Along with other Central Americans they first arrived by way of Mexico and settled in urban areas like Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Houston, New York City, Oakland, San Francisco, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia.

After September 11, 2001, new laws were enacted in Mexico limiting immigration visas and introduced other measures on the southern Mexican border through Plan Sur, a binational treaty with the Guatemalan government.

During the Cold War, many Guatemalans immigrated to the United States due to the lack of stability from U.S. intervention.

[7] These circumstances included an increasing unemployment rate, as well as decreasing wages and opportunities in the rural sector.

[8] During the 1980s, many revolutionary/guerrilla groups merged together to become the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG); the Guatemalan government responded with military action, which included the genocide of 150,000 civilians during 1981 to 1983.

Ultimately, this formed a ripple effect, which led to displacement and migration to both Mexico and the United States for many Guatemalans and Mayas.

[8] Mass migration from Guatemala occurred during the 1980s; as a result, changing the relationship with the United States.

In this manner, many United States courts have been granting asylum due to the increase in femicide in Guatemala.

Following IRCA, most documented Guatemalan Americans were able to receive legal admission through the petitioning of family members already in the United States.

This act allowed Central American asylum-seekers to be documented in the United States but called for deportation for those undocumented.

Households in Guatemala that receive money from Guatemalans in the United States are able to pull themselves into a better economic standing.

[8] According to Rodriguez, the main themes of Central American literature in the United States are: war, violence, criminality, solidarity, migration, ethnicity, and the construction of identity.

"[9] Novels like The Tattooed Soldier by Héctor Tobar display the cultural significance of Central American identity within U.S.

Most Ladino Guatemalans living in the United States come from Jutiapa, Guatemala City, and Chiquimula.

Despite this, the United States fails to recognize Maya Natives as refugees from Guatemala despite the political and social conditions that produce the need for immigration.

This can be accounted by racism within Guatemalan society, along with the vulnerability that is produced during migration to the United States through Mexico.

[8] Due largely to influences such as Spanish colonization and U.S. business involvement in Central America, the Indigenous religions of Guatemala have mixed to create a hybrid spirituality and emergent "spiritual forms, practices, and communities as these intersect with other aspects of Hispanic/a identity, such as ethnicity, race, gender and sexuality.

[16] The Northeast megalopolis, extending from Northern Virginia to north of Boston, is home to a population of 257,729 Guatemalans.

Cities such as Langley Park, Trenton, Stamford, Providence and Lynn have significant concentrations of Guatemalans along the corridor.