Deciding to Be Legal: A Maya Community in Houston

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. 1st Edition. Octavo in black and yellow glossy wraps; xx, 200 pages: illustrations; index; 22 cm Near fine; with one dog-eared page and sunning to spine. Paperback. ISBN: 1566392578

To study the settlement process of undocumented migrants, this work examines one of Houston's Maya communities, the approximately 900 Maya from a township in the Department of Totonicapan, Guatemala. It traces this Maya community from its genesis in 1978 to the complex effects of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA).Contents: pt. 1. Building a community structure in Houston. Introduction; Community of origin and the transfer of cultural resources; The settlement process. pt. 2. The journey through legalization. The social process of becoming legal; Life after legalization; Conclus.