This ongoing project follows the lives of five undocumented immigrants from rural Guatemala as they navigate life in Athens, Ohio, in rural Southeastern Ohio, where less than 1 percent of the population is of Latino heritage.
The group works long hours in a kitchen at a local restaurant. With few others in the region who share their language and culture, the five rely on each other for emotional and social support. Nights are spent connecting with loved ones back home, watching Guatemalan soccer, or drinking beers with a few of the other countrymates that live in town.
Despite the relative solitude, these individuals feel extremely fortunate to be where they are, not only because of they have found stable work, but also because they are on the other side of the treacherous journey that brought them here – one that so many of their contemporaries in Guatemala would take in an instant.