美国国家公共电台 NPR Despite Dangers, Intimidation, Guatemalans Still Seek A Better Life In U.S.

Despite Dangers, Intimidation¹, Guatemalans Still Seek A Better Life In U.S.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Despite a crackdown by the Trump² administration, there's new data showing the number of Central Americans crossing illegally into the U.S. is on the rise. The administration blames loopholes in immigration law. But as NPR's John Burnett found in Guatemala, it could be because the push factors in Central America are as strong as ever.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE³: Huehuetenango is a province in western Guatemala that borders Mexico. It has spectacular mountain ranges, a large indigenous⁴ Maya population that lives in extreme poverty and the distinction of sending more immigrants to the United States than any other place in Guatemala. Our mission is to find out if the White House's immigration policies are making an impact here. Are people so rattled⁵ by a president who separates families, denies asylum⁶ and jails immigrants that they're staying put? The first challenge is getting to the villages, nestled in cloud forests and river deltas⁷.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Despacio, Juan - despacio.

BURNETT: Our SUV creeps around hairpin⁸ turns on sheer mountainsides as my passengers good-naturedly ask me to slow down.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing) Despacito - muy despacito.

BURNETT: We pass fields of corn stunted⁹ by drought, herds¹⁰ of sheep tended by Mayan women and mansions¹¹, fancy houses with columns and balustrades and spacious¹² balconies, all built with money earned in the United States. Last year, Guatemalans working in the U.S., legally and illegally, sent home $8.5 billion. These castillos, or castles, as they are called, figure prominently in the calculus¹³ of why Guatemalans keep coming north.

After three hours on this twisting, tortuous¹⁴ road, we arrive at the village of Mixlaj, where these shining villas¹⁵ stand next to houses of rough planks¹⁶ and dirt floors. We've come here to meet Alejandro Cano, a 22-year-old farmer. He lives in the comfortable home his uncle constructed with money he earned working in the U.S.

ALEJANDRO CANO: (Through interpreter) In Guatemala, you can work very hard but never be able to build a house. It is the dream of every Guatemalan to have a house.

BURNETT: But a day's wage in Huehuetenango tending a cornfield or working on a construction crew is 40 quetzales, equivalent to $5.23. With this income, a family can afford to eat meat maybe once a week. They cannot send their children to school, much less build a dream house with cement blocks and indoor plumbing¹⁷. Cano says, since last spring, 25 families have left the surrounding hills for the U.S.

CANO: (Through interpreter) Everybody knows that President Trump is doing everything to kick all the immigrants out of the U.S. But this doesn't take away our desire to go there. A man knows he can die on the journey, but he goes anyway.

BURNETT: Alex Cano knows the American dream firsthand. He worked as a roofer in Florida, making $120 a day, until he was arrested and deported¹⁸. Today he's the lucky beneficiary of a U.S.-funded program called the Association for Sustainable Development of Youth. It gave him a small grant to take online classes to become a nurse. It's one of several U.S.-funded efforts to discourage illegal immigration from Guatemala. There is no electricity in Mixlaj. So on Fridays, Cano makes the five-hour trip to the nearest city, walking and riding a public bus, to sit at a computer and go online.

CANO: (Through interpreter) I have no plans to return to the U.S. I'll continue my studies and struggle to get ahead in my own country.

BURNETT: Now meet Secundino Funes. He lives a hundred yards away in a rough-hewn house with chickens scurrying¹⁹ in and out of the door. He's 30 years old with a wife and five kids. He, too, makes 40 quetzales a day tending a corn plot.

SECUNDINO FUNES: (Through interpreter) You work and you work, and your family has to eat. And then there's nothing left afterwards to buy anything like a pair of boots or a kilo of sugar. You just can't get ahead.

BURNETT: Last year, Funes borrowed 85,000 quetzales, about $11,000, an astronomical²⁰ sum for a subsistence farmer. He paid a smuggler²¹ to take him to Florida, where his brother said he could get a farm job. Funes saw it as his only way out of penury²². But the Border Patrol caught him, and now he's in a predicament.

FUNES: (Through interpreter) I owe 85,000 quetzales. I have to pay it back, and I can't earn that money here. I have to go back to the other side just to earn enough money to pay my debt.

BURNETT: Some Guatemalans, like Funes and Cano, flee to the United States to improve their economic status. Others leave in a hurry to escape gang violence and extortion rings, which are epidemic²³ in Central America. The challenge of successive U.S. administrations has been how to convince Central Americans to stay home.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Mam).

BURNETT: This U.S. government public service announcement is broadcast in the Mam language here in Huehuetenango. A migrant tells of regretting her journey north.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Mam).

BURNETT: Washington has spent tens of millions of dollars on efforts like this PSA. The biggest program, called the Alliance for Prosperity, begun in the Obama era, tries to create jobs in Central America and reduce the need to migrate. Smaller programs aim to make a difference in individual lives, such as Alex Cano's.

