18111 Nordhoff Street

Northridge, CA 91330
September 25, 2023
Lucila D Ek
4250 4Th St
San Diego, CA 92103

Dear Lucila D Ek,

When reading your article “Alla en Guatemala” I was able to connect a lot with the topic of
being mestizo. Since I moved to the United States, I have had to explain many times that I am
not part of any Mayan group and that I am actually from the capital of Guatemala, just like
Amalia, the girl on whom your text is based. Many of my experiences in the United States as a
Guatemalan have been the same as Amalia's. With the difference that I was born and raised in
Guatemala, so my perspective is different.

Almost at the end of the text, Amalia begins to identify herself as “American” and it made me
curious as to why she didn’t identify herself as Guatemalan-American. I am always proud to say
that I am from Guatemala no matter what others think, so it is a little difficult for me to
understand Amalia's perspective when she grows up and no longer wants to identify as
Guatemalan.

However, the documentation of Amalia's life from age eight to twenty-one helped me understand
the process of identity change and the struggle that people living in different communities face.
Thanks to her experience of traveling to Guatemala and returning to the United States, I was able
to understand the impact that transnationalism has on the children of immigrants, like changes in
language, religion, and identity. Amalia would not have been able to identify so much with the
culture of Guatemala if she had not frequently traveled there and lived with the culture of the
country. Because of this, I assume that Amalia stopped identifying as Guatemalan due to her
limited exposure to Guatemalan culture. Which might have been caused by not traveling to
Guatemala as much as she did when she was little. Since in Guatemala, she was able to go to
church, speak Spanish, and connect and identify with people from there, and it was something
constant that always happened due to the trips she made every year to Guatemala. But as she
grew up and stopped doing this, she began to adapt more to the culture in the United States and
to lose her connection with Guatemala.

Sincerely,
Daniela Alarcon