ABSTRACT
A focus on the macro forces at work in Guatemala's coffee economy often has blinded historians to the role that Mayan women have played in it, both as direct contributors to production and as guardians of livelihoods in the highlands during the absence of their male kin. Mayan labor was an integral component of liberal governments’ development strategies in the late nineteenth century and twentieth century, especially in the coffee export sector along the Pacific piedmont. During times of drought and famine, Maya depended on these jobs to provide for their families. Since coffee planters needed labor and Maya needed cash, both hegemon and subaltern benefited from the system, though in qualitatively different ways. Many Mayan women migrated to the Pacific coast to pick and clean coffee alongside men; some women established income-producing activities such as preparing food and washing clothes for workers; others were petty merchants. Although they suffered alongside men during periods of coastal labor, their diligence and creativity opened spaces for them. For some women, these opportunities resulted in increased autonomy, for others alienation; regardless, women's participation in these two- to three-month endeavors often expanded their mobility.
