Describes a study assessing whether attachments to the parental homeland will continue among immigrant children and children of immigrants and what factors might either foster or hinder such ties in the long run. Intensive interviews and observations were conducted with 26 Guatemalan immigrants in Los Angeles in 1995. Guatemalan children live in transnational communities. However, there are relatively few institutional relationships maintaining links among the second or 1.5 generation. Two areas in everyday life that illustrate this issue are (1) the church and religious participation and (2) language. Even though Guatemalan youngsters participated only marginally in church activities oriented to their homeland, these religious activities provided the only continuity when the children went back to Guatemala. Language skills have not necessarily fostered ties to the children’s homeland, whether born in Guatemala or the United States, because the children tend to rapidly abandon their Spanish or indigenous language in favor of English. As Guatemalan children downplay their ties to their communities, their integration into American society is anything but certain. Rather than being full participants in the two cultures, these children remain on the margin of both. (IP)
