as-a-new-community/
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