For Francisco Chávez and Gaspar Cobo, it’s still painful to realize that they’re no longer home in the Cuchumatanes mountains of Quiché, Guatemala. Now they’re in El Paso, Texas, where they await their asylum hearings a process that’s been marked by the cruel realities of the hostile U.S. immigration system. Even though U.S. intervention in Central America triggered many of the conditions that forced Chávez and Cobo to flee in 2019, there’s no guarantee they’ll be given permanent refuge here. But they’re fighting.
State persecution and violence have been present in the lives of Chávez, 45, and Cobo, 32, since before they were even born. The Maya Ixil leaders are part of a multigenerational resistance against omnipresent colonial and imperialist forces, which for centuries have triggered the displacement of their communities and the destruction and exploitation of sacred land and natural resources.