Migrant Solidarity, Indigenous Language Justice and Defense of Territory: Organizing from Guatemala
media release: Please join UW Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program. The events are free and open to the public.
Room 206 Ingraham Hall - 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706.
LACIS Lunchtime Lecture: “Migrant Solidarity, Indigenous Language Justice and Defense of Territory: Organizing from Guatemala”
Nave Visiting Scholar, Ana Gomez
206 Ingraham Hall
November 3, 2026 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
About the presentation: U.S. border security and immigration enforcement policies are increasingly outsourced beyond U.S. territory, forcing Mexican and Central American governments to implement checkpoints, surveillance, detention and other campaigns in exchange for aid and trade agreements. While the northbound movement of migrants is caused by the impacts and the contradictions of capitalism and imperialism, it is characterized in media narratives and policymaking by a myriad myths of a border “crisis,” “criminals,” “bogus refugees, and “undeserving” migrants. These myths both reify racial and ethnic categories, and ignore conditions in communities of origin, particularly rural Indigenous Central America. Bringing together Indigenous language justice, migrant justice and the defense of territory, this panel discusses the intersectional experiences of Indigenous migration from Guatemala. Promotores de la Liberación Migrante, a Mayan-led grassroots network of interpreters and activists for migrant dignity, will discuss how transnational border strategies have led to the mass incarceration of migrants in Mexican immigration detention centers, as well as their impacts on Indigenous Maya language speakers who are denied interpretation and legal support to represent themselves.
About the presenter: Ana Gómez, a Chuj Maya woman, is a Chuj translator and interpreter and an advocate for the rights of migrants. As the founder of PLM (Promoters of Migrant Liberation), Ana is an expert in migration, human rights, linguistic justice, campaign design and campaign implementation. Through training programs in politics, human rights advocacy, and languages, Ana encountered the realities of Guatemalan migrants in the United States in 2016. It was then that she became a Maya language interpret and advocate.
