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‘‘Claudina” was two years old when her father left Guatemala for work in the United States, and five when her mother left to join him.
For the next nine years, she endured emotional abuse at the hands of an aunt and uncle. She was raped by a relative and lived with the threat of sexual assault whenever she was alone outside.
She didn’t trust the local police department, which was corrupted by gangs and organized crime. She felt abandoned.
With nothing to lose and desperate for a better life, Claudina fled Guatemala—unbeknownst to her parents—in an effort to rejoin them in the states. She was 14.
Claudina is one of the Guatemalan refugees that Lynn Stephen (left) has helped to freedom in America.
Stephen, an anthropology professor and codirector of the UO Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies explores the impact of globalization, migration, and nationalism on indigenous communities in the Americas, with an emphasis on gender and race.
Over the past eight years, she has served as an expert witness for more than two-dozen refugees from Mexico and Guatemala seeking political asylum through US courts. Three from Guatemala for whom she’s provided extensive support have won their request, and nine additional cases are working their way through the judicial system.
Stephen came to the role through her research on challenges facing indigenous peoples in Central America. The more Stephen delved into the stories of the victimized there, the more she felt obligated to get involved.
Working with graduate students Darien Combs and Brenda Garcia, Stephen has conducted in-depth interviews with more than a dozen refugees seeking asylum here. Her team has documented the threats of violence, extortion, and torture that have led thousands of Guatemalans to head north—and the same abuses awaiting them should they be deported back to their homeland.
Stephen combines her research and the refugees’ stories into a powerful petition for political asylum. Refugees then submit those “declarations” to the courts, with Stephen providing expert testimony in writing, and if requested, orally.
“My expertise as an anthropologist allows me to put this person’s story in context, to say, ‘This is consistent with what my research shows,’” she said. “Meanwhile, we are engaging as faculty—and engaging our students—in real-life human rights work.”
Stephen sees parallels between the situations facing Guatemalan refugees and those of the Syrians trying to escape the violence in their homeland. Both groups have faced strong resistance to their plight and unwelcome receptions from certain quarters of society. This at a time when more people have been displaced from their native lands than during any other period in history.
“What’s really frightening to think about is the Guatemalans who are coming now are bringing with them long histories of violence, and the war was officially over 20 years ago,” Stephen said. “What I have learned watching refugees from the war in Central America is that violence doesn’t end. The political part of the war might be over, but the violence isn’t. Some people talk about how it was safer for them during the war than now.”
Such was the case with Claudina. As she approached the Mexican border with the US, she was kidnapped and beaten. Her captors freed her only after her father wired them $7,500.
She eventually made her way into the country and in January 2015, Claudina was granted her petition for asylum; she now lives with her parents in the West. Others helped by Stephen have settled around the Northwest, and communities are emerging in Michigan and Florida as well.
“You can’t beat the outcome, which is saving someone’s life,” Stephen said. “Being deported back to a situation of intense violence and persecution is often fatal. Obtaining political asylum allows people to abandon a lifetime of fear and begin to live their lives.”
—Jim Murez
Photo caption: Family traveling a road in San Sebastián, Huehuetenango, Guatemala (Credit: cc-Steve&Emily by-nc-2.0)