Christian Espinosa

Climate change has recently thrust Guatemala’s unassuming Western Highlands onto the world stage. In contrast to the cloud forests of Alta Verapaz and the rainforests of the Petén, the arid microclimates of the Western Highlands shift between annual wet and dry seasons. Where subsistence Mayan agriculture has depended on predictable seasonal shifts, rain and frost events no longer occur predictably. This exacerbates economic insecurity such that many families attempt to migrate to the US, in particular the growing Mayan community in Oakland, CA. Scientists have noted this climatic shift, with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization citing the Western Highlands as one the most vulnerable locations to climate-induced food insecurity in the Western Hemisphere. However, Rural Mayan communities not only face transformations in seasonal weather and temperature, they are also caught up in international politics and policies. From the millions of dollars in US aid for climate adaptation and sustainable development, to the recent freezing of this aid by the Trump administration for failing to stem the “flow” of migrants, to journalists claiming climate change is “fueling” the US border crisis, to scientists and NGOs attempting to create “usable” climate science for agricultural adaptation, subsistence farmers navigate far more than the local instances of climate change.