Guatemalan Mayan Towns Work To Reverse Emigration And Keep Families Intact

ALMOLONGA, GUATEMALA - FEBRUARY 11: Former undocumented immigrant Pedro de leon Caballeros finishes a meal at an outdoor market February 11, 2017 in Almolonga, Guatemala. He said that he was deported from the U.S. to Guatemala after working for three years in Houston. The Mayan town in the western highlands district of Quetzaltenango has surged in prosperity in recent years with high-productivity vegetable farming, exporting much of its excess crops to neighborning El Salvador. Almolonga has been called the "Vegetable Basket of the Americas." Many locals attribute the town's change in fortunes to the rapid growth of the Evangelical Christian faith in the area, while others credit the increased use of pesticide farming. Regardless, the strong local economy will be key maintaining the town's prosperity if the Trump Administration follows through on deporting more Guatemalan immigrants and curtailing remittance money sent back from undocumented immigrants to their families in Guatemala. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)