Denied American Dream, Returned and Deported Young Migrants Create Guatemalan Dream

[Judi Lynn]

by MARÍA MARTIN
MAR 21 2017, 8:38 AM ET


QUETZALTENANGO, Guatemala — Brightly painted murals on high walls look down on the foreign tourists, NGO volunteers and Guatemalan nationals seated around heavy wooden outdoor tables at the Café Red Kat in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second largest city. On the face of it, Red Kat is just one more restaurant in the historic center of this growing metropolis. But in reality, this establishment — a restaurant and cultural center — is a social experiment in sustainable economic development created by Guatemalan migrants returned from the United States.

The idea for this unique café originated eight years ago when a group of homesick Guatemalan immigrants living in the United States got together in a park in Central Park to talk about coming home, and to dream about not having to leave.

"We have the right to dream," says one of these immigrants, Willie Barreno, who had left Guatemala as a former guerrilla fighter, and who co-founded the organization that began Café Red Kat. "Everyone wants to go up to the U.S.A., thinking they can find an American Dream," he says. "We were there. And now we're back. We want to tell the people here, especially the young people — stay. Stay and realize your Guatemalan Dream. Our Guatemalan Dream."

Part of the dream involves giving returning migrants and other young people options so they won't feel forced to migrate to the United States, and so they'll be able to make choices aside from joining gangs or one of the more than fifty drug-trafficking operations that are estimated to operate in Guatemala.The Café Red Kat, therefore, works to support and promote the local economy and organic farming.

More:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/denied-american-dream-returned-deported-young-migrants-create-guatemalan-dream-n732506