(SOUNDBITE OF ENGINE RUMBLING)

BURNETT: A group called the Association of Returned Guatemalans - also U.S.-sponsored - helps arriving deportees and tries to convince potential immigrants not to come to the U.S. Two of their volunteers are riding with us on our trip through Huehuetenango. The sun drops behind the mountaintops as we pull into the village of Quilin Novillo, which smells of wet earth and wood smoke. It's dotted with stately houses built with the wages of Guatemalans working in America as janitors²⁴ and yard men and housekeepers²⁵. The houses are billboards²⁶ for the American dream. One is painted red, white and blue with stars and bars.

LESBYA ESPINAL: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: A volunteer named Lesbya Espinal addresses a dozen young people who've gathered in the center of town. She cautions them that the American dream is over. Immigration laws are tougher under Trump. She tells the girls how smugglers will abandon them in the desert or sexually traffic them.

ESPINAL: (Speaking Spanish).

CANO: She calls for questions.

MARIA CHAVEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: Maria Chavez, the mayor's daughter, speaks up. But how are we going to get ahead, she says earnestly, if we don't go to the United States?

John Burnett, NPR News, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

MARTIN: Marisa Penaloza produced this story.

1 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

5 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

6 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

7 deltas   

希腊字母表中第四个字母( delta的名词复数 )； （河口的）三角洲

参考例句：

• Tidal channels, deltas, and washover fans are characteristically associated with offshore bars. 潮汐水道、三角洲和冲刷扇典型地与滨外砂洲伴生在一起。
• I know many of the early civilizations prospered on deltas. 我知道很多古老的文明都是在三角洲上蓬勃发展起来的。

8 hairpin   

n.簪,束发夹，夹发针

参考例句：

• She stuck a small flower onto the front of her hairpin.她在发簪的前端粘了一朵小花。
• She has no hairpin because her hair is short.因为她头发短，所以没有束发夹。

9 stunted   

adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的

参考例句：

• the stunted lives of children deprived of education 未受教育的孩子所过的局限生活
• But the landed oligarchy had stunted the country's democratic development for generations. 但是好几代以来土地寡头的统治阻碍了这个国家民主的发展。

10 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

11 mansions   

n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Fifth Avenue was boarded up where the rich had deserted their mansions. 第五大道上的富翁们已经出去避暑，空出的宅第都已锁好了门窗，钉上了木板。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Oh, the mansions, the lights, the perfume, the loaded boudoirs and tables! 啊，那些高楼大厦、华灯、香水、藏金收银的闺房还有摆满山珍海味的餐桌！ 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

12 spacious   

adj.广阔的，宽敞的

参考例句：

• Our yard is spacious enough for a swimming pool.我们的院子很宽敞，足够建一座游泳池。
• The room is bright and spacious.这房间很豁亮。

13 calculus   

n.微积分；结石

参考例句：

• This is a problem where calculus won't help at all.对于这一题，微积分一点也用不上。
• After studying differential calculus you will be able to solve these mathematical problems.学了微积分之后，你们就能够解这些数学题了。

14 tortuous   

adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的

参考例句：

• We have travelled a tortuous road.我们走过了曲折的道路。
• They walked through the tortuous streets of the old city.他们步行穿过老城区中心弯弯曲曲的街道。

15 villas   

别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅

参考例句：

• Magnificent villas are found throughout Italy. 在意大利到处可看到豪华的别墅。
• Rich men came down from wealthy Rome to build sea-side villas. 有钱人从富有的罗马来到这儿建造海滨别墅。

16 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

17 plumbing   

n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究

参考例句：

• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
• They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 scurrying   

v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We could hear the mice scurrying about in the walls. 我们能听见老鼠在墙里乱跑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We were scurrying about until the last minute before the party. 聚会开始前我们一直不停地忙忙碌碌。 来自辞典例句

20 astronomical   

adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的

参考例句：

• He was an expert on ancient Chinese astronomical literature.他是研究中国古代天文学文献的专家。
• Houses in the village are selling for astronomical prices.乡村的房价正在飙升。

21 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

22 penury   

n.贫穷，拮据

参考例句：

• Hardship and penury wore him out before his time.受穷受苦使他未老先衰。
• A succession of bad harvest had reduced the small farmer to penury.连续歉收使得这个小农场主陷入了贫困境地。

23 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

24 janitors   

n.看门人( janitor的名词复数 )；看管房屋的人；锅炉工

参考例句：

• The janitors were always kicking us out. 守卫总是将～踢出去。 来自互联网
• My aim is to be one of the best janitors in the world. 我的目标是要成为全世界最好的守门人。 来自互联网

25 housekeepers   

n.（女）管家( housekeeper的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Can you send up one of your housekeepers to make bed? 请你派个女服务员来整理床铺好吗？ 来自互联网
• They work as gas station attendants, firemen, housekeepers,and security personnel. 本句翻译：机器人也能够作为煤气站的服务员，救火队员等保安作用。 来自互联网

26 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号