CHICAGO (RNS and NPR) — For three Guatemalan roofers, there has only been one place they have found community in the six years since the first one arrived here — Catholic Mass. As one of the three men, the most talkative of the Mayan language Q’eqchi’-speaking group, put it, “We don’t know anybody other than the parish here.”
But the three roofers, all relatives from the same small town in Guatemala and who now live and work together in Chicago, decided about two months ago they couldn’t risk going to Mass anymore.
“We decided to stay home, go to work and rest, and on Sundays it’s better to stay at home, because we have these dreams,” the talkative man, who came to Chicago two years ago, told NPR and RNS in Spanish. Dreams, he said, of making sure his daughter back in Guatemala gets a good education and of buying land. But there aren’t job opportunities in Guatemala, he added.
The three men, who don’t have legal immigration status, and other members of their parish agreed to speak with reporters on the condition that their names and their parish not be identified. The fear of being deported or of the church being targeted by an immigration raid h